Monday, June 27, 2016

The Hardest Fall by Christina Lee - Release Week Blitz with Review



The Hardest Fall

Roadmap to Your Heart, Book 3

M/M Romance

COVER DESIGN: Kanaxa

RELEASE DATE: 06-23-16

Sales Links: 




BLURB


After licking his wounds from a painful relationship, Tate Sullivan is ready to move back home. He picks up where he left off as drag queen extraordinaire Frieda Love in a West Village bar in New York City. He doesn’t expect to be drawn to the mysterious man with the dark eyes who shows up to every single performance—flirtatiously eyeing Tate one second and disappearing on him the next. Why mess around with a guy who is clearly giving him mixed signals?

Sebastian Clark is on a mission the first night he shows up at Ruby Redd’s. He doesn’t anticipate his plan being flipped on its head by the charismatic drag queen and even more so by the mesmerizing man beneath the makeup. But the more he learns about the vibrant and brash Tate Sullivan the more intrigued he becomes. So he pushes aside his guilt about why he sought out the bar in the first place in order to get to know the guy behind the stilettos.

They’re opposites on many levels, but as Tate spends time volunteering with Sebastian at the shelter, he begins to feel good about himself in ways he hadn’t before. For Sebastian, Tate represents a sense of fun and freedom that is completely fresh and invigorating. Before they know it, their easy companionship catches fire, and Sebastian is kissing a man for the first time, while Tate is opening his heart to new possibilities. But Sebastian is still keeping a secret, and Tate will have to decide if he can trust again, or if the betrayal he feels from Sebastian’s confession is too much to overcome.


 


4 out of 5 stars 


The Hardest Fall is the 3rd book in the Roadmap to Your Heart series. While it does tie into one of the previous books, it could be read as a standalone with only a tiny bit of information lost. 

This story has become my favorite of this series because of Sebastian and Tate, along with Tate's alter-ego Frieda Love. While they may come from very different backgrounds both men do not trust easily at this point in their lives. Sebastian's unconventional childhood, being homeless until he was 6, and then bouncing around Foster Care until he landed with his adoptive Father, left him with major trust issues. Tate has always been a little different, between his looks, and doing drag, it's allowed people to not see Tate but to put him in a convenient box of Frieda. Even though Frieda is a character, Tate's last and really only boyfriend didn't want Tate, he only wanted Frieda around him. This helped to jade Tate enough that he doesn't allow a potential date or possible boyfriend to get close to him. He'd rather be the one to use them for what he needs and discard them, then allowing them to use him and never see the real him behind the persona of Frieda. 

While Sebastian and Tate start out meeting under false pretenses it allows both men to let down walls. Particularly Sebastian who's never explored with men before even though he's never been fulfilled by being with a women he just never thought that he was attracted to men. Until he meets Tate both as Frieda and as Tate he's attracted to both personas very strongly. But for Sebastian, he see's Frieda as a character that Tate has created, and for Tate that is the first time someone outside of his friends see who he really is. 

I enjoyed the ups and downs, and discovery between Sebastian and Tate. Even when Tate would be an ass and push Sebastian away, or when Sebastian shut down how he was feeling. These two were completely drawn to each other no matter what. Even with the false pretenses once they gave into their feelings they were falling deeper into each other, even if they wouldn't admit it. Let's face it, both Sebastian and Tate were supremely stubborn men. With their past histories, though, it is understandable. 

There are a lot of great little moments throughout the story that make their relationship kind of perfect. Tate's talking about "Dark Eyes" on his make-up videos, and then Sebastian's grand gesture to fix things with Tate at Ruby Redd's were just fantastic. It had me totally cheering these two on from the start of the book. 

All in all this is an enjoyable read from start to finish, I just would have liked a little more to their HEA at the end, unless the author has plans to revisit this couple in the future. Which...I'd absolutely love. I recommend this series as something different in each book, but this book is my favorite out of the three and I don't see that changing. Check out The Hardest Fall.. I bet it will end up on your re-read list.  



ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Once upon a time, Christina Lee lived in New York City and was a wardrobe stylist. She spent her days getting in cabs, shopping for photo shoots, eating amazing food, and drinking coffee at her favorite hangouts.

Now she lives in the Midwest with her husband and son—her two favorite guys. She’s been a clinical social worker and a special education teacher. But it wasn't until she wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper that she realized she could turn the fairytales inside her head into the reality of writing fiction. 

She’s addicted to lip balm and salted caramel everything. She believes in true love and kissing, so writing romance novels has become a dream job. 


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