Mean Girls Luv Books: Blog Tour: The Request (Part 1) by Marquita Valentine

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Blog Tour: The Request (Part 1) by Marquita Valentine

Roman Smith ~ Shopkeeper by day. Assassin by night.

The undercover Russian contract killer has never turned down an assignment that rids the world of scum. But this … request is the first time his conscience gets the best of him.

Only, he has a good reason—Everly Andrews, the woman who saved him from dying and has no clue who or what he really is. There’s nothing Roman won’t do to keep Everly in the dark, even if it means losing her in the process.

“Hurting you is the last thing I want to do. I might as well cut off my hand or cut out my heart... you are undeserving of such pain.” My façade is fading. The rhythm of my speech falling into a more familiar cadence.

Everly’s hand wraps around my wrist, gently tugging. I allow her to pull my hand away. I close my eyes and lift away from her slightly. She lets go of me, but doesn’t move from her spot.

Cool air brushes my chest and I open my eyes, glancing down to see her small hands working on the buttons of my shirt.

“What are you doing?” I ask, though I know the answer. Or at least, I think I know the answer.

“Getting you out of these wet clothes.”

“My jacket is in the way.”

“Then take it off.” She leans forward, pressing a kiss to my chest, and I cup the back of her head.

“Don’t—”

“Stop pushing me away.” She grazes her teeth over a nipple, and I bite back a curse.

“You didn’t let me finish,” I say, hooking a finger under her chin and forcing her gaze to mine. “Don’t. Stop.”

“My sweater’s still wet, too.” Then she goes back to pressing tiny kisses on my chest. I dig my fingers into her dark hair, taking out the pins holding it in place. Silky curls fall down and around her, like a curtain. I can’t see what she’s doing but bloody fucking hell, I can feel it.

I can feel her.

The hairpins fall to the floor, nearly silent plinks. I shrug out of my jacket, carefully concealing my gun in it as I ball the material up and toss it beside me. My fingers find the hem of her sweater and slowly edge it up. I’ve been waiting for this moment and want to take my time.

It's no secret that I avoid cliffhangers at all costs. For me, it's the time between books. I read so many books that I forget what happened and then I have to fit in a reread, then if it's more than one book I have to fit two or more in. You know where I'm going with this...I accepted this series because of the close release dates. There really isn't time for me to forget all the details. I went in knowing that I wasn't going to get a nice tidy conclusion in books one and two, and I'm okay with that because there is an end in sight. What's the point if this rambling you ask? Well, I know I'm not the only one out there that feels this was about the cliffy. So take this as a heads up fellow cliffy haters. There isn't a big cliffhanger at the end of this book, but there is no conclusion. At. All. And it's okay. Go ahead and read it; I think it’ll be worth the wait.

The author pulled me right into the story. Roman is a book store owner by day and assassin by night. He isn't just any assassin, though, he only takes contracts on the "bad guys." There's this girl, Everly, that comes in to the book store every week. They like each other, buy won't admit it. She's too shy and he is trying to keep her safe.

In this part of the series, we get to see some assassin action. We get inside Roman's head, which I really enjoyed. I also really liked the dialogue between these two characters. This is a well rounded first "part" to the series and I can't wait for more.

Part Two: The Deception – Releases July 30, 2014

Part Three: The Confession – Releases August 27, 2014

New York Times Bestselling Author, Marquita Valentine, writes sexy heroes that make you swoon and sassy heroines that make you laugh. She’s the author of the bestselling contemporary romance series, Holland Springs, and the new adult romance series, Boys of the South.

Marquita met her husband aka Hot Builder at Sonic when they were in high school. She suggests this location to all of her single friends in search of a good man—and if that doesn't work, they can console themselves with cheesy tatertots. She lives in North Carolina in a very, very small town with Hot Builder and their two children.