Tuesday 22 September 2020

⭐️ Sarina Bowen ⭐️ LIES & LULLABIES ⭐️ #TheHushNote1 #Excerpt ⭐️

© Bianca Janeane
   


• 15 September 2020
The Hush Note Series #1
• can be read as a 
Standalone
One Band. Three Authors. Three Love Stories.
★★★★★
4.65 Stars
Summer nights and star-crossed lovers! From USA Today bestselling author Sarina Bowen.

Once upon a time, he gave me a summer of friendship, followed by one perfect night. We shared a lot during our short time together. But he skipped a few crucial details.

I didn’t know he was a rock star.

I didn’t know his real name.

Neither of us knew I’d get pregnant.

And I sure never expected to see him again.

Five years later, his tour bus pulls up in Nest Lake, Maine. My little world is about to be shattered by loud music and the pounding of my own foolish heart.
 


Audio ARC received for an honest review

Ms Bowen, you had me at rock star. Throw in a surprise (to him) bubber and the small town vibe and I am all in, baby!

I loved that Jonas wasn't coming off being a manwhore and all of a sudden stopping that for one woman.  Was he in the past? Yeah, sure.

And Kira and Vivi.. oh my heart 💕

And diving into the book as an audio gave it that something more for me.  Could it be Jonas actually singing to me?  Yeah, that could be it. Tim Paige and Erin Mallon (my favourite female narrator for years now) bring Jonas and Kira to life.  Sometimes with the written word, subtleties of conversations can be missed, but with it speaking to me I felt all those nuances.

Kira's brother is the kind of family we all need. Loving and protective, he is the perfect man for.... well you need to read to find out.  But I can't wait to get his story.

It did take a little while for me to get started with this one, but once I got past a couple of things at the beginning, I was hooked  Hooked, I tell you!

I am looking forward to the other books in the Hush Notes series.




Kira and Jonas.
Five years ago - for one amazing summer - they were best friends.
He was the undercover rock star in town to find a little peace and to write some music.
She was the 20 year old college girl with dreams of opening her own restaurant.
His last night in town produced little Vivi.
A baby he never found out about.
And now he's back!

LET THE FUN TIMES BEGIN!!!!! ☺




ADORABLE!
What can I say? I'm a Sarina Bowen Junkie. I just adore everything she writes.
And I loved this small-town-rock-star-baby-daddy story just as much as I have loved all of her books. The very beginning was a tiny bit hard for me. I think it was just my mood that day, but I didn't really love the back-in-time sexy scenes and the scenes when we found out what happened the year before. No idea why. But it all felt a bit weird.
BUT - after that I really loved the story. The people! Amazing cast and location.
Little Vivi is just adorable. Brother Adam is such a great guy. Tour manager/momager Ethan was amazing - and the other two band members... can't wait to read their stories.
Lies & Lullabies was such a beautiful second chance love story. The title already lets us know what it's all about. Both our darlings did not really tell each other the whole truth ... but it's not as simple as that of course. And the reader has a great time watching that little family fight for their happily ever after. Can they forgive each other???
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!☺

I don't want to say much more ... I don't want to spoil anything.
I wanted it to be longer - I wanted MORE!
But it was a really great romance! Funny moments. Rock-Stary moments. Sexy moments. Adorable daddy moments. Heartbreaking and sad and scary moments. I loved it

Also ... why hasn't Netflix knocked on Sarina's door yet??

LIES & LULLABIES was a beautiful second-chance-Rock-Star-Small-Town-Baby-Daddy-Love-Story!!! Run to your nearest amazon for your own Jonas - this one is MINE!


♥ EXCERPT ♥

I watched Kira ride off, wondering what the hell had just happened. Sure, she probably guessed that I wrote that song about her. But she’d only heard the first few bars before sprinting away like I was the devil himself.
Spinning around, I located the lodge’s bike shed. I rolled a bike out and hopped on. The seat was too low for me, so I had to stand up on the pedals.
But no matter. I rode off after Kira, my first time on a real bike in years.
The road curved around to the left, and Kira’s house soon came into view. She was sitting on the front steps. She didn’t look all that surprised to see me biking toward her, but the look of pain on her face was so vivid that I could feel it in my gut. Something was wrong, and I still didn’t know what.
“Feel any better?”
She shook her head, and I thought I saw fear in her eyes.
“Kira,” I said softly. “I know you want me to leave you alone right now, but I can’t—our conversation isn’t over. In twenty-four hours I’ll be back on that bus. Honestly, you’re scaring me. When I last saw you, things seemed like they were on the upswing for you. When I said I think about you all the time, I didn’t mean to be a creeper. I meant that I was picturing a happy ever after for you.”
“Mama!” a little voice called from beyond the screen door.
At the sound of it, Kira’s whole body went rigid. And then tears spilled down her cheeks.
I heard little footsteps pounding onto the screened porch. And then a small set of hands became visible against the door just behind Kira. Quick as a flash, Kira leapt to her feet and spun around, darting through the door. It closed with a bang behind her.
“Whoa,” a man’s voice said. “Deep breaths, Kiki. What did he say?”
The hair stood up on my neck. I dropped the bicycle and covered the distance to the stoop in three paces. Leaping up, I opened the screen door. A little girl stood there, with fair, curly hair and blue-green eyes. I was no good with kids’ ages. She wasn’t an infant, but she wasn’t school-aged either. There was a babyish fullness to her face. She was three? Four? Five? I looked up at Kira.
“I’m so sorry,” she squeaked.
That’s when I finally understood. And I almost couldn’t draw breath to speak again. “I… She… What the fuck, Kira?”
“That’s a very bad word,” the little girl said, accusation in her voice.
“Sorry,” I said automatically. I raised my eyes to Kira’s. “You… She…”
I couldn’t think. There was pressure in my ears, and my pulse was ragged. Dizzy, I thought, absently, putting one hand on the door jamb for support.
“Breathe, man,” the guy behind Kira said. He wore a bright pink polo shirt and an expression of concern. “Sit down. Seriously, before you crash.”
I bent over and grabbed my knees. “Oh my God.” The only thing I could hear was my own ragged breathing and Kira’s choked sobs.
“Mama!” a little voice said, full of alarm. “Don’t cry!”
The scary moment stretched on, until I heard yet another bicycle approaching outside. A moment later, another male voice called out, “Knock-knock!”
The pink-polo-shirt guy answered him, his voice full of false cheer. “Hi, Luke!” Under his breath he added, “Wow. It’s raining men.” Then he scooped the little girl up in his arms, stepped around me, and walked out the screen door. It closed behind him with a bang.
I just stood there, staring at my shoes, trying to catch my breath. Kira’s shoes moved into my visual field, but I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. Not until my head could clear. Which would probably be sometime next week.
We stood here, awkward and quiet for a couple of long minutes. There was some low-key chatter outside, and then I heard the sound of the bicycle departing.
The guy in the polo shirt came back inside, alone.
“You’re her brother.” I coughed, trying to reconstruct the world into a rational place.
“Yup,” the guy said. “Uncle Adam.”
“Where is Vivi?” Kira asked, her voice raw.
“Luke is taking her for a little bike ride. There may be ice cream involved.”
“Really, Adam?” Kira moved quickly to peer through the screen. “But that’s awkward.”
“Oh, honey. We have first class tickets on the HMS Awkward today. And the ship has sailed. Luke even had a pink helmet for her, Kiki. Just go with it, okay? I told him you were having a moment.”
I straightened up. “She’s having a moment,” I spat out. “Is that what this is?” My pulse was still pounding in my ears, but now from anger instead of shock.
Kira was as pale as a sheet. “I was going to tell you today.” She pulled a photo out of her pocket. “Here. I was trying to find a way.”
I snatched the picture from her hand. “She’s, what, four?” The photo shook as I tried to look at it. The little girl smiled up at the camera, a stuffed animal in her hands. It was purple. Somehow this detail made it all the more real. The little girl in the photo was clutching the purple cat I’d won at the fair all those years ago.

 LINKS TO THE BOOK & AUTHOR 



Book #2



Book #3



The last books in Sarina's hockey series:





  



  



🍎🍏🍎 Sarina's True North Series 🍎🍏🍎

BOOK #1

YA Rockstar Romance-ish

   

US - M/M Romance

Good Boy




Sarina Bowen writes steamy, angsty Contemporary Romance and New Adult fiction from the wilds of Vermont.

She is the author of The Ivy Years, an award-winning series set amid the hockey team at an elite Connecticut college.

Waiting for more Ivy Years? You can read more about upcoming volumes in the four book series at http://www.sarinabowen.com/theivyyears

Also, the Gravity series.

Sarina enjoys skiing, espresso drinks and the occasional margarita. She lives with her family, eight chickens and more ski gear and hockey equipment than seems necessary.

To be kept abreast of new releases, please feel free to sign up for the mailing list at http://www.sarinabowen.com/contact.

Or visit the her Facebook page, or tweet her @sarinabowen.