Genres: Contemporary Romance, Rock Band Romance
Published by Indie/Self Published
Released on November 22, 2015
Pages: 460
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
The Delight
Not meeting your spouse until your wedding day? That’s what Talon and Asia sign up for when love isn’t working out for them. Sexy with a side of irritating and sorrow filled pages to struggle through. This will rip your heart out and fix it for you.
Review
When Talon’s romance writing mom requests he take part in a love match experiment, he thinks she’s crazy. But is she? He’s not finding love in all the wrong places or the right ones, so why not try to have love experts match him up with his soul mate. Married one day, journals and interviews frequently and at the end of six months if it doesn’t work out, a divorce. But what if they match him with the right woman? Love forever.
Asia Jensen has had her fair share of dating woes. About to give up on love, her best friend shows her the study that will match her with her soul mate, or so they claim. What does she have to lose? She could end up with a partner for life or $50,000 from the study at the end of the experiment. Living in the ghetto and eating Ramen isn’t getting her the life she wants, so she goes for it.
Somehow the team managed to find the one woman on the East Coast who doesn’t want to fuck me. Or do anything else with me, for that matter. Well-played, romance experts. Well-played.
Wedding day jitters? Oh, yes, and when they meet at the altar it isn’t love at first sight. Heck, it isn’t even love at the first week. Talon wants a blond bombshell with huge tits and commitment to him only. Asia wants a clean-cut man dedicated to family. Neither fit the mold they were expecting. Words have exchanged that hurt both ways.
But Talon wants that one woman to love as Asia wants someone who won’t leave her. Burned by a past where Asia is left alone by her family to survive. A boyfriend leaves her for a job and doesn’t ask her to go with him. A child of abuse, she has her dwarf cat, a sewing business, and a soap business that barely keeps her afloat. She isn’t looking for a rich husband to save her, but a more basic need to be loved and cared for. Talon wants to be loved for himself. To have someone who cares for him and not his dick or being a rockstar status. Wants to travel with him, but also isn’t clingy in a way that suffocates. Slowly they with the help of their journals and talking to the lead doctor of the study, they start to bond.
I’ll take sticks and stones any day over these words. Words do hurt. They echo in your mind, then bounce off your brain before falling down the hole into your heart to slowly leak into your gut, eating at you slowly over time.
When Talon is going to perform, Asia realizes he plays without a shirt. As a result, she makes her husband a kick-ass shirt and ends up winning the business of several bands to make their clothing. With her marriage to Talon, Asia’s businesses start to thrive and offer a way for Talon and Asia to bond over designing clothing. Little by little, the two start to grow closer when something terrible happens that challenges their growing bond at the end of the experiment.
Talon is cocky, has a huge dick (11″ supposedly), loves sex and rock ‘n roll, but in the end, he just wants a love like his parents and grandparents. He wants what his brother has, a woman to come home to and he doesn’t know it, but he wants the cat that came with his wife. Asia wants a family, to be accepted and loved. She won’t change who she is, but she will accept what she knows is right in her heart. The sassy wit they throw at each other keeps you coming back for more.
Through all of this series, there have been times when I felt gutted. The deep emotions that are pulled into me from the words on the page. Talon goes through something incredibly deep that cuts to his soul. Instead of running to Asia, he pushes away. This drew me to tears. Not because he pushed her, but because he didn’t want to burden her. These Valentine men love deeply and only once. They aren’t perfect and I think that is what draws us back for more. They are all perfectly flawed.
Challenges Met
Reading Challenge #173
Review Writing Challenge #65
Bad Boys of Romance #31
Series That Never Ends #4 – Ashes and Embers
Literary Pickers #57 – salad
Books ‘N’ Tunes #33 – Don’t Cry by Guns N’ Roses
Series
About the book
Talon BY CARIAN COLE
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL PARTNER:
Caring. Hard-working. A devoted family man, loves kids.
Clean cut, funny, smart, quiet, but a good communicator.
~ Asia JensonDESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL PARTNER:
Independent. Tall, blonde, sexy. Outgoing. Intelligent, neat. Confident. Loves to travel. Committed.
~ Talon ValentineA SOCIAL EXPERIMENT.
The concept was scary but exciting…Marry a total stranger.
Live together for six months.
Journal everything. (Feelings. Fights. All of it.)After six months, we each get $50K in trade for our journals, whether we stay married or not. But the goal is to commit to the experience and see if the relationship experts could put together the perfect matches.
I’ve never been lucky in love. This is my chance to find my soulmate, and hopefully, the man of my dreams.
I couldn’t wait to meet the man the experts felt was perfect for me, but my hopes were immediately shattered when I saw him at the altar.
Crap. I married my worst nightmare.
Right?!** This book has no cliffhanger, and a happily ever after ending. Talon can be read as a single book.
Preview
About Carian Cole
I have a passion for the bad boys, those covered in tattoos, sexy smirks, ripped jeans, fast cars, motorcycles and of course, the sweet girls that try to tame them and win their hearts. My debut series, Ashes & Embers, follows the lives of rock band members as they find, and sometimes lose, the loves of their lives.
My first novel in the Ashes & Embers series, Storm, was published in September of 2014, and I have lots of books planned for this series. The All Torn Up series is a spin off series, but all can be read standalone, and out of order.
Born and raised a Jersey girl, I now reside in beautiful New Hampshire with my husband and our multitude of furry pets and spend most of my time writing, reading, and vacuuming.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2020 - Bad Boys of Romance Challenge
- 2020 - Books N Tunes Challenge
- 2020 - Literary Pickers Challenge
- 2020 - Never Ending Challenge"
- 2020 Review Writing Challenge
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Hey, I just realized I was aware of this book, but not the series until you posted on it. I’ve had this on my wish list forever because it looked good when I saw it in someone else’s review. The emotional edge along with the romance does sound intense.
This book is so good! All of the books are on Kindle Unlimited so I have been on a binge reading them. I think I have all the reviews for this series written. Need to write one more for the spin off series and a standalone she wrote. Of them all, there is only one that didn’t really feel good. I understand why the book was off, but it was hard to find something I enjoyed from it. Talon is a great book and I recommend it highly!
wow. i wouldn’t have thought this would be that fantastic of a book until i read you wonderful review
sherry @ <a href=”http://www.fundinmental.com/”> fundinmental</a>
These two stole my heart.
Talon sounds like he would be a handful (*smirk* punny) but the overly confidant ones can be iffy.
He is all heart once you get past his ego she’ll!