Title: Thin Love
Author: Eden Butler
Genre: New Adult/Contemporary Romance crossover
Release Date: August 19, 2014
Tour Hosted by: As the Pages Turn
Synopsis
Love isn't supposed to be an addiction. It isn't supposed to leave you bleeding.
Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction.
She sacrificed everything for him.
It wasn't enough.
But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been.
Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled.
When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayal—his, Keira's and those lies told to keep them apart—his life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.
My Review:
Thin Love by Eden ButlerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kiera and Kona meet in college when Kiera is 18 and Kona is 20. They have little in common and are forced together by a class project. They have little in common, and Kiera hates the arrogance and entitlement that Kona exudes as a star football player on their college team. As they spent time together they find that they have a fierce attraction to one another that neither wants or understands. They give in to their passions, but jealousy, tragedy, and outside forces drive them apart. 16 years later they meet again when Kiera returns for her mother's funeral. A lot has changed, but not the attraction they feel towards one another. It is difficult to see whether they have matured enough to have a relationship that is more than the angry passion they once knew.
This book is tough to put down once started. There is a lot to like about both Kiera and Kona, but there are also some pretty terrible behaviors exhibited by both characters when they are young. They both have serious anger problems and despite their best intentions both do things that are very hurtful to the other. Bad choices are made all over the place, but through it all I had enough of an attachment to both characters that I really wanted to see them sort out their issues and come out the other side. Their passion and chemistry is undeniable, but everything is made harder as they keep doing things that pushes the other away, and ultimately leads to tragedy and defeat.
I loved that this book covered such a large time span. Really getting to know the characters at 18 and 20 and then getting to spend time with them again at 34 and 36 was fantastic. Seeing the ways they were the same and how much time and experience has changed both of them was fascinating. It was also interesting to see them struggle not to revert to some of their old dysfunctions as they were struggling to deal with the reality of their reunion and all the surprises that went along with it. I liked that these characters felt real. They struggled with their issues, and the consequences of their choices. The one part that seemed a little over the top was both of their mothers. While they were bad in different ways, each reached a level of evil that was pretty incredible. While Kiera's mother used both physical and emotional abuse to tray and control her daughter, Kona's mother reached incredible levels of damage through emotional abuse and manipulation. I have enjoyed other works by this author in the past, and I will continue to seek out her books in the future.
*An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review
Excerpt
“We’re
alone for the first time in weeks and I’ve had to be around you all day,
walking down sidewalks where I held you as a kid, in hallways where you touched
me and all I wanted to do is kiss you again.”
“Kona…”
His
hands go to her hips, around her stomach. “I’ve been thinking about the party,
about kissing you, that song, and how you didn’t hate it. How you kissed me
back, how you touched me. I know I’m obvious. You know what I want.”
“You
can get that from anyone.”
She is
testing him, he knows; it’s in her tone, in how straight she holds her back and
Kona can’t help the frustrated growl that leaves his mouth. “You’re not just
anyone.” He takes a chance, eases down to kiss her neck, slides his fingers at
her nape to expose all of that skin to him and she doesn’t push away from him.
“I realized something that first day in the Market, even after I saw Ransom,
after I realized you’d kept him from me all this time.”
“What…
what did you realize?” Her voice sounds like a whine, then a moan when Kona
kisses behind her ear.
“That I
haven’t breathed in sixteen years. Not since you, sweetheart; not a real breath
once since that day I pushed you away.”
“And…
you… you can now?”
His
breath moves down her neck and Kona loves the blanket of chills that covers
Keira’s skin. “Like my lungs are wide open. Every time you walk in a room,
every time I hear you sing, see you smile, touch you… it’s like breathing for
the first time.” He pushes her hair out of his way, kisses further down her
neck, moves the thin, linen shirt she wears to get to her back, then lowers to
kiss her again, right on the spot he’d missed all this time and then, eyes
widening, he takes his mouth from her skin. .
“You
little liar.” She tries turning around but he keeps her still, lowering her
shirt more to see that bright Hibiscus tattoo. “Thought you got rid of it.”
“I… I
tried to.” She comes around, hands on his chest. “I meant to, but there was
never enough money, then when there was, I just… couldn’t.” When he shakes his
head, Keira laughs at him and he loves the sound, loves how easily it comes to
her. “Look who’s talking. I know you covered yours up. I saw that spread you
did in GQ. You have that massive tattoo over your chest now, all down your
arm.” He backs away from her and his fingers go to his buttons. “What are you
doing?”
One
cock of his eyebrow silences her and Kona grins at Keira’s widening eyes, at
how they lower onto his chest as each button comes loose. “I added to my
tattoo, Wildcat. I didn’t cover it up. You didn’t see that in the spread because
I didn’t want my chest shown. That tattoo is for you and me. No one else.”
Kona
pulls open his shirt, and throws it onto the island and Keira’s eyes move to
the colossal Polynesian tribal designs, all black, all connected, that cover
his shoulder, half his arm and his chest.
“Sixty
hours with a bone-tipped rake and a striking
stick. I was on the big island for three weeks and most of that time was with
Naoki, an old war buddy of my tutu knae’s. There was no smartass tattooer
telling me not to get inked for some girl, like Michael did. There was me,
Naoki and his two sons. Up until a month ago, this piece was what I was
proudest of in my life. Until I met Ransom. Until you introduced me to my son.”
Keira’s eyes soften and she stretches out her fingers like
she wants to touch him, but then curls her hand into a fist, until Kona reaches
out to her, and places her hand on his shoulder. “This,” he says, to the black
waves that circle his entire shoulder, “is for the persistent memory of those
I’ve loved and lost. It’s for Luka, for my tutu kane, the ones I pushed away
when I was too stupid to realize how lucky I was, how loved.”
Kona
turns, slides Keira’s fingers along his skin, up his shoulder, his breath
shuddering at the feel of her nails smoothing over his traps, to his shoulder
blades. She touches the spherical sun with waving flames and pointed spikes on
his back. “This is for rebirth, for the renewal of myself, for me learning to
forgive myself and never letting my weaknesses bury me again.”
Then
Kona moves Keira’s fingers along his arm, catching her eyes, holding them as he
trails her hand to the dark and light shells intricately patterned against the
tribal spaces that fill up his skin. “This is for protection, for my family, to
remind me of what I lost, what I want to earn again.” Keira holds his gaze,
doesn’t watch her fingers being moved back up his arm, to his chest where Kona
marked himself for her all those years ago. “This entire piece is the story of
my life, Keira; who I was, what I lost, what I want to have back and it all
starts here. It starts with you, Wildcat.”
He
steps forward, takes her hand and puts it over his heart. “Ku`u Lei. My
beloved. Then. Always. I could never get rid of that just like I could never
really get rid of you.” Keira’s face is in his hands, his thumbs smoothing over
that skin he’d been aching to touch and his chest constricts, heart strumming
steady, but fast. “I could be a thousand miles from you, telling myself I don’t
want you, that I’d gotten over you, but it would be a lie. I remember the way
your skin felt under my fingers. I remember the noises you made when I kissed
you, how quick your breath got when I made you come, how soft you held me, how
you made me feel things I didn’t think I was good enough to feel. You did that,
always. You were mine and I never loved anything more. I never wanted anything
or anyone like I wanted you. Like I still want you. My always, Keira. You’re
still my always.”
And
then, Kona stopped talking, stopped wanting and took what was always his.
About Eden
Eden Butler is an editor and writer of New Adult Romance and SciFi and Fantasy novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum. Her debut novel, a New Adult, Contemporary (no cliffie) Romance, “Chasing Serenity” launched in October 2013 and quickly became an Amazon bestseller.
When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden edits, reads and spends way too much time watching rugby, Doctor Who and New Orleans Saints football.
She is currently imprisoned under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.
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