Title: Bounty Author: Kristen Ashley
Series: Colorado Mountain #7
Release Date: April 18, 2016
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance, Romantic Suspense
More Info: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon US
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Purchase: Amazon UK
Purchase: iTunes
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Justice Lonesome has enjoyed a life of bounty.
Even so, she’s inherited the curse of the Lonesome. A poet’s soul. Which means she’s still searching for something. Searching for peace. Searching for the less…that’s more.
And when the foundation of her life is pulled out from under her, grieving, she goes to the mountains to find her oasis. She hits Carnal, Colorado and decides to stay.
Deke Hightower lost everything at the age of two. He lost it again at fifteen. His life has not been about bounty. It’s been about learning to live with less, because there’s no way to get more.
Deke’s also watched all his friends go down to the women who gave them what they needed. He wants that for himself. But he knows that search isn’t going to be easy because he’s a rider. His home is the road. That’s the only place he can breathe. And the woman who takes her place at his side has to do it sitting on the back of his bike.
When Deke meets Justice, he knows she’s not that woman. She’s cute. She’s sweet. And she’s into him, but she’s got it all and Deke knows he won’t fit into that. So he holds her at arm’s length. Establishes boundaries. And Justice will take it because she wants Deke any way he’ll let her have him.
But when Justice finds herself a pawn in a dangerous game, Deke makes a decision.
When he does, he has no idea he’s just opened himself up to bounty.
Are you ready for the next in the Colorado Mountain Series, Bounty, the story of Deke and Justice?
Excerpt
A lip brush then a whispered, “Relax, Deke.”
His hand resting on my hip slid up to my waist and squeezed.
It did not push me away. It just squeezed.
“Jussy,” he muttered. “Now’s not—”
I went in for another lip brush, another whisper of, “Relax, honey,” and then I went for it and slid my tongue out, gliding the tip along the crease of his lips.
God, he tasted yummy.
I had just enough time to have that thought before I drew in a soft breath when I suddenly found myself on my back, Deke’s weight on me, all of his lower half pressing me into the bed.
“Jussy, don’t,” he growled, his words contradicting our new position. “Now’s not the time.”
Now was totally the time. If I didn’t feel that “now was the time” gathering between my legs (which I did), I could feel that indication hardening on my thigh.
I moved both my hands to his neck, its back, fingers up in his hair and I used those hands and his stiffness to pull me up and I put my mouth back to his.
“Now’s a great time,” I said softly. “You’ve been taking care of me. It’s my turn to take care of you.”
“Jus—”
“Shush,” I whispered.
“Jussy—”
I cut off whatever he was going to say by sliding my tongue in his mouth and touching it to his.
His head jerked back.
My body went solid.
He didn’t move.
I held on to his neck and stared at him staring down at me.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have pushed it. Maybe now wasn’t the time.
Hell, maybe I was even wrong about the whole thing. Maybe Deke was that guy who went the extra mile to look out for his friends. And maybe the evidence that was growing hard against my thigh wasn’t evidence of what I thought it was, but just that I was a girl, he was a guy, we were in bed in the dead of night and that was the natural order of things.
I started to feel weird, scared, embarrassment creeping in, and I was about to let him go when it happened.
Thunder rolled in my bedroom, feeling like it was emanating from his stomach, through his chest, his lips, swelling in the room, over my skin, straight between my legs.
Then he shifted one of his hands that were in the bed at my sides, his weight up on his forearms, so it was wrapped around the back of my neck and his mouth slammed down on mine.
I opened my lips and his tongue thrust inside.
Oh God, yes, fuck yes.
He tasted yummy.
Another fierce growl released from Deke, sinking down my throat as he slanted his head and took the kiss deeper.
Okay.
Yes.
Okay.
Damn.
The man could kiss.
My Review
Stunningly beautiful as always, but I do believe I’ve found my new favorite KA heroine. Justice is beyond perfection and possesses such a pure, honest soul. I loved the gradual progression of their relationship and how it was portrayed so naturally, but the climb to get there was a special kind of torture yet oh so delicious! The emotions she pulled from her characters were so raw that you couldn’t help but be pulled into the magic of it all. Bounty doesn’t top my favorites of Ty & Lexie and Cal & Vi, but it’s pretty darn close. This book is sure to humble anyone and teach them the power and miracle that is true love!
As when any new KA book is released, I went back and re-read the entire series. I think this is now the fourth time I’ve read these books; I’m that invested in the characters and their lives. I love that even though our previous six couples don’t all normally cross paths, they all had an integral part in this story. I loved that we got to see sides of some of them not previously explored. Heck, as little as Deke is mentioned in the other books, it was almost like going in blind with two completely new characters. In a way, I really enjoyed that. I had no preconceived notions of who I thought they’d be; I simply got to meet them as they met each other. It was beauty in its truest form. A chemistry, an attraction, a destiny that could not be denied. These two characters met briefly, a mere ten minutes, seven years prior, but it left a profound mark on them both. We were given just a little smidgen then they were thrust apart from each other and we were back at square one. It’s what happens in that interim that truly shapes who they are.
Justice is riding a grief wave the size of a tsunami. She’s a ship at sea just searching where to lay down her anchor. She’s experiencing completely new things all while dealing with family drama. I love how forthright and honest she was with everything and everyone. This woman didn’t pull any punches and went after what she wanted. It was refreshing to read and witness. A woman who was 100% comfortable in her own skin and made no qualms about it. You took her as you got her and she made no apologies. And while on the surface she and Deke had many differences, it was these core traits and beliefs that made them perfect for each other. Almost as much as their relationship, I loved the instant kinship she formed with Krystal. We have known her as the brash, take no prisoners, cranky bartender at Bubba’s, but in Bounty you get to see another side of her that really had her coming full circle. I loved the instant protectiveness she had for Justice. Reading the pure honest love that Justice had for her father was a thing of beauty. It really was the underlying factor that led everything in this story. I loved how she never gave up on anyone and could see sides to people that most other couldn’t. Plain and simple, I just loved her!
Deke. Deke. Deke. That man. Let me tell you, with KA’s trademark one word statements from her alphas, he can bring you to your knees. Get into this story and hear him call her Gypsy or his gypsy princess and tell me it doesn’t just make you melt?! I can’t even… I’ve been so intrigued with this burly mellow mountain man ever since he was introduced in Sweet Dreams. The air of mystery that surrounded him was thick, but as with Justice, there really were no hidden secrets or agendas. You either took him as you got him or you didn’t. He wasn’t a man who was going to change for anyone, firmly set in his ways. A gypsy princess and her travelin’ man, riding the same road, just waiting for the inevitable collision. I mentioned the delicious torture earlier of waiting for when they would come together, but I really can’t do it justice. It has to be read and experienced through each reader’s eyes, but it’s definitely not something to be missed and it’s so worth the wait! I loved his honesty no matter the person or situation, but I also loved that you really had to work to gain his trust and a true insight into who he was. He didn’t offer it freely, but once you were granted into the inner sanctum of his mind, you understood why an invitation was so heavily guarded and you treasured it all the more. I adored the moment everything finally broke through for him and he wasn’t able to fight his emotions for her any longer. It was a long time coming, but worth every delicious moment of anticipation.
I really am finding it hard to put into words just how profoundly their relationship affected me. There was just something so natural and kismet the way they fell into each other. I think it’s one of the things I love most about KA’s characters; nothing ever feels forced. It’s as if even though they were always their own person, their lives never really started or made sense until they came together. She’s writes stories that make you believe in true love. She makes you believe that no matter what hardships you have to endure and overcome, nothing is impossible. She gives her readers hope in a world where that often seems impossible. And even if it is pure fiction, for however many hours it takes you to finish each story, you can honestly experience a once in a lifetime love and come away with characters you will never forget. The title to this book is so very apt, because each time I finish a story from her it’s 100% what I feel. I feel true bounty that I ever took the plunge and read a book from her. There’s a reason why I own every single one of her titles in paperback AND e-book. There’s a reason why I’ve read the majority of them 3-4 times. And there’s a reason why I will always go back to these titles, no matter if I’ve just finished them not that long ago. She, what seems, effortlessly achieves what most others can’t; love that transcends time and space and never really lets go of its hold on you. A true bounty…
Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Colorado Mountain series
The Colorado Mountain Series takes place in two fictional Colorado towns situated close to each other, Gnaw Bone and Carnal. This series that will be eight novels follows the stories of eight connected men on their rocky road to second chances.The series follows the stories of Holden “Max” Maxwell, Tatum “Tate” Jackson, Tyrell “Ty” Walker, Chace Keaton, Graham Reece, Deke Hightower, Jacob Decker and Coal “Wood” Blackwood.
The Gamble
(Colorado Mountain #1)
Amazon US
Nina Sheridan’s on a timeout adventure in the Colorado Mountains. She needs distance from her clueless fiancé, distance to decide whether she wants to spend the rest of her life with a man who doesn’t care enough to learn how she takes her coffee.
Arriving in a blinding snowstorm at the A-Frame she rented, she comes face to face with the most amazing man she’s ever seen. Minutes later, when he kicks her out of his house, she goes head to head with him.
Beyond angry because she’s flown half a world away to start her timeout adventure, not to mention her sinuses hurt, she heads back down the mountain and ends up in a ditch. Unable to extricate herself, she gives up, hopes for rescue and falls asleep in the backseat.
The next morning she wakes up in the amazing man’s bed and she’s sick as a dog.
Holden Maxwell spends days nursing her back to health and then he spends the next two weeks trying to convince her to take her Colorado adventure further, in other words, make it permanent and take a gamble on him.
Nina has a tough time fighting her attraction to Max, especially when it seems all Max’s friends, her mother and stepdad and the whole town want them together and both she and Max get embroiled in the murder of Max’s ex-friend and the town of Gnaw Bone’s most detested resident – a man everyone has motive to kill, especially Max.
Sweet Dreams
(Colorado Mountain #2)
Amazon US
Lauren Grahame has spent her whole life thinking something special was going to happen. She didn’t know what it was, she just knew it would one day be hers. But she learned the hard way that special wasn’t on offer.
So, after divorcing her cheating husband, Lauren searched for nothing special and she thought she found it when she landed a job as a waitress in a biker bar in Carnal. It was perfect: a nothing job in a nowhere bar in Nowheresville.
Then Tatum Jackson walked in. Part-owner of the bar, he took one look at high-class Lauren and wanted nothing to do with her. And he made this known, loudly.
Tate’s angry insults seared in her brain, Lauren decides the feeling is mutual and she doesn’t want anything to do with the gloriously handsome Tate Jackson. The clash of the bartender and barmaid begins but, even though Tate makes his change of mind clear (in biker-speak, a language Lauren is not fluent in), Lauren is intent on going her own way.
Until a serial killer hits Carnal and Lauren finds out Tate isn’t a bartender, he’s a bounty hunter. He stakes his claim for Lauren before he goes on the hunt for a killer but Laurie doesn’t speak biker nor does she understand bounty hunters and Tate comes back from the hunt to find his old lady has moved on.
Life throws curveball after curveball at Laurie and Tate. As secrets are revealed, women are brutally murdered, and Lauren tries to find her inner biker babe.
Lady Luck
(Colorado Mountain #3)
Amazon US
Ty Walker was wrongly imprisoned and for the five years he was inside, he honed his plan so when he gets out, he has nothing but vengeance on his mind.
But then he walks straight to stylish, leggy, beautiful, goofy Lexie Berry and he suddenly has something else to think about. He knows within seconds he wants her and within days he can love her but with the filth that was flung at him clinging; he also knows he can’t have her.
Since birth, Lexie Berry has been Lady Luck’s favorite toy and because of that, Lexie is cautious. But within a day, she senses Ty is something special. With her luck, however, she can’t trust it. Then she finds out what was done to Ty and she’s willing to do anything to make it right.
Even what Ty will never forgive her for doing.
Ty clings to vengeance and Lexie goes all out to give him back the time he lost. But Ty is battling demons within and they’re up against dirty cops and criminals who will stop at nothing to sway Lady Luck against them. All Ty and Lexie have is hope Lady Luck will finally swing their way.
Breathe
(Colorado Mountain #4)
Amazon US
When the local police department’s secrets are revealed and the wife he’s forced to marry is murdered, Chace finds himself the town of Carnal’s hero. Knowing how deep in the mud he was forced to sink, Chace feels he’ll never get clean. The quiet, content future he envisioned of the love a good woman with whom he could build a family was now beyond his reach. The only thing he can do is find his wife’s murderer.
But he isn’t the only one looking.
While searching for new leads, he runs into Faye Goodknight, the town’s quiet, shy, pretty librarian. Chace has long since had his eye on what could possibly be the town’s last remaining virgin but he has also long since given up hope he could make her his. Faye is pure and clean and Chace refuses to dirty her with his sordid past.
Pure and clean Faye may be, but when the shy librarian is forced to go head to head with the man who she’s had a crush on since he hit her hometown, Chace finds Faye is full of surprises. And he doesn’t know what to do with her.
Jagged
(Colorado Mountain #5)
Amazon US
An old flame rekindled . . .
Zara Cinders always knew Ham Reece was the one, but he wasn’t interested in settling down. When she found someone who was, Ham walked out of her life. Three years later, Zara’s lost her business, her marriage, and she’s barely getting by in a tiny apartment on the wrong side of the tracks. As soon as Ham hears about Zara’s plight, he’s on her doorstep offering her a lifeline. Now, it will take every ounce of will power she possesses to resist all that he offers.
Ham was always a traveling man, never one to settle down in one town, with one woman, for more time than absolutely necessary. But Ham’s faced his own demons, and he’s learned a lot. About himself, and about the life he knows he’s meant to live. So when he hears that Zara’s having a rough time, he wants to be the one to help. In fact, he wants to do more than that for Zara. A lot more. But first, he must prove to Zara that he’s a changed man.
Kaleidoscope
(Colorado Mountain #6)
Amazon US
When old friends become new lovers…anything can happen.
Sexy, gifted, and loyal, PI Jacob Decker is a tall, cool drink of perfection who had Emmanuelle Holmes at “hello.” His relationship with Emme’s best friend kept them apart for years, but things have changed. Now that a case has brought him to Gnaw Bone, Colorado, the road is wide open for Emme and Deck to explore something hotter and deeper than Emme dreamed possible. So why is she sabotaging the best thing that’s ever happened to her?
It isn’t easy to catch Deck off guard, but Emme does just that when she walks back into his life after nine long years. The curvy brunette had her charms back in the day, but now she’s a bona fide knockout . . . and she wants to rekindle their friendship. Deck, however, wants more. Emme’s always been the one; she excites Deck’s body and mind like no other woman can. But a dark chapter from Emme’s past overshadows their future together. Now only Deck can help her turn the page-if she’ll let him…
About Kristen Ashley
Kristen, born in Gary and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana, was a fourth-generation graduate of Purdue University. Since, she has lived in Denver, the West Country of England, and now she resides in Phoenix. She worked as a charity executive for eighteen years prior to beginning her independent publishing career. She currently writes full-time.
Although romance is her genre, the prevailing themes running through all of Kristen’s novels are friendship, family and a strong sisterhood. To this end, and as a way to thank her readers for their support, Kristen has created the Rock Chick Nation, a series of programs that are designed to give back to her readers and promote a strong female community.
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