Title: Used Author: Lynetta Halat
Series: Unlovable #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: January 19, 2014
Genre: New Adult
More Info: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon US
Purchase: Barnes & Noble
Purchase: Amazon UK
Purchase: iTunes
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I am a slut. No worries. I've come to terms with it, and you will too. I’m not one of those girls who thinks she’s too plain, too fat, too skinny, too shy … no, I don’t have that kind of luck. I’m the girl who knows she’s just right for everyone. — Denver
A reputation as a manwhore–with–a–heart–of–gold tends to precede me. But, I don’t do girls with issues, that is until this girl. It's this girl I want to fix. This girl I want to protect. And maybe … more. — Ransom
Being in love with the same girl your entire life isn't all it's cracked up to be. She uses me in every way imaginable. How does she see me? I am her perpetual one-night stand. No strings, no attachments. Just mind-numbing sex ... for her anyway. — Greer
Feeling like the life is being choked out of her in the small town of Anaconda, Montana, Denver Dempsey craves the escape that college offers … even if that means leaving her “best friend with benefits” and looking for a new way to forget. Thinking she's found the perfect hookup in Ransom, Denver's outlook on college is bright. That is, until Greer shows up looking for a second chance, and Ransom's interest turns to hatred.
Love. Hate. Triangle.
Who's using who?
Excerpt
Shut Up, and Kiss Me
After a few minutes, Greer stretches out beside me and searches for my hand. Only his hand touches mine, but my whole being tingles. He threads his fingers through mine and runs his thumb over my palm. Something in me twists and splinters, shooting chills all through my body. My breath hitches in my throat because I can’t breathe around the knot that has formed there.
“You feel it too,” he says simply.
I close my eyes tighter, suddenly embarrassed by the fact that I’m not slick. “Yes,” I admit in a whisper.
“Look at me, Denver.”
Turning my head to the side, I open my eyes to find his blue-eyed gaze roaming over me. His eyes find mine, and we just take each other in. I want to say something, but I can’t think of one darn thing that sounds intelligent or even … sexy. Do I even want to be sexy for him? Yes. Yes, I do. I see stupid girls flirt with him all the time. I don’t want to be that girl, but I do want him to see me as a girl and not just his friend. Ironic, since I’ve spent my whole life telling him not to treat me like a girl.
“I want to kiss you so bad … but if I kiss you, it will change everything,” he says in that gravelly voice.
“Change is good,” I whisper.
Rolling to his side, his mouth is centimeters from mine. I can’t make myself move although I’m aching with want. But I haven’t been kissed—ever. And I haven’t kissed anyone since that time on the monkey bars in seventh grade when I stuck my tongue in Brian Thomas’s mouth on a bet. I shocked the shit out of him, and he didn’t even kiss me back. When the bell rang, he jerked back and hit his head hard, sending him to the nurse for the rest of the afternoon. Not my finest moment.
“I don’t want to lose my best friend,” he tells me.
I bring up my other hand and run it over his jaw. “You’re not going to lose me. No matter what. We’ll still be friends.”
“Relationships ruin friendships. We’ve seen enough of that.”
I shiver with that truth. “True. But we’re different. We’ve been together since before we were born. I can’t live without you, so I won’t hurt our friendship.”
Bringing our entwined hands up, he kisses my knuckles. “Me either. We’ll take it slow, all right?”
“All right, my golden boy,” I whisper.
The effect of my words is instantaneous; the blue in his eyes intensifies to boiling. He leans in, his lips brushing mine softly. “Denver,” he whispers against me. “I’ve always wanted to make you mine. Ever since I understood what that meant. I’ve never seen anyone but you.” And even though his eyes burn with passion, I hear a little tremor in his voice. Now, him always putting off those girls makes a whole lot more sense.
“I thought we were taking it slow,” I chastise, but I delight in knowing that he feels something more for me.
“I just want you to know that I don’t take this lightly. You’re the most important person in my universe. And I’ll do anything to protect us.”
His declaration unleashes a torrent of need in me, and I no longer want him to kiss me—I need him to kiss me. “Greer, will you shut up and kiss me, please?”
Playlist
My Review:
What I didn’t bargain for was what I’d felt when it was all said and done…absolutely nothing.
I’ve been sitting here staring at the screen for the better part of an hour trying to decide where to begin. How do you begin to describe a story that touched you so deeply? A story that was so phenomenally written that it encompassed every single facet of the New Adult genre yet was completely unique in every way. Broken people? Check. Feisty female? Check. Angst? Check. Love triangle? Check. Hot cowboys? Double Check! Knowing all this and more for the past few months, the slow build up to actually getting my hands on it was anticipation like no other. I’m not usually one who complains about having to wait for a book because I have an endless supply of things to read. However, as this was from one of my favorite authors, an author I have gotten to know on a personal level, the pure want, no, NEED, for this book was on a whole other level. Would it be as phenomenal as her other works? Would it rock me to my core, making me fall in love with new characters? Would I not be able to put down the book, completely engrossed in everything that was going on and wanting to know what happened next? Well, the answer was a resounding YES, for all those reasons and more.
“I’ve always wanted to make you mine. Ever since I understood what that meant. I’ve never seen anyone but you.”
From an early age, Denver learned time and time again that she could only count on herself. An absent father and a mother who only cared about what man was in her bed next, Denver had no other choice but to become self-reliant. I found myself MANY times throughout the book wanting to physically harm the mother. When you read the book, I feel extremely confident that you will return my sentiments. Not only did she not care with Denver, it was almost as if she was competing with her. She puts Denver in some pretty nasty situations, yet never is the mother she should be. Despite all this, Denver is smart, she is ambitious, and she hasn’t given up on life. She is a sure spitfire if I ever knew one. With a love or horses, barrel racing, and everything farm related, she dreams of nothing more than owning her own one day. Denver likes to believe she is a slut; proudly boasting it to anyone who wants to know. I don’t have issues with that word, but I did have issues with her calling herself that. Not because I felt like it was degrading, but because I didn’t view her that way. You’ll have to form your own opinions when you read Used. I understood why she viewed herself that way, but I didn’t agree with her terminology. Regardless, my heart hurt for her. The thing with Lynetta is she has this uncanny ability to put yourself in the character’s shoes, no matter what their situation is. You feel their pain, you feel their joy; you just feel EVERYTHING.
You can try to disguise manure.
You can dress it up pretty.
You can put a son-of-a-bitching leash on it and parade it downtown on Memorial Day.
It.Is.Still.Stinking.Ass.Shit.
And, despite all my defense mechanisms-I am still my mother’s daughter.
Next I have to talk about the two men in her life. Yes, you read that right; TWO. It isn’t as nefarious as it sounds though, so don’t fret. Greer is her best friend and eventual lover. They come together in a very unconventional way; Greer is grasping at straws to get any bit of Denver he can and Denver just doesn’t feel she has anything to give in return. Even before she is, as if there could BE a thing, she sees herself as damaged goods, which couldn’t be FURTHER from the truth! Even though you are going to have many people claim to be staunch Greer supporters and you are going to have many more that say they WERE up until a point, I could always see something behind what was given to us. For me, if he truly was the one that was supposed to be with her, there would have been nothing holding her back; no excuses, no false claims, nada. But there was. And for that reason alone, for me, it was never Greer. Now don’t read this and believe that she doesn’t end up with Greer. Regardless the outcome, I will always be Team Ransom.
I realize now that nothing about our date is romantic. It’s a date of cold, hard truths but also of bright, shiny promise.
Now, on to the main man of the hour; MY Ransom. Ransom was a bit of a conundrum but what I got from him, I LOVED. Sure of himself in a way that many would say cocky yet I say confident, he was a man who knew what he wanted. I thoroughly enjoyed the push pull in their friendship and how he didn’t take any of her shit. He called her on it and it endeared me to him all the more. I really wish I could say more but that would lead you in the direction of a spoiler and I just won’t do that.
“Until you’re mine, and mine only, I won’t touch you again.”
I’ve said it before and I will say it again; I LOVE Lynetta’s writing. You are drawn into the world of the characters seamlessly, and there’s just a flow that can’t be taught. It can’t be mastered. You either have it, or you don’t. There’s no stumbling along in a book of hers. No. Pages fly, hearts are ripped out, and she does a little dance on them. Every once in a while, if you are lucky, she puts you back together. But really, happy or sad, the true testament is that you make me feel. And that she does phenomenally.
I guess a toxic relationship like ours couldn’t die a quiet, dignified death. It had to go out with a bang-a spitting, sputtering, gut-wrenching bang.
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