Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Can’t Let Go – Michelle Lynn

Posted September 5, 2014 by Shannon in Blog Tour, Giveaways, Reviews, Shannon / 1 Comment

Dex is many things, a college senior, the bassist for The
Invisibles, a son, a friend, everything but a boyfriend. Everybody knows him as
the shallow guy who’s up for a good time anytime. People rarely take the time
to see the loyal guy lying just beneath the happy-go-lucky façade.
There are parts of Dex’s life he keeps hidden. Ones he believes
no one would understand. Since he gave up on the idea of a dream girl long ago,
he thinks he’s finally found the perfect balance of connection without
commitment with Sam.
Chrissy used to know everything about Dex. When he left four
years ago for college, she was left behind. Four years later, with nowhere else
to turn, Chrissy calls the one person she’s always counted on, Dex. One glance
at the sad eyes he’s tried to forget and Dex knows it’s out of his control.
With Chrissy’s return, lines begin to cross from friendship to
something more, but will Dex’s secret force them apart forever?

(Can’t Let Go is the fourth novel in the Invisibles Series)

Review

Reviewer:  Shannon
Rating:
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Reviewer’s Thoughts

3.5 Cocktails

I have loved all the Invincible books, but CAN’T LET GO was a little bit different.  In Dex’s story, we found the woman he was meant to be with wasn’t someone he just meets, but someone he’s known since he was eight, who he didn’t always treat the best, but someone he would always be there for.

Dex and Chrissy meet through their fathers at a weekly poker game.  They bond over their fathers and the gambling that takes precedence over pretty much everything else.  But Dax lives a very different life from Chrissy’s and she often feels like she isn’t good enough for Dax or anything that has to do with his world.  As a reader, I felt very sorry for Chrissy because she was in a pretty horrible situation that was not of her own making.  And every time she tried to dig herself out of the hole she in, her father smacked her right back down again.  Chrissy had grit and she had determination.  She may have slipped a time or two, but she always managed to do what she needed to in order to start over.  And when it was really bad, she knew she could always call her old friend Dex.

Dex was a frustrating man.  You knew how he felt about Chrissy, he’d felt that way since he was a teenager, but he was insistent on keeping Chrissy at arms length.  You wanted him to believe in his feelings and know that you can love people and things will be alright.  But Dex is on stubborn man and he fights his feelings tooth and nail.  Of course, he hurts the one person he doesn’t ever want to.  He eventually figures it out, just when he’s about to lose what he wants, but he needed that push.

CAN’T LET GO didn’t have the same emotional pull for me as the other books in the series, but it was still a solid entry.  And Michelle Lynn sets up Rob’s story perfectly.  Suddenly we discover he’s not really the a-hole we think he is.  I can’t wait to get more of him.

EXCERPT:

 
Already regretting my decision to call
Dex in the first place, I keep my distance for the remainder of the night,
allowing him to have fun with his friends. He doesn’t engage me very much, only
telling me even more that he wishes I wouldn’t have invaded his perfect life.
By the time we go to bed, we venture into the room that is reserved for the two
of us. I guess when you come with so many couples, it negates the whole guys in
this room, girls in the other equation.
 
I escape into the bathroom and change my
clothes. By the time I return, Dex is already in his pajama pants, digging in
his bag. He drops his phone and bends down to retrieve it. As he steadily
stands back up, his eyes roam up my body and a warm current in my blood swirls,
following the path of his eyes. He bites his bottom lip and takes a deep
breath. “I’ll be back,” he says with a husky voice.
 
Once he rushes out, I climb under the
covers to disengage any sexual urges neither one of us will entertain tonight.
In this moment, I wish I could be one of those girls. The ones who could sleep
with Dex only to feel the comforting arms of a man, but it’s the fear of after
that keeps my hands pinned around my body. The fear that he would sleep with me
out of pity, or worse, that he would only do it for his own pleasure and
release.
 
He opens the door, and his blue eyes
focus on the television and anywhere but at me. “I’ll sleep on the floor,” he
murmurs, never casting a glance my way.
 
“Don’t be silly. We’ve done this
before.” I flip to my side.
 
“When we were fourteen, Chris.” He grabs
the pillow.
 
“Really, Dex. I trust you,” I tell him,
facing him head on, and oh my lord, his muscles are everywhere. He’s always
been built, but holy mackerole, he’s insanely big now.
 
He looks at me long and hard for a few
seconds and then pulls back the covers. As he’s sliding under the crisp white
linen sheets, the mattress dips next to me. I turn around so my back faces his.
We both reach over and turn off the lights on our respective sides. The funny
thing is if someone walked in right now, they’d think we were two elderly
people, who have been married for years, instead of hot-blooded early twenty-something’s.
 
Minutes of silence fill the room, and
even with me shutting my eyes, visualizing what I imagine the beach must feel
like, sleep won’t come. Dex’s close proximity has my body hyperaware of his
breathing and his body. “Do you want to tell me?” he whispers.
 
“I’m okay. Like I said, I just needed a
break. Thank you for bringing me. I hope I wasn’t too much of an inconvenience
for you,” I lie, and a huge breath releases from him.
 
“You’re never an inconvenience to me. If
you don’t tell me, I can’t help you,” he adds, and I roll over, although, he
keeps his back to me.
 
“Nothing. Like I said I needed a
breather.” If I admit to Dex the real reason, he’ll try to fix it and save me
like normal. Being here with his friends and the people that care about him, he
deserves normality and that’s not in my life’s course.
 
My hands itch to touch the grooves and
contours of the muscles that spread across his back, displaying how hard he
works out at the gym every day. “Just wanted to feel normal. So, thank you
again.” The lies just continue to flow. He doesn’t need my drama in his life.
He has his together, why should my fucked-up past screw with it?
 

The
pillow shifts from the slow shake of his head. “You’re welcome,” he says, and
the silence encompasses us once again. Eventually, the light whistling of his
breathing signifies he’s fallen asleep. I lie awake, observing the rise and fall
of his back until my eyes relent to the exhaustion of the day.

AUTHOR BIO:
Michelle moved around the Midwest most of her life, transferring from
school to school before settling down in the outskirts of Chicago ten years
ago, where she now resides with her husband and two kids.  She developed a love of reading at a young
age, which helped lay the foundation for her passion to write.   With the encouragement of her family, she
finally sat down and wrote one of the many stories that have been floating
around in her head. When she isn’t reading or writing, she can be found playing
with her kids, talking to her mom on the phone, or hanging out with her family
and friends.  But after chasing around
twin preschoolers all day, she always cherishes her relaxation time after
putting the kids to bed.
 
 
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
 
Twitter: @michellelynnbks

 

PURCHASE LINKS FOR THE
INVISIBLES SERIES:
Don’t Let Go (Book #1)
AMAZON ** B&N
  
Let Me In (Book #2)
 AMAZON **  B&N
Let Me Love (Book #3)
AMAZON **  B&N
 

Can’t Let Go (Book #4)


AMAZON ** AMAZON UK ** B&N
 
 
BLOG TOUR HOSTED BY:

 

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I am a lover of alpha males with dirty mouths, strong heroines putting alpha males in their place, and the Chicago Blackhawks. I'm a proud hockey mom who can often be found at the hockey rink cheering on my favorite forward, with my kindle close by.

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