Welcome to Jenuine Cupcakes!
This is my stop on the Pieces Blog Tour which is being hosted by
Author: Michelle Davidson Argyle
Publication: February 14, 2013
By: Rhemalda Publishing
Two years after watching her kidnappers go to prison, Naomi Jensen is still in love with one of them. Jesse will be released in a few years, and Naomi knows college is the perfect distraction while she waits. But when her new friend Finn makes her question what is right and what is wrong, she begins to wonder if Jesse is the one for her … until she discovers he's out on parole. Naomi must sort through her confusion to figure out where love and freedom truly lie—in Finn, who has no connections to her past, or Jesse, who has just asked her to run away with him.
Pieces is a companion to The Breakaway and can be read independently, if desired.
Excerpt:
The calls and texts from her mother kept coming. Naomi, please call me. Please. Did
you go stay with that man you were talking about? Hasn’t the semester started again
already?
And then Finn sent another text. Please let me know you’re okay. I went to see Becca,
but she hasn’t heard from you, either. She said you moved back home? What happened
with Jesse? Oh, and I have something great to tell you about my mom.
That night, a few hours after she read Finn’s text, Naomi buried her face in her hands.
She couldn’t keep lying to Jesse. It felt so wrong. Everything was stacking up around her,
forcing her emotions into a space so small she knew she would burst any moment.
“I got a phone,” she said into her hands during dinner.
Jesse was quite for a moment. “You … what?”
She lifted her head from her hands and stood from her chair. Walking into the living
room, she found her phone in her purse and returned to the table.
“It’s a global phone,” she said, her voice trembling as she watched confusion sweep
across Jesse’s face. “I got it before we came here because I was afraid of feeling cut off
… or something. I was afraid you would see it in airport security, but you didn’t seem to
notice with all my other crap I had to put through the scanners.”
Jesse’s confused expression melted into disappointment. Naomi could see he was
trying to control his emotions. He swept away the negative expression and looked up at
her with a calm, sweet smile.
“I’m so sorry for making you feel like you might be cut off,” he said, reaching for the
phone. “You don’t have to apologize.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, she sat in her chair and leaned back. “I need to tell my
parents what’s going on. Everyone’s going to think I’ve been kidnapped again, and I
can’t deal with that. I have to tell them.”
Jesse nodded, his face still calm. “I think we should block certain numbers,” he said.
“Namely, your mother’s … until you’re ready to deal with this. She’ll be alright until
then.”
Naomi watched him take the phone and then navigate through some screens. A crease
formed between his eyes. “Finn is texting you?” he asked, lowering the phone.
“Y-yes.” She didn’t like the way he looked at her all of a sudden—that steely glaze
over his eyes. He wouldn’t make her block Finn. He wouldn’t. Shakily, she said, “He’s
concerned, that’s all.”
He softened his expression, gazing at her with what almost looked like pity. “I think
you might be able to handle things easier if you don’t talk to him for awhile.”
She reached for the phone. “I’m not talking to him. I haven’t even texted him back. I
haven’t talked to anyone.”
“Naomi,” Jesse said firmly, “don’t lie, please. There’s a text here to your mother. I
asked you not to talk to her.”
Folding her arms, she grunted. “Telling her I’m fine is hardly talking to her. And
that’s all I’ve texted.” She glared at Jesse as he stood and walked into the living room. He was doing something to her phone—punching buttons, scrolling through screens. “What are you doing?” she demanded, standing up from her chair. She put her hands on her hips.
“I’m making things easier for you.” His back was to her, and suddenly she hated
the way he hunched his shoulders forward, the way his muscles in his forearms slid
under his skin as he moved his fingers wildly across the phone. She wasn’t sure what
to do or say. He had never acted so rashly before—at least not toward her—not since
that night he rushed her out of the house to help her escape. She hadn’t wanted to leave, she remembered. There had been a gaping hole in her chest as she had walked away, but Jesse had kept pulling on her, and then when he drove her to the police station and ordered her out of the car, she had thought her shattered heart would never heal. And it hadn’t. Not yet.
BUY
AUTHOR BIO:
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I remember seeing this book around before, it looks interesting and I do have it on my TBR list. Maybe I can get to the series soon!!
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