A Cottonbloom Novel
By Laura Trentham
Release Date: January 30th, 2018
St. Martin's Paperback
Source: ARC provided by the author
Cottonbloom. A
beautiful, faraway place where a woman can escape her past—and find reason to
stay forever in Laura Trentham's When the Stars Come Out.
Willa Brown never planned to stay in Cottonbloom. She was on
the way to somewhere else when she landed there and found work at the Abbot
brothers’ garage. . .and a sense of comfort and safety that she had never
known. The same holds true for Jackson Abbott himself. With one glance in her
direction, he can make Willa’s heart melt. But what begins as an unrequited
crush turns into something far more powerful than Willa could have ever
imagined. . .
Jackson’s most meaningful relationship has always been with
his car—and he’s not afraid to admit it. Still, he can’t help but become
emotionally entangled with his new star mechanic Willa, who is definitely
hiding some dark secrets of her own beneath the hood. Jackson desperately wants
Willa to trust him, and to seek protection in his arms. But even as the two
slowly surrender to their shared attraction, the danger lurking in Willa’s past
remains a stubborn obstacle. Can she open up enough to give them both a chance
at having real and lasting love?
*ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*
This is the second Cottonbloom book I have tucked myself into, and I'm loving every morsel of it, and unlike the last book, it's not so much about falling for someone unobtainable or finding love after being cheated on, When the Stars Come out is about working with someone every day, and not realizing just how much they mean to you, till you know they are going to leave.
So we find ourselves back at the Abbot brothers garage, and the boys are still at each other's throats, with Ford's underhand dealings. But when Willa Brown asks Jackson if she is going to lose her job, it opens Jackson's eyes to just how much he has come to rely on Willa, and how little he knows about her.
Willa is escaping from her past, to keep her family alive, but that doesn't stop her from having feelings about Jackson, but when he starts probing into her life, she gets scared and plans to bolt, Jackson knows she is planning this, but Jackson needs to come to grips with his own past, before he can help Willa.
When The Stars Come Out is such a wonderful book, I love the whole premise of the book, which made the characters so much more enjoyable, and it was a great book to read, on a snowy night.
I give When The Stars Come Out 5 stars.
Willa glanced down and
back up at Jackson through her lashes. The
gentle, flirtatious look hit him like a punch. This time his heart
kicked like he might require someone to call 911. “Do I clean up good?”
He knew what she
wanted to hear and later, in the dark solitude
of his bed, he’d tell her and, even better, show her. But, for now, he tempered his response, hoping to
get a rise out of her. “Not bad.”
She
stepped forward and punched his arm. It might have stung if she hadn’t tipped to the side
as her fist made contact. Her eyes popped wide and a little huff escaped. With
reaction times honed on the racetrack, he wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her flush with his body.
“You sure you know how
to operate those shoes?” This time he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
“They
don’t require a license. And I was doing fine until you showed up.”
Her admission made him feel slightly better. He wasn’t
the only one who was off balance. Her body notched into his perfectly with the
added inches the heels lent her. His focus
dropped from her sparking eyes to her mouth. Maybe he’d kiss the gloss
off them right now. His lips hovered an inch from hers. So close he could feel
the ramp-up of her breathing. Or was that
his breathing spinning out of control?
Anaward-winning author, Laura Trentham was born and raised in a small town in
Tennessee. Although, she loved English and reading in high school, she was
convinced an English degree equated to starvation. She chose the next most
logical major—Chemical Engineering—and worked in a hard hat and steel toed
boots for several years.
She
writes sexy, small town contemporaries and smoking hot Regency
historicals.
KISS ME THAT WAY,
Cottonbloom Book 1, won the Stiletto Contest for Best Long Contemporary and
finaled in the National Readers Choice Award. THEN HE KISSED ME, Cottonbloom
Book 2, was named an Amazon Best Romance of 2016 and was a finalist for the
National Excellence for Romance Fiction. TILL I KISSED YOU, Cottonbloom Book 3,
is a finalist in the Maggie contest. LEAVE THE NIGHT ON, the latest Cottonbloom
book, was named an iBooks Best Book of the Month and a Recommended Read from
NPR.
When
not lost in a cozy Southern town or Regency England, she's shuttling kids to
soccer, helping with homework, and avoiding the Mt. Everest-sized pile of laundry that is almost as big as the to-be-read
pile of books on her nightstand.
