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New Release Review and Giveaway! THE REBEL by Adrienne Giordano (Harlequin Intrigue)

The Rebel

 

About the Book:

Title: The Rebel

Series: Harlequin Intrigue

Author: Adrienne Giordano

Release Date: October 1, 2015

Blog Tour Dates: October 1, 2015 – October 9, 2015

Genre: Romantic Suspense

 

Book Summary:

Bad to the bone…in all the right ways 

A brilliant civil lawyer, David Hennings has always been the outsider—at odds with his wealthy family, shunning relationships, defying convention as a sexy leather-jacketed biker. Which is why sculptor Amanda LeBlanc agrees to his request to reconstruct a skull from a cold case murder. The instant heat between them is scorching.

But once Amanda takes the job and gets too close to the rebellious attorney, her carefully balanced life is upended by a series of methodical attacks. Someone doesn’t want her to finish the job. Now David will risk everything not to lose the woman he unknowingly put in jeopardy.

 

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Excerpt:

Inside the stairwell of the hundred-year-old building on the city’s West Side, David climbed the last few steps leading to the landing of Amanda’s second-floor studio. He loved these old structures with the Portland stone and brick. The iconic columns on the facade urged the history major in him to research the place. Check the city records, see what information he could find on who’d built it, who’d lived here or which companies had run their wares through its doors.

Structures like this had a charm all their own that couldn’t be duplicated with modern wizardry. Old buildings, this building, had a life, a past to be researched and appreciated.

Or maybe he just wanted to believe that.

He rapped on the door. No hollow wood there. By the scarred look and feel of its heavy weight under his knuckles, it might be the original door. How amazing would that be?

The door swung open and a woman with lush curves a guy his size could wrap himself around greeted him. She wore jeans and a graphic T-shirt announcing he should make love, not war—gladly, sweetheart—and her honey-blond hair fell around her shoulders, curling at the ends. The whole look brought thoughts of lazy Sunday mornings, hot coffee and a few extracurricular activities, in a bed and out, David could think of.

To say the least, she affected him.

And she hadn’t even opened her mouth. Please don’t be an airhead.

“David?”

Yep. That was the voice from earlier. Soft and sweet and stirring up all kinds of images right along with Sunday mornings and coffee. With any luck, more than the coffee would be hot.

Hokay. Mission Pam Hennings getting derailed by wicked thoughts. Time to get serious.

“Hi. Amanda?”

“Yes.” She held her hand out. “Amanda LeBlanc.”

David grasped her hand and glanced down at her long, elegant fingers folding over his. Her silky skin absorbed his much larger hand, and he might like to stay this way awhile. Nice hands. Soft hands. He’d imagined a sculptor’s hands to be work-hardened and rough. Not that she swung an ax all day, but he’d expected…different.

“Um.” She pointed at their still joined hands. “I kinda need that hand back.”

Epic fail, Dave. He grinned and regrettably slid his hand away. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but where have you been all my life?”

As recoveries went, it wouldn’t be listed among the top hundred in brilliance, but a man had to work with what he had. Still, her lips, those extraordinary, shapely lips, twisted until she finally gave up and awarded him with a smile.

“Good one,” she said. “Come inside and we’ll talk about your project.”

Review:

The Rebel, Adrienne Giordano’s latest romantic suspense (in the same world as The Prosecutor , The Marshal , and The Defender) is a fast-paced, sexy read. The hero “rebel” of the story, David Hennings, is the elder sibling of “prosecutor” Zac and “defender” Penny. He’s be working as a civil lawyer in Boston, but has just returned to town to try and mend fences with his family and start his own practice. He’s barely moved back when his mother, the Chicago queen bee socialite who he claims “everyone is afraid of”, has gotten him involved in her latest cold case project–finding the identity of the owner of a skull discovered in an empty lot by a homicide detective’s dog while out on a walk.

David’s job? To convince artist Amanda LeBlanc, a gifted sculptor, to do a facial reconstruction on the skull. Amanda, whose forensic artist mother never fully recovered from helping to send an innocent man to prison with one of her drawings, is reluctant to help but eventually gives in. And then all heck breaks lose–the building where her apartment and studio is located is condemned by the city, her bank accounts are frozen–and that’s just the beginning. Coincidence? Unlikely–especially when the cast of the skull she’s started work on is stolen in a break-in. Soon she and David are racing against time and an unknown adversary to solve the years-old crime…

David and Amanda share an instant attraction and have solid chemistry. Neither’s been too great with relationships in the past, but David succumbs to the inevitable rather quickly (especially when his mother, who he’s admitted being afraid of multiple times–with love, of course–tells him she’s determined to make Amanda the newest member of the family) and it’s really sweet to watch him be all protective of her. Amanda’s slower to come around–especially once she gets a hearty dose of the sometimes volatile Hennings clan (David and Penny have been at odds for years, but spend the novel trying to mend fences with varying degrees of success), which sets off her warning triggers. She can’t deny the attraction, though, or the fact that David makes her feel safe in a world that’s rapidly spinning out of control…

The Rebel is a solid addition to the series–I loved spending time in this world again, and it was great to revisit so many past characters. I can honestly say I didn’t figure out “whodunnit” until Ms. Giordano revealed it, though there were subtle clues along the way and once it was all revealed it made sense. David and Amanda’s relationship did progress quickly, but it was fairly believable and impossible not to root for them.

A pity there aren’t any more Hennings siblings for future books, though… 😉

Rating: 4 stars / A-

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Buy Links:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Google Play / Harlequin / Kobo

 

 

About the Author:

 

USA Today bestselling author Adrienne Giordano writes romantic suspense and mystery.  She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her workaholic husband, sports obsessed son and Buddy the Wheaten Terrorist (Terrier). She is a co-founder of Romance University blog and Lady Jane’s Salon-Naperville, a reading series dedicated to romantic fiction.

 

Connect with Adrienne:  Website / Newsletter / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Street Team

 

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Giveaway Details

 

There is a tour-wide giveaway of a $25.00 eGift Card to an online book retailer of winner’s choice and three swag packs.

 

 

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Stops:

October 1, 2015

Peaces of Me

My book Addiction and More

HEA Romances With A Little Kick

The Reading Café

CK Crouch

Long and Short Reviews

Reading On The Rocks

October 2, 2015

Amy Manemann’s Blog

The Book Review

October 3, 2015

What I’m Reading

Harlequin Junkie

Romancing The Book

Just Romantic Suspense

October 4, 2015

A Chick Who Reads

Em & M Books

Renee Entress’s Blog

October 5, 2015

Recommended Romance

Urban Girl Reader

October 6, 2015

So Many Reads

SOS Aloha

October 7, 2015

Becky On Books

The Romance Dish

October 8, 2015

Book Binge

Lush Book Reviews

Harlie’s Books

Adventures in Writing

Romance Junkies

October 9, 2015

Just The Write Stuff

Cricket’s Chirps

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One Comment

  1. jmesparza821 jmesparza821

    My favorite is Damon from The Vampire Diaries.

    jmesparza821 at gmail dot com

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