Release Day Blitz & Review
ShutterGirl
by
C.D. Reiss
~ Synopsis ~
I am
not hurt.
I don’t need a second chance with him, or a life I thought I had.
While he was out forgetting me to become a movie star, I was building a career
out of nothing. A career as a paparazzi, but a career. For a foster kid who
bounced around every home in Los Angeles, that wasn’t easy.
This camera is all I have.
He’s nothing to me. Every time I take his picture and sell it, I remind myself
that I did it all without him or his approval, his cinnamon smell or his clear
green eyes. He lights up the screen like a celestial body, but he’s nothing but
a paycheck to me.
He can throw my camera off a balcony, and nothing has to change. We can stay
king and queen of the same city, and different worlds.
Except this is Hollywood, and here, anything can happen.
~ Excerpt ~
I stroked his hair,
waist deep in peace, all worry gone for the moment, and floating in no more
than an ocean of gratitude. I must have been more vulnerable than I realized,
or he’d reopened some wound with his kindness, because though my sweet reverie
stayed, as the minutes passed, a layer of need fitted itself on top of it.
I needed to tell him,
if not the details, the outlines of who I was.
“I want you to know,”
I whispered, starting somewhere small, then everything I didn’t want to say
spilled out. “I have stuff. I’ve never been to jail, but you know, it’s stuff,
and it’s ugly, and it scares me. Because, I mean, you’re so perfect, and I’m…
I’m just a mess. I’m not whole. I’m a bunch of pieces of a person I cobbled
together.” My eyes got wet when I thought of the comparisons between us and
that picture in my silverware drawer. “So if you have to move on when you
realize that, I’ll understand. You have an image, and if anyone understands
protecting a career, it’s me. I mean, I’ll be mad, don’t get that wrong, but
also.” I swallowed and blinked, shifting my head so he wouldn’t feel the tear
on his forehead. “I won’t blame you.”
I waited for an
answer. Anything. A change in position or a word on any subject. The weather.
Sports. Something. But all he did was breathe.
I smiled so wide,
tears fell into my mouth. He was sleeping.
~ Links to Buy ~
~ Review ~
I was very excited to see that CD Reiss was coming out with a standalone a bit different from her other series and I must say she did an AMAZING job! She delivered a story with angst, passion, choices, consequences and with characters you easily fell in love with and routed for.
Laine and Michael come from very different upbringings but it's those differences that make them whole. Laine's ability to overcome her past and make a life for herself is intriguing to Michael. He has always allowed public perception dictate his choices but with Laine he feels...and that's something he hasn't done in a long time.
It feels like a lifetime ago that they met and their lives have taken different directions, him the hunted, her the hunter. But the feelings that Laine has always felt for Michael never diminished. She had just gotten used to admiring him through her lens.
The chemistry between Michael and Laine was definitely palpable. I couldn't wait to see what would happen between them every time the met up. The tender moments they shared and the guilt Laine felt for what Michael's association to her would do to him had my emotions all over the place.
Can you cross a line that's drawn in the sand that is meant to keep your two worlds apart? Are you able to sacrifice all that you know to have the one thing you've been missing? Guess you are going to have to grab your copy of ShutterGirl and see if Michael and Laine can beat the odds.
~ Rating ~
Author Note: If you know me, you know my Submission and Corruption books.
This is different. This is about love and loss, ambition and talent, and our
commitments to ourselves and each other. I don't close the door on the
expression of love, but this is not the usual dirty pleasure.
~ About the Author ~
CD
Reiss is a USA Today and Amazon bestseller. She still has to chop wood and
carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out
with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn’t pick up, she’s at the
well, hauling buckets.
Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get
her master’s degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that
went nowhere, but it did embed TV story structure in her head well enough for
her to take a big risk on a TV series structured erotic series called Songs of
Submission. It’s about a kinky billionaire hung up on his ex-wife, an ingenue
singer with a wisecracking mouth; art, music and sin in the city of Los
Angeles.
Critics have dubbed the books “poetic,” “literary,” and “hauntingly
atmospheric,” which is flattering enough for her to put it in a bio, but
embarrassing enough for her not to tell her husband, or he might think she’s
some sort of braggart who’s too good to give the toilets a once-over every
couple of weeks or chop a cord of wood.
If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine.
~ Connect with C.D. Reiss ~
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