Release Day Blitz & Review::: My Soul to Keep by Kennedy Ryan

by Lora - 7:22 AM

Synopsis

It seems the things worth keeping are often the hardest to hold...

KAI

I had two things in life that mattered. My mother and my music. Mama was taken from me too soon, and now music is all I have left. It’s the thing that’s pushed me right out of backwoods Georgia into Los Angeles, where the line between fantasy and reality shimmers and blurs. I’m finally making my way, making my mark. I can’t afford to fall for one of music's brightest stars. Not now. Music is all I have left, and I’m holding on tight with both hands. I won’t let go, not even for Rhyson Gray.

RHYSON

I had one thing in my life that mattered – music. The only constant, it’s taken me to heights most people only dream about; a gift dropped in my lap at birth. I thought it was enough. I thought it was everything until I met Kai. Now she’s all I think about, like a song I can't get out of my head. If I have to chase her, if I have to give up everything - I will. And once she's mine, I won't let go.

Goodreads

5 out of 5 hearts

((Let me start with the fact I read this book 2 weeks ago and I can't get it out of my head. These characters are definitely ones to get ot know and ones that won't leave you alone when you finish their book!))

This is my first book by Ms Ryan and I promise it won’t be my last. From about 13% in the book, I was wrapped up in these characters and finding myself yearning to go into the book and be a part of their world...like reading it from the outside just wasn’t enough!! Ms Ryan has a wonderful way with words and can really make a person feel all the feels while reading. I’m not even remotely musically inclined, but I could feel the love in my bones that both Kai & Rhyson have for their music.

Kai & Rhyson have that instant connection that we all want. They feel it as soon as their eyes meet, but instead of giving into it, they fight it -- especially Kai. You see, Rhyson is already a world-famous musician twice over and Kai is trying to establish herself in the business and doesn’t want to be handed something. She wants to really go after it on her own and fights this connection with Rhyson tooth and bone as my mom would say!

And though Ryson is a world famous musician, his life is definitely not fairy tale worthy. He’s got his share of troubles and issues, but with Kai, he feels whole and just better about life. Kai gives into being “just friends” with Rhyson and that friendship is very solid, if not a little more than just friendship even if they deny it.

And then there’s Kai’s best friend since childhood, San, who sees the more to the “just friendship” and has possibly the best quote I’ve read in forever:::

“Watching you guys trying to be friends is like watching porn with no penetration. Really hot, but no climax.”

There were times in the novel when I really wanted to strangle Kai for breaking Rhyson’s heart and knowing that she wanted the more that he did, too….THEN there were times I wanted to shake Ryhs and ask what the heck he was thinking. Overall, the story was well developed and the characters really came to life for me and I can’t wait to read more about them.

Ms. Ryan did a great job of using all of the feelings and her subtle humor throughout made me smile at times I think I would have been crying, but there were also times when the utter helplessness of the characters and their sadness became my sadness as well. This is just a wonderfully written book and I hope the everyone will have the opportunity to read it.

Excerpt

I shouldn’t have come. All the things I felt and fought, the things I suspected he felt too, he just spewed all over me. And as much as I want to be, I’m not sure I’m ready. I’ll never forget seeing my Mama in bed for days after Daddy left. And even though she got up, I suspect a part of her never left that bed, but just stayed there, waiting. We had to leave the house where she grew up and where I spent my first years, because Daddy left us with nowhere to go. Mama learned to stand on her two feet, and I’ve done the same. I just didn’t count on Rhyson sweeping me off of them. “We’re obviously on different pages about this.” I pull my hands free and turn to leave, but he steps in front of me, blocking my grand exit. “Let’s talk later.” “Enough talking.” The heat of his body grabs me before his hands do. He traps my chin between two fingers, taking my mouth in a paradox of rough and tender. I want to move. To slide away from his body pressing me into the pool table. But I can’t. Not with his hand caressing my back. Not with his tongue in my mouth. Not with his erection pressing into my stomach. I can’t. I won’t. I have been denying myself this, and I’m so damn hungry. My mouth opens under his, ravenous and wet and hot. His groan vibrates against my lips. “Yes. Good God, yes, Pep.” His words slip down my throat. I strain up on tiptoes, clawing my fingers into his dark hair, forcing him closer. He lifts me onto the pool table, planting himself between my knees. His fingers skim my bare thigh, working up my leg until he reaches a damp patch of silk. He pushes my panties aside, rubbing his hand into the wet flesh there before sliding one long finger and then another inside of me. I rock into these fingers which have awed millions with their skill. They own me. I’m the instrument in his hands. He’s playing me. Plucking at me. Strumming me. He tugs at the wide neck of my sweater until it falls away from my shoulder, slipping his hand in and cupping my naked breast. He brushes his fingers over my nipple, and I lose my mind and every inhibition. My head flops back and I stretch my legs wider, offering him anything he wants. “Are you kidding me?” His question burns the vulnerable curve of my neck as he drags his lips to my shoulder. “You come here wearing no bra and think I won’t…” He abandons the words, his dark, untidy head disappearing under my sweater, and before I have time to regain even millimeters of sanity, my nipple is in his mouth and he’s suckling me. Not gentle. Not soft. My breasts are so small, he almost eats me whole. Every draw, every suck, every bite sends a power surge to my core until my knees hold his hips in a desperate grip, and my nails rake across the flat surface of the pool table behind me. His mouth at my breast. His fingers inside me. His clean scent surrounding me. I have nowhere to hide anymore. I am exposed. I want to spread myself wide open for him. That voice that has been telling me I can’t rely on him. I can’t trust him. I can’t need him—that voice is stunned into silence by his thorough possession of my body, by the inferno between my legs, blazing a hole right through my soul and scorching my heart.

Buy Links

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ZXWV2Y

Giveaway

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About Kennedy Ryan

I just can't write about myself in third person for one more bio! I'm a wife, a mom, a writer, an advocate for families living with autism. That's me in a nutshell. Crack the nut, and you'll find a Southern girl gone Southern California who loves pizza and Diet Coke, and wishes she got to watch a lot more television. You can usually catch me up too late, on social media too much, or FINALLY putting a dent in my ever-growing To Be Read list!