K.A. Tucker’s Secret Announcement Reveal

Fans of K.A. Tucker’s Ten Tiny Breaths, we have a SUPER exciting announcement:

On September 1, 2014, Atria is releasing a PREQUEL NOVELLA to Ten Tiny Breaths that tells the story from Trent’s point of view! It’s called IN HER WAKE, and we cannot wait one more breath to read it!

About IN HER WAKE:

Cole Reynolds had it all. And then one night he makes a bad choice… and loses everything.

When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy. Normally, he’d be able to lean on his best friends. The best friends that have been in his life since he could barely walk. Only, they’re gone. Worse, there’s the shattered body of a sixteen-year-old girl lying somewhere in a hospital bed, her entire life ripped from her because of a case of beer and a set of keys.

Everyone assures him that they know it wasn’t intentional and yet he can’t ignore the weight of their gazes, the whispers behind his back. The all-consuming guilt he feels every time he thinks of that girl who won’t so much as allow him near her hospital room to apologize. As the months go by and the shame and loneliness festers, Cole begins to lose his grip of what once was important-college, his girlfriend, his future. His life. It’s not until Cole hits rock-bottom that he can begin to see another way out of his personal hell: forgiveness.

And there’s only one person who can give that to him…

Are you as excited about this as we are??

And…this is going to be available at the great price of $.99!!

Amazon

iTunes

Simon & Schuster

And while you’re at it, pre-order the gorgeous paperback of FOUR SECONDS TO LOSE, hitting bookstores on 4/1!

Amazon * Barnes and Noble * Indiebound * BooksaMillion * Simon & Schuster

About FOUR SECONDS TO LOSE:

Owning a strip club isn’t the fantasy most guys expect it to be. With long hours, a staff with enough issues to keep a psych ward in business, and the police regularly on his case, twenty-nine year old Cain is starting to second guess his unspoken mission to save the women he employs. And then blond, brown-eyed Charlie Rourke walks through his door, and things get really complicated. Cain abides by a strict “no sleeping with the staff” rule. But being around Charlie challenges Cain’s self-control…and it’s been a long time since any woman has done that.

Twenty-two-year old Charlie Rourke needs a lot of money, really fast, in order to vanish before it’s too late. Taking her clothes off for men makes her stomach curl but Charlie tells herself that at least she’s putting her acting anddancing skills to good use. And though her fellow dancers seem eager to nab their sexy, sophisticated, and genuinely caring boss, she’s not interested. After all, Charlie Rourke doesn’t really exist—and the girl pretending to be her doesn’t need to complicate her life with romance.

Unfortunately, Charlie soon discovers that developing feelings for Cain is inevitable, that those feelings may not be unrequited—but losing him when he finds out what she’s involved with will be more painful than any other sentence awaiting her.

ABOUT K.A. TUCKER:

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

LINKS:

Blog: http://www.katucker.blogspot.ca/
Website: http://www.katuckerbooks.com/
Author Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/K.A.Tucker.Author?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kathleenatucker
Author Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4866520.K_A_Tucker
FOUR SECONDS TO LOSEGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17571140-four-seconds-to-lose?ac=1
Atria: http://imprints.simonandschuster.biz/atria

Review – Four Seconds to Lose by K.A. Tucker

Title: Four Seconds to Lose
Author: K.A. Tucker
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #3
Previous Book: One Tiny Lie
Next Book: Five Ways to Fall(expected 2/10/14)
Source: Personal Purchase

Description from Goodreads:

When a gorgeous young dancer walks through his door, a strip club owner must decide whether to follow his rules or his heart in the third novel by the author of One Tiny Lie and Ten Tiny Breaths.Owning a strip club isn’t the fantasy most guys expect it to be. With long hours, a staff with enough issues to keep a psych ward in business, and the police regularly on his case, twenty-nine-year-old Cain is starting to second guess his unspoken mission to save the women he employs. And then blond, brown-eyed Charlie Rourke walks through his door, and things get really complicated. Cain abides by a strict “no sleeping with the staff” rule. But being around Charlie challenges Cain’s self-control…and it’s been a long time since any woman has done that.

Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Rourke needs a lot of money, really fast, in order to vanish before it’s too late. Taking her clothes off for men makes her stomach curl but Charlie tells herself that at least she’s putting her acting and dancing skills to good use. And though her fellow dancers seem eager to nab their sexy, sophisticated, and genuinely caring boss, she’s not interested. After all, Charlie Rourke doesn’t really exist—and the girl pretending to be her can’t get distracted by romance.

Unfortunately, Charlie soon discovers that developing feelings for Cain is inevitable, and that those feelings may not be unrequited—but losing him when he finds out what she’s involved with will be more painful than any other sentence awaiting her.

Review

After loving Ten Tiny Breaths and One Tiny Lie, I was extremely anxious for Four Seconds to Lose. I requested it on Edelweiss and checked my email like a madwoman. Unfortunately, I didn’t get approved. (I didn’t get declined either. My request is actually still pending!) So I preordered it and started it on release day.

I was so excited to start Four Seconds to Lose, and it started off with a bang. By the end of the prologue, which was only 1% of the total book, I was already heartbroken for Cain and liking the way the book was heading. I liked that we learned a little bit about Cain’s past right from the start.

My biggest complaint about Four Seconds to Lose was that it’s described as being Cain’s story, but it’s told in two perspectives: Cain’s and Charlie’s. And at times, I felt like we were spending a lot more time with Charlie than with Cain. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but it took me a very long time to actually care about Charlie, so I was getting a little frustrated with her portions.

There was also a part of the story where I just had my heart in my throat and was getting annoyed. You see, Charlie has a big secret, and as she connects with Cain, she knows that this secret is a big deal and starts feeling guilty about it. I was already thinking to myself that of course, she wasn’t just going to admit it, and it was just going to blow up in her face. Things didn’t actually pan out exactly as I was expecting, but it did frustrate me for a little bit.

However, for everything I disliked about Charlie’s story, I loved about Cain’s story. He’s such a great guy, though he doesn’t seem like he would be on the surface. I really liked him from Kacey’s story, but seeing more of him and learning more about his past, demons, and motivations, I just really fell in love with him. Even just thinking about him, he was such a great character.

The interactions between Cain and Charlie, even before anything romantic started to build were really interesting. There were definitely some funny scenes. I do like that Charlie gives Cain a good run for his money.

One thing I did notice, and I don’t know if it’s just because half the book is from a male perspective, is that Four Seconds to Lose seemed much steamier than Ten Tiny Breaths or One Tiny Lie. I mean, there were sex scenes in the previous two books, and at times they were more descriptive than I’m used to (reading mostly YA), but there weren’t a ton of them, and they didn’t feel quite so descriptive. There were several scenes in FStL that I felt like I needed a cold shower. This is not a good or bad thing, just an observation. It’s definitely steamy at times!

I wasn’t completely thrilled with the ending. After all the tension that I had built up while reading the story, I felt like the ending was just a little too easy. I mean, on one hand, I was nice that things weren’t overly dramatic, but it just felt a little anticlimactic.

Overall, I really enjoyed Four Seconds to Lose, but I felt like it was missing something from the other two novels. I’m not really sure what exactly it was that I felt was missing, but I just didn’t love it as much.

Review – One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

Title: One Tiny Lie
Author: K.A. Tucker
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #2
Previous Book: Ten Tiny Breaths
Next Book: Four Seconds to Lose (releasing 11/4/2013)
Source: Personal Purchase

Description from Goodreads:

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents’ tragic death and Kacey’s self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would…and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

Review

When I finished Ten Tiny Breaths, I immediately wanted to read One Tiny Lie. I downloaded the sample to my kindle and was just about to start it when I got nervous. This was Livie’s story after all, not a continuation of Kacey’s. What if it wasn’t as good? So I put it on my TBR list and moved on to other books, planning to come back to it later. After my friend read and loved Ten Tiny Breaths, we decided to read One Tiny Lie together, and I am so glad that we did!

Right from the start, I knew that I was going to like this book. One of the biggest differences I noticed between Ten Tiny Breaths and One Tiny Lie was the humor. Though I loved how messed up Kacey was, it was nice to not have a completely dark, twisty story again. One Tiny Lie definitely delivered the laughs, and I was very thankful for it. It’s not often that a book can actually make me laugh out loud, but One Tiny Lie did just that.

At first, Livie is kind of annoying. She has a plan, and she’s going to stick to it. She’s inexperienced in almost every way, but she’s also a people pleaser. It made her into a very strange personality. However, she’s hilarious when she’s drunk or even embarrassed. She really struggles with things when she feels they aren’t going her way, and I really felt for her. She’s used to being right on track, always knowing what she wants and how to get it, but suddenly, everything in her life has changed.

Ashton, on the other hand, was amazing. He was an arrogant jerk for most of the book, but there was always something likable and softer lurking on the edges. There is one aspect of his personality that comes up fairly early on, and I hated it. It was really hard to reconcile it with the way I felt toward him most of the time. And it made it hard for me to decide how I felt about him in regards to Livie. Connor, on the other hand, I didn’t like from the start. He seems to be the perfect guy for Livie, and exactly what she’s looking for, and on the surface, he is, but there was just always something about him that rubbed me the wrong way, even if I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Without going into too much detail, since this review is fairly long as it is, I also loved the other characters, except maybe Ty. He was just the token drunk, annoying guy. lol But Dr. Stayner, Reagan, and Grant were great additions to the story, and Eric and Derek: LOVED them!

One Tiny Lie was a very different story from Ten Tiny Breaths, with a very different feel. It did not rip my heart out and stomp on it or make me sob uncontrollably. But it was very emotional. I was sad, angry,  happy, excited, relieved, anxious, disappointed right along with Livie. Though completely different, it was equally as beautiful a story as its prequel, and I really, really enjoyed it.

I did feel that the ending was  bit rushed, and that there were certain scenes that could have been longer or shorter, but overall, I thought that One Tiny Lie was a great story. It did not disappoint me at all, even in comparison to Ten Tiny Breaths, and I would definitely recommend it!

ARC Review – Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Title: Ten Tiny Breaths
Author: K.A. Tucker
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #1
Next Book: One Tiny Lie
Source: Received for review from Netgalley
Release Date: 2/12/2013

 Description from Goodreads:

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

Review

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ten Tiny Breaths was actually my first foray into the New Adult genre. I didn’t actually realize it was NA until I started reading it. However, I had seen a ton of people really like it, so when I saw it on Netgalley, I requested it.

I was actually surprised and a little confused when I first started Ten Tiny Breaths. The Goodreads description makes it sound like it would start off at Kacey’s aunt and uncle’s house, so I thought it gave a lot of the story away. However, the story starts with Kacey and Livie on a bus, and the description pretty much just gives away the backstory that we learn fairly quickly anyway.

Reading the description again now, it also makes it seem like Ten Tiny Breaths is mainly a romance with the sexy, mysterious Trent. However, if you’re like me, and not a huge fan of Romance novels, don’t be afraid. The romance is as big a part as it is in any regular story with romance in it (though maybe a bit more detailed in places than in YA, but I never felt like I was reading porn), but far from the main focus. To me, it centered on a broken girl afraid of forming relationships, as she tries to build a new life and realizes that she can’t keep everyone out. It was really interesting to me to watch Kacey meet new people and forge relationships with them, even knowing how hard it was.

I loved Kacey. Though she was broken, she was tough as nails and truly loved her little sister and tried to do the best she could for her. Livie was one of the coolest 15-year-olds I’ve ever read about. She was very mature and caring, and definitely a good contrast to Livie. Storm was great, and I loved how she wouldn’t let Kacey push her away. Trent was sexy and mysterious.

I also loved the way Ten Tiny Breaths was written. It was broken into different sections, and it was really interesting to see the path that Kacey takes throughout the story. I won’t spoil it, though you certainly can spoil it for yourself by reading the Table of Contents if you so choose. I will say that I really felt like we got the whole story, and I wasn’t left wishing for more.

My biggest complaint about Ten Tiny Breaths was Trent’s “unforgivable past”. What it was didn’t bother me. What bothered me was that I predicted it. I mean, I didn’t see it coming super early, but I did guess it before it came out, and I hate being able to predict things! However, I never could have predicted how it affected Kacey or the turn the story would take when she found out, and I thought it was really interesting.

Just as a little side note: Though different in many ways, Ten Tiny Breaths reminded me a little of Pushing the Limits, which I loved. It had a boy and a girl (man and woman, whatever), both with dark, broken pasts that come together in an amazing way. I really enjoyed it!

Overall, I thought that Ten Tiny Breaths was a great book and would highly recommend it. I think it was a great foray into the NA genre and will definitely read more from K.A. Tucker in the future!