Tuesday 23 August 2016

✪ S.C. Stephens ✪ FURIOUS RUSH ✪ #Excerpt & #Giveaway ✪

© Bianca Janeane





S.C. STEPHENS
Furious Rush
• release date: 23 August 2016
• 384 pages
• New Adult Motorcycle-Racing-Romance-Mystery

★★★★
4.25 Stars

Too fast, too furious-and way too hot to handle . . .

Mackenzie Cox has a lot to prove. Daughter of a racing legend, she is eager to show the world that she has inherited her father's talent in the male-dominated sport of professional motorcycle racing. The last thing Kenzie needs is to be antagonized by her rival team's newest rider, Hayden Hayes. Plucked from the world of illegal street racing, Hayden immediately gets under Kenzie's skin. His insinuations that Kenzie is a spoiled princess who was handed her career fuels her desire to win, and much to her surprise, Kenzie soon learns she performs better when she's racing against Hayden.

As Kenzie and Hayden push each other on the track, the electric energy between them off the track shifts into an intense--and strictly forbidden--attraction. The only rule between their two ultra-competitive teams is zero contact. Kenzie always does her best to play by the rules, but when her team slips into a financial crisis, she has no choice but to turn to Hayden for help. The tension simmers during their secret, late-night rendezvous, but Kenzie has too much to lose to give in to her desires. Especially when she begins to doubt that Hayden has completely left his street life behind...





Kenzie was born into Motorcycle-Racing-Royalty.
Her dad used to be a huge star and this year is her first season as a professional racer too.
She's super excited; racing is her dream, it's in her blood. And it's also expected of her. She needs to win to save her dad's dying racing team.

Also in his first year of legal racing is Hayden.
He used to do those dangerous and highly illegal street races.
But now he's racing for Kenzie's dad's former best friend turned arch enemy Keith.

There are lots of rules between those two racing teams who share one training track. But the most important one is: No being friends or anything else with anyone from the other team.
But of course Kenzie and Hayden can't just stop their attraction.
Even though he calls her a spoiled princess and she calls him idiot and worse - they're horribly attracted to each other. And they realize that they're better racers when they compete against each other.....
But there are just way too many obstacles in the way of their Happily Ever After....

WHAT WiLL HAPPEN TO KENZIE & HAYDEN???
WiLL THE RULES KEEP THEM APART???
WILL THERE BE A HEA???
WILL EVERYBODY SURVIVE THIS BOOK???




WiLL THERE BE A CLiFFHANGER???



Nope, not telling you ☺



uhm....Cliffy...yeah kinda. Not really hanging-off-a-cliff-cliffy, but the story is not done yet!
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 Finally a new S.C. Stephens book!




I'm such a huge #KellanKyle fan - he's still my number one book boyfriend.....and I'm not really any kind of fan of any kind of racing.... So I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like this book.
And during the first few pages I didn't like it. But probably only because I still had Kellan somewhere in my head singing and just being his adorable self....But I had to tune him out, because I really wanted to give this book a chance.
And it got better. Especially after we first meet Hayden. ☺

I really liked both Kenzie & Hayden.
We don't know much about Hayden, because Kenzie is telling us this story, and we get to learn lots of things about her pretty fast. She loves motorbikes. She's a tiny little OCD in all things. She loves and needs rules and order. And Hayden is kind of her opposite in all these things. Well, he loves racing too, but we pretty quickly find out it's only because he needs the money...
But other than his love for racing and his love for driving Kenzie insane, we don't know anything about him. He's this new, sexy & very mysterious & secretive guy and Kenzie wants to get to know him, but she doesn't trust him or his motives ...
It's really adorable to watch them, or rather watch Kenzie, fight against this attraction.

I really enjoyed reading this book - the first half was a bit boringish long, but towards the end it got better and suspensy and exciting and moving et cetera.
But I really enjoyed reading it, even though the following lines might argue against that. ☺

I kind of wish this book would've been dual POV. We just don't get to know Hayden the way we want to. It's ok for a hero to be mysterious, but Hayden is just not really present all that much. We don't know nothing about him and his thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams. Only the little bit Kenzie finds out during their talks.

Also - I think this book would've been better with 50 less pages. There was a bit too much redundant stuff in here. Too often we were told about the enemy racing team and why they're enemies and bla bla. We got it the first time.

Also, other than Kenzie & Hayden, we don't really like any of the co-stars. The family and friends are all idiots and totally unlikable!

BUT please don't let me stop you from loving this book. Even if you're, like me, still hung up on Kellan....you will totally fall for Hayden too.
(He's just not in this book enough for us to totally fall for him, like we did Kellan, and now I'm shutting up, it's totally unfair of me to compare those 2!!☺)

FURIOUS RUSH was an adorably exciting racer-romance! A kind of forbidden Romeo and Juliet love-story about two kids from opposite racing teams who fall for each other against all the rules... Run to your nearest amazon to find out if there will be a HEA!!!

 another tiny little thing that bothered me - and it's just me being weird, I know...
Some authors use expressions that they learned back home, from grandma etc. and it's totally ok to use them in books, BUT I think only one character should use them, not all of them. Especially when they're strangers and haven't grown up together!
In this case it was EVEN STILL & SO LONG AS.
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ARC received for an honest review

OK, even though I think people racing motorcycles have a death wish, I love it.  

And it made me wish I was back in the days when I worked in race teams. Sigh how I miss those days!  The smell of burning rubber, the noise, the excitement.


Right from the start, Furious Rush is an action packed, adrenaline filled story.  Set in the world of illegal street racing and legal circuit racing, this had it all for me.

I thought it was going to be hard for me to let go of my book husband Kellan, but Hayden, with all his secrets and flaws comes a pretty damn close second.


Kenzie and Hayden have been told they couldn't. They shouldn't.  They can't.  But what happens when they do?

As much as I loved Kenzie and Hayden, I gotta say, I really don't think I liked many of their co-stars.  The family and friends, most of the time they brought out violent tendancies in me, and one pretty main character I just wanted to nut punch from the first time he was mentioned until the last page of the book he p!ssed me off that much!

I would have liked to know a bit more about Hayden - this being told all from Kenzie's POV gave us a lot of her, but maybe just a couple of chapters from his POV would have given us that insight into him that I felt I was missing - because at times he did some stuff that I was all "really?  WTH is that about?"

And also, I am not sure if there is going to be more about these racers, but there was something at the end that could be set up for another book?  Or not, I guess we will just have to see.

From the green light to the chequered flag, Furious Rush kept me intrigued, and I read this book in one sitting.
 


↓Links to the book & Author ↓


GIVEAWAY

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EXCERPT

“Do you have any idea who this guy is, and why the hell he’s on our track?”
Myles tilted his head as he thought. “Don’t know, but if he’s on the track before noon, your dad must have hired him. The Bennetis know not to break that rule. Not after what happened last time.”
The last time a Benneti stepped foot on our track before they were allowed to, that Benneti had found himself duct-taped to the flagpole in the middle of the track. Naked. Of course, the Benneti team had gotten us back by breaking all the windows in the garage doors. They were still boarded over, since we couldn’t afford to fix them yet. For the sake of our bank account, Dad had ordered every Cox racer not to continue the paybacks, no matter how warranted they were.
Ignoring Myles’s chuckle, I renewed my inspection of the racer. The new rider was fast, and ridiculously good—his setup on the corners was perfectly timed, and he kept his body low, hanging off the bike so that nothing was over the center line but his outside arm and leg; his “triangle of daylight”—the space between his inside knee and the bike—was so beautiful that Dad would probably photograph it and hang it on his office wall. Considering the furious competition at the professional level—races were won or lost by mere seconds—and considering how much time, energy, and resources were spent on training new riders, I wasn’t too surprised this guy was top-notch. With the upcoming racing season so close, any person Dad brought onto our team would be impressive. Dad wouldn’t settle for anything less than amazing; he couldn’t afford to. Yet another reason I was feeling a profound pressure to perform. There was no free ride for Jordan Cox’s daughter; I had to earn my place, same as everyone else.
When number 43 finally finished his set and slowed to exit the track, Myles let out a low whistle. “Not bad. He reminds me of you.” Frowning, I peeked up at him. His dark eyes sparkled with amusement. “No guts, no glory, balls-to- the-wall racing, like you have something to prove every time you go out there.” He raised a dark eyebrow at me, but I remained silent. Having to prove myself was a daily occurrence, and Myles knew that. The rider exited the track at the same place where we were standing with our bikes. He slowed to a stop directly in front of us, shut off his motorcycle, and removed his helmet. My jaw dropped to my chest, and my eyes bugged out of my skull. No. It was not possible. But the long-dulled desires starting to tingle back to life at just the sight of him told me it was possible. The man who was proudly wearing the number 43 was the same drop-dead- gorgeous man who’d won the street race early this morning.
What the hell was he doing here—on my turf—looking for all the world like he belonged?
In the bright sunshine, I could see that his eyes were actually a light shade of green. There was a devious glint in them that silently promised that every day with him would be even more intriguing than the last. Add that to his dirty-blond hair, rugged jawline, perfect bone structure, athletic build, and perfectly full lips that hinted at a treasure trove of untold pleasures, and you got a man who attracted a lot of attention everywhere he went—as I’d witnessed last night by the swarm of groupies surrounding him while he’d been illegally racing.
No way. There was no way Dad had hired this guy!
Hopping off his bike, the stranger ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair. The shaggy strands were sticking up every which way now, and the chaotic hairstyle was too damn appealing. A small groan slipped from me in my shock. Get it together, Kenzie.
His emerald eyes swung my way, taking me in, and I held my breath and stood a little straighter. Did he recognize me like I recognized him?
Did I want him to? Damn it . . . what was his name again? And why the hell did he have to have such incredible eyes? Green with flecks of gold, penetrating and intense, like when he was looking at you—truly looking at you—nothing else around him mattered. I could easily picture him studying the track with that unrelenting gaze. I could also picture him studying my curves with that superheated stare. Goddammit, no. This couldn’t seriously be happening.

If you haven't read the amazing THOUGHTLESS series yet - DO IT NOW!



#1 THOUGHTLESS

#2 EFFORTLESS

#3 RECKLESS

#1.5 THOUGHTFUL

#4 UNTAMED


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S.C. Stephens is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who enjoys spending every free moment she has creating stories that are packed with emotion and heavy on romance.

Her debut novel, Thoughtless, an angst-filled love triangle charged with insurmountable passion and the unforgettable Kellan Kyle, took the literary world by storm. Amazed and surprised by the response to the release of Thoughtless in 2009, more stories were quick to follow. Stephens has been writing nonstop ever since.

In addition to writing, Stephens enjoys spending lazy afternoons in the sun reading fabulous novels, loading up her iPod with writer's block reducing music, heading out to the movies, and spending quality time with her friends and family. She currently resides in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her two equally beautiful children.