In a Flashback Friday Special Appearance, we have a repost of our review, almost exactly one year ago, last July! Give Me Grace and the 'Give Me' Series by Kate McCarthy brings together ALL of our favorites...best friends in a band, family and boyfriends who are straight up alphas and cops...and Australia. Hello, it is a great time. Check out our review, and peace out some goodness that is this beautiful book. You won't regret it!
Title: Give Me Grace
Series: Give Me #3
Author: Kate McCarthy
Release Date: July 10, 2014
SYNOPSIS
Casey Daniels has a past forged in Hell. Despite the friends, the endless supply of women, and the muscle car he spent years restoring, it still eats away at him.
Grace Paterson is in Sydney as a temporary bassist for Jamieson, the band Casey handles security for. She’s also infuriating, off-limits, and completely irresistible.
A deal is struck, and despite their intense and powerful connection, both think it will be easy to walk away. But life can be more ruthless than either of them ever imagined. Not only does Grace have a secret she’s desperate to keep, Casey has questions from his past that he’s willing to do anything to get answers for.
It’s not until someone wants one of them dead that Casey realises his love for Grace is the one thing he could never walk away from.
In a story of revenge, betrayal, secrets, and love, Casey will need to reconcile his past with his present, before the future he never knew he wanted is snatched away.
LINKS TO BUY
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#1 Give Me Love
#2 Give Me Strength
review
I honestly cannot control my gushing for this book. I am so in love with the characters, the writing and the author I just can't even describe to you how much in love that is. Infinitely. Crazily. Bow forever at her feet for how much I love this series and we're here on this beautiful day to tell you why! I know, right?!!! I was lucky enough to read this as it was being written and man..the wait between chapters was agonizing. I loved this third novel in the series. God, how I loved it.
The Give Me Series is a long time favorite, because Shelley first introduced her to me when we first "met". The first novel, Give Me Love, was one of the first books we read and reviewed and loved together! Since then Kate or KMacinOz (I lurrve her twitter handle, people, a lot!) has released one more novel in this series, and one out of it that you must read. Anyways, in the fashion of Kristen Ashley's Hot Bunch, the Badass Brigade is our own Australian group of Badass consultants trained in recon and helping find kidnapped people all over the land. Yes. The Badass Brigade is fucking BADASS. Every single man and woman in this series has my complete devotion and mad love...seriously. MAD FUCKING LOVE FOR THEM.
Casey had captured our hearts in the first two books, and his own definitely sealed the deal. We knew he was a sensitive guy who wasn't particularly looking for someone to love him, but definitely someone to understand him as both Evie and Quinn took down their Valentine boys. He didn't quite get there, and when I read the teasers and then his book...I swooned. Hard. Fell on the floor, holy shit, I was texting a lot, swooned. His dirty mouth. The description of his appearance. His never ceasing ability (as with all of the BB) to protect their own in the most fierce way possible. Unnnnfffff. I just, as you can see love Casey! Yes..admittedly I've had a ginormous crush on Casey since book one. He's so deliciously tortured. Hot. Funny. Snarky. Hot. Did I mention hot? The mouth on that man...jesuseffing...gah! He's also so tender and sweet and protective and sensitive..and um..hot. Seriously though, I loved how protective he was of the people he cares about..how he'll do anything to take care of them and protect them. So...of course as soon as he sets eyes on Grace...it's all over. Neither of them stood a chance once Kate McCarthy took aim with her cupid's arrow and shot them to shit with love. And lust. And sexy times.
Then...Grace. Whew-ee. Grace is something else. I love Kate's ability to give us strong, yet vulnerable characters. And with Grace, we still get the whammy of her being a sibling to this group. She had been absent in her family's life since she was 14 and was a model. I thought this was way cool. She steps in when Henry needs her, and they start their way onto a rocky, rocky path back to being the best friends/siblings that they used to be. Hard time ahead for this girl from the get go. I relate to her in ways that I cannot even tell you...but mostly some of the things she goes through I live in fear of every single day. So, Kate...damn you...you made me cry.
Grace. Man I loved her. She's so kickass. She's mouthy and funny and snarky..really the perfect match for Casey. And I suppose if Kate's going to write a love interest for Casey who is not me (sigh), I love that it's Grace. Grace is so much like Casey. She's very protective of the people she loves and stubborn and quietly vulnerable. And man, she hates anyone trying to take care of her. SHEESH. So much so that she hides very important information from the people who love her the most. She drove me nuts (or I should say Kate drove me nuts) because some of the things she hid drove me bananas trying to figure things out.
Our love of secondary or family characters is strong, and in this book even stronger. Henry, Cooper, Frog, Jake and Mac, as well as Kacey, Evie, Travis, Mitch, Jared, and I'm sure I missed someone...oh Mitsy (the dog) all helped steal the show on a few occasions here. And then a dark horse came in the form of Kelly (Shade, hottest nickname ever) and Luke (aka Fox). Move over, Denzel...ho-leeeee s-h-i-t. I am in desperate need of even the minutest detail for the next book, Give Me Hell. I need to know NOW who it is about. The end of this book, with the preview for the next one...set my heart racing, my palms sweating, just watching the ticker get closer to 100% when I would be done...and OMG, was it awesome! I cannot wait. I love you, Kate...even when I want to come to Australia and kick your ass for scaring the hell out of me! This book deserves an infinite amount of stars. I loved it.
The secondary characters are amazeballs. I'd list them all but then it'd be like reading Courtney's part all over again..so let's just say..all of those people in purple were just the perfect additions, at just the right times, to this story. (I especially loved Tim and Mac...and truthfully...LUKE..I need Luke in my life, like right the hell now, KATE!!!!). The end of this book has us both begging for more. Well done, Kate. I bow to you and your ability to suck me into your books and keep me in them until I'm at the end. I love you so hard.
Shelley: 5 Stars
Courtney: 5 Stars
EXCERPT
I slipped out the front door, letting it softly click shut behind me. Casey was sitting in his car, staring straight ahead as I walked down the drive. Opening the car door, I slid inside and shut it. He didn’t acknowledge my presence, or even look at me at all. He simply shifted gears, and with a quick glance in his rearview mirror, pulled out onto the road.
I clicked my seat belt into place. “Casey?”
With a hard swallow, he shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road as we drove. Despite his controlled composure, his face was pale and tension surrounded him like an aura.
“Casey, you’re scaring me.”
“I’m sorry.” Our eyes met for a brief moment, the connection intense. Raw pain flickered in his eyes before it was quickly banked. “That’s the last thing I want to do.”
His palm slid over my bare thigh, riding upwards as he continued to drive. The touch sent arousal spiking through me, but not enough to override the concern.
“Where are we going?”
He shook his head as if he had no clue. After a moment, he replied, “I want to drive, but I don’t want to be alone. I want to be with you.”
My eyes fixed on his profile as he drove. The knuckles of his right hand were white on the steering wheel and his jaw tight. Something wasn’t right. In fact, something was very wrong. I slid my hand over his, my pulse racing when he flipped his palm over and grabbed hold.
“Casey?”
He glanced over at me.
“I want to be with you too.”
His answer was a squeeze of my hand before letting go.
We sat in silence as he drove. I stared at the dashboard, having no idea what to do or say or how to fix what was wrong.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Sure.” A smile came to his lips. It was forced because it never reached his eyes. “Just a bad day at work, you know?”
“No, I don’t know. Maybe you should tell me.”
The roads were eerily quiet when he pulled to a stop at a red light. “I don’t want to talk right now.” His hand fell on my thigh again, the calloused palm scraping my skin as it slipped upwards. Reaching between my thighs, he dragged my panties to the side and slipped his fingers inside, gently massaging my clit and dragging a moan from my throat. He leaned over, putting his mouth on my ear, his breathing coming harder and heavier.
“I want to fuck you, Grace. Not just tonight, but every night,” he professed, his fingers working me expertly. The red light turned green, but with no cars around, Casey ignored it. “Hard enough for it to hurt, so that when you leave, me fucking you is the only thing you can think about.”
I closed my eyes, my head falling back against the headrest. I wanted him to fuck me that hard. I wanted to feel him inside me even when he wasn’t there, but not like this. Not when he was using sex to mask a hurt so painful and deep I could feel the ache of it surrounding me until I felt suffocated.
“No,” I gasped.
He froze at the single word, his hand stilling instantly.
“There’s something wrong, Casey. I can feel it.”
His hand slipped out of my panties and I mourned the loss. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he snapped.
Tension bled into the car as he put it in gear and accelerated swiftly. My eyes burned. When we were good, it was wild and intense and consuming, but we always spiralled into such a hot mess. I wasn’t sure if Casey and I would ever find a happy medium.
Drawing a deep breath, I forced calm. “Maybe you should take me home.”
“No.”
My brows flew up. “No?”
“No.” He shook his head, his tone cold and harsh. “This was your deal, and now you want to turn it into some kind of relationship? That’s not what this is. This is about you and me and sex. So maybe you should spread your legs so we can both get what we want.”
AUTHOR BIO
Kate McCarthy grew up in a small town outside of Port Macquarie, Australia. Raised in a house just a short walk to the beach, Kate enjoyed the peaceful, relaxed atmosphere and friendships that come from being raised in a friendly, small town area.
She now resides in Brisbane, Australia, a city in the state of Queensland where she works as an accountant, along with a sideline wedding cake business and her writing.
She is married with two children, has two dogs and house in the suburbs, and a pile of friends and family dotted all over the country that help keep her sane.
When she’s not busy running after naughty kids, filthy dogs, crunching numbers, piping buttercream and writing books, you can find her curled up in bed in the early hours of the morning reading new books and re-reading old favourites. Her favourite books are the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward in which she longs to eventually join the brotherhood and change her name to Phierce Mutha.
AUTHOR LINKS
When I’m traveling, I feel like the secret to my life, to myself, to really becoming, is one step ahead. It’s in the next destination, the next town I get lost in, the next stranger I talk to. It’s always next but never here . . .
With
her USA Today Bestselling The Artists Trilogy published by Grand Central
Publishing, numerous foreign publication deals, and self-publishing success
with her Experiment in Terror series, Vancouver-born Karina Halle is a true
example of the term "Hybrid Author." Though her books showcase her
love of all things dark, sexy and edgy, she's a closet romantic at heart and
strives to give her characters a HEA...whenever possible.
