Blog Tour: ARC Review + Giveaway: Live for You by Marquita Valentine

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Title: Live for You (Boys of the South #1)
Author: Marquita Valentine
Format acquired: eBook (ePub)
Published on: May 29th 2013
Source: Received for blog tour (Thanks, AToMr Book Blog Tours and Marquita!)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / iTunes



On the surface, twenty-two year old Cole Morgan is exactly what any girl would be proud to take home to meet her parents: He’s charming, intensely handsome and goal-oriented...Only he has some secrets of his own, which include provoking bar fights and a former drug-addict of a mother slowly wasting away in a medical facility.

At barely twenty, Violet Lynn is Country Music's hottest star, until one night of partying gets out of control. Violet ends up in jail and on TMZ. Suddenly, she’s the girl least likely to be invited anywhere. Sick of the drama and keeping secrets, she runs away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi to her grandmother’s home in Forrestville, North Carolina.

A chance meeting knocks Cole off his feet, but he doesn’t recognize Violet for who she is. In fact no one does and Violet plans to keep it that way. 

Circumstances, however annoying, keep throwing Violet and Cole together. Unable to stop themselves they give into the inevitable.

But when Nashville is ready to forgive and forget, Violet is forced to choose between Cole and claiming her spot as the new and improved Princess of Country Music.

Will Violet and Cole have the courage to live for their dreams...Or their hearts?

(Image and summary provided by AToMR Book Blog Tours.)

Review:

There's nothing that pleases me more than when I read a book that I didn't expect to like too much and then I end up loving it and trust me, I loved Live for You. (I lived it! Haha!) I was honestly pretty iffy with the book at the start because I thought that it would be the standard bad-boy/good-girl combo kind of story but it wasn't. Yeah, Cole was a bad boy but inside, he's really just this misunderstood guy with too much responsibility being thrown at him. And Violet-- I mean, Rae is not your average good-girl-Country-singer-princess-who-had-a-moment-of-weakness, no, the shi-- I mean, stuff she's went through was pretty hardcore.

I was pretty shocked with how... broken Rae actually was. Not to the point of no recovery, mind you but just enough brokenness to really touch your heart. The things she went through broke my heart a million times over and made me tear up way too many times to count. She wasn't just running away from her career (that was breaking apart), no, she was running away from something much bigger than that. I have never read/seen anyone carrying so much guilt on their shoulders, except maybe Maggie from Lexi Ryan's Unbreak Me. They both carried the same burden that's just too much for such young girls. Though she had her moments of weakness (Rae's only human, after all) she was able to sort of recover from all of it in the end. I didn't expect her to immediately get over what happened to her and I was glad to see Rae's process of healing. That it did take quite some time to happen but she made it anyway.

Cole was a pretty simple character, all his cards were laid out right from the beginning. He's just this guy trying to cope with the hand that he was dealt with, even if it meant losing faith in God because too much has been put upon his shoulders. Even though I felt that he didn't deserve anything that happened to him, there's nothing I could have done to help him, except maybe mentally cheer him on. Cole is a great guy, he just didn't have the opportunity to show that to people yet. One of the things I love most about him is his spirit and determination, the way he always puts his little sister's needs first before his own. The way he always wants to give her what's best because he feels that she deserves it. He truly amazes me and I am so glad that he met Rae. Cole really needed to catch a break.

The chemistry between Cole and Rae was intense. You can actually feel it radiating off in waves. And the two of them have the sweetest moments together, and sometimes even bittersweet moments. Hey, no one ever said that love was easy. Like any other couple just starting off their relationship, it was a pretty bumpy road for them. They were inexperienced and it was pretty hard for them to trust one another but as the story went on, you could see the change in them. They were more understanding of each other and less inclined to judge the other person. Their romance was slow, sweet and satisfying. There was a lot of fanning involved... Is it getting hot in here?

I thought that something insanely shocking would happen at the last parts of the book but nothing really crazy happened or anything. But I was also glad that the story also sort of mellowed out near the end. I don't think I could've handled more drama... though I will admit that I did shed a tear or two at the latter part of the book. *sniffles*

There were a lot of characters in this book that made it so successful an enjoyable; Rae's grandmother for one. Cole's little sister, brother and friends as well. I actually love a more in depth story based on either Wyatt and Beau. I know that Wyatt will have his own book but I really want to see more of Beau, not because he's hot or anything 'cause he is but because there was stuff mentioned about him in Live for You that I would love to read more about.

All in all, Live for You gets two thumbs up from me! It might not be for everyone but this book was definitely for me. I can't wait to read more of this series and I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book.

Rating:

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About the author:

Nationally Bestselling Author, Marquita Valentine, writes small town romances that are anything but small. Lisa Kleypas, Carly Phillips and Rachel Gibson are her favorite contemporary authors. Marquita met her husband aka Hot Builder at Sonic when they were in high school. She suggests this location to all of her single friends in search of a good man -- and if that doesn't work, they can console themselves with cheesy tatertots. She lives in North Carolina in a very, very small town with Hot Builder and their two children.

You can find her here:

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