ORDER A COPY: Feel the Rush: A Hard Feelings Novel (InterMix)
Publisher: Intermix
Publishing Date: August 20, 2013
eBook: 292 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Picking the wrong men is a talent Meagan Mitchell has perfected. She’s sweet, confident, beautiful—and single. With her thirtieth birthday sneaking up on her, she needs a new plan. No more Mr. Wrongs or Mr. Bads, it’s time to find Mr. Safe…
Army Captain, Reed Porter, lives for the thrill—he’s an Airborne Jumpmaster with a rush addiction. He’s sexy and playful, and he quickly tempts Meagan with his rich Southern drawl and sinful looks. But slowing down and settling down are not in his agenda, making him exactly the type of man Meagan wants to avoid…
As their undeniable attraction heats up, Meagan has to decide if she’s willing to risk everything on a chance at love with a reckless charmer. Is she brave enough to bet her future—and her heart—on Mr. Thrill? Or will Reed finally learn that the feeling of a safe landing is just as addicting as the rush of the fall?
Meagan Mitchell is starting to panic. Her birthday is looming. It’s “The Big 3-0” and her life hasn’t fallen into the five-year plan. Before she was thirty, she expected to be happily married. She expected to have the house in the burbs with a minivan in the drive. She expected to have children.
As 30 looms nearer, she has decided she needs to stop looking for Mr. Bad, Mr. Sexy and most especially, Mr. Unavailable. She has to find a Mr. Safe. He’s a man who wants to get married. He wants to have children. And he wants to have them now.
So when her best friend Eva is transferred to Fort Benning, Georgia, Meagan’s first step in her new plan includes moving with her. A new plan, a new location, a new life.
Well, it’s a plan that looks really good on paper. Meagan’s first hurdle includes her sexy, bad boy neighbor, Reed Porter. Reed is a man who is always looking for a good time, and the next big thrill. Mr. Thrill couldn’t be any further from being a Mr. Safe.
Meagan’s head is telling her that Mr. Safe is the handsome doctor at her new job. He’s the man she should pursue. But Meagan’s heart is yearning for the fun, carefree, charming Reed.
Meagan needs to determine whether she can risk her heart and her future on Reed, and hope that he might just decide to want a future with her…someday, or walk away from the first man who has caught her heart in years, before he can shatter it to bits.
THOUGHTS:
I really enjoyed Kelsie’s first book, The Valentine’s Arrangement, and this was a great follow up story. Meagan had a cameo in Book #1 as Kale’s friend who he would hook up with whenever he was in town. Kale was one of her Mr. Unavailables.
Although Reed is definitely a player, he was drawn to Meagan immediately upon meeting her. Of course, she is simply a pretty new woman in the neighborhood, so she would catch the attention of a man like Reed. What we quickly learn is that eight years prior, Reed and Meagan has a one night stand which Reed doesn’t remember right away. This is a source of embarrassment to Reed when Meagan finally reminds him of their night, but it really wasn’t a major plot point to the story, so I am not sure exactly why this was added, except to prove that Reed got around so much, he wouldn’t remember a beautiful woman like Meagan.
I really liked the characters in this story and even some of the secondary characters shined: best friend, Eva, was a bit of a wild child, as well as Meagan’s male best friend Trevor, who was a protective older brother to Meagan; also one of Reed’s student who was charming yet lonely, and also one of Reed’s friends who had his heart broken by a married woman. I would definitely grab a copy of any of their stories.
I think Kelsie is an interesting writer and I am looking forward to more from her.
Received an ARC from netgalley.com courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Favorite Scene:
“Knock, knock,” Meagan said as she opened up the door. Two sets of eyes turned her way, and one of those sets happened to involuntarily make her insides turn to a quivering mess.
Reed’s mouth fell open. “Well, how in the hell did you get so lucky to have this beautiful woman come visit you?”
The not-so-coherent soldier rolled his head to the side as he laid back on his pillow and looked Meagan’s way. “Hell if I know, are you sure I haven’t died and gone to heaven?”
Reed shook his head and laughed. “Really, Brewer? That’s the best you got? Come on now, a sexy, blond nurse just walked into your room…Give her something better than that.”
His eyes glinted wickedly as if Reed had just thrown out the challenge of a lifetime, and Meagan was the prize. She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at Brewer, who was high as a kite.
She lifted her hands to her hips and waited for the punches to start rolling.
“If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone as beautiful as you, I’d have five cents.”
She shook her head back and forth but was unable to keep the smirk from appearing on her face.
“Surely you can do better than that,” Meagan said, walking farther into the room and setting her purse down in the chair next to the bed.
He shifted his upper body slightly and his face twisted tightly as he fell back onto the pillows again. “I don’t know,” he huffed, struggling the even speak. “I’m in a lot of pain right now.”
Her face dropped and she glanced at the door. “Do you want me to go grab your nurse? What can I do?”
“I’m not sure, I think there’s something wrong with my eyes.”
Meagan frowned. “Your eyes?”
A slow, deliberate smile pulled across Brewer’s cheeks and she knew she had just fallen right into his trap. “Yeah, because I can’t seem to take them off of you.”
“If you weren’t so drugged up and injured right now I would hit you.”
Reed couldn’t stop laughing. “Really, you think that one was funny?”
“Hell no, but it’s funny you fell for it. I knew where he was going the second he said he was in pain. Good one, my man.”
“Hey, nurse,” Brewer slurred.
Meagan rolled her eyes at Reed before turning back to Brewer. “My name’s Meagan.”
“My beautiful nurse Meagan, can I use your phone?”
Meagan reached for her purse and pulled out her phone. “Um, sure.”
“Thanks. My mom told me to call her when I found the woman of my dreams.”
She snatched the phone back out of his hands and rolled her eyes. Reed reached around Meagan and fist-bumped Brewer. Seriously? Did grown men actually still do that? “Did you just fist-bump over a pick-up line? You two are something else.”
“And you can do better?”
She arched her eyebrow, meeting Reed’s playful eyes with her own challenging stare. “I’m here, aren’t I? Now, you’ve got two wishes left.”
“I do believe we’ve met our match,” Brewer said.
