ORDER A COPY: Wrecked
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Publishing Date: April 2, 2013
Paperback: 320 Pages
Rating: 4 stars
In the nineties, Abigale Applegate and Zach Barnes were the most beloved sitcom child stars in the world. Then they grew up and left Hollywood behind…
Whatever happened to Abigale Applegate?
She’s been wondering the same thing.
With her Hollywood dreams long gone, Abigale now has a nice, neat, uncomplicated life—until the day her perfect fiancé needs to talk. Dumped, a little more than shattered, and totally confused, Abigale turns to Zach, her best friend since forever, to help her pick up the pieces. He does it with a gift—a copy of Wreck This Journal. She can vent her frustrations, and sketch out a new plan. Zach just hopes he’s part of it. Because he’s been in love with Abigale his entire life.
When the journal falls into Zach’s hands, he discovers Abigale wants a new man. And fast. Nothing more than a hot distraction. Zach has a strategy, too. He’s going to be that man. It’s his last chance. Abigale might be out to shake up her life, but Zach’s out to reinvent it. Now, all he has to do is convince Abigale that life can go as planned.
When Abigail Applegate’s fiancé called off their wedding, she called the one person who has been there for her since they were kids, her best friend and former child co-star, Zach Barnes. Abby was surprised when Zach told her that Roger never loved her. He just wanted to be with “Kate.”
Zach believed that if Roger had loved her, “when you walked into a room, it would have shown on his face,…he’d have been so busy staring at you because he just had to see you…” What Abby never realized was that for all these years it was Zach who had been watching her every time she walked into the room.
Zach couldn’t believe his luck that Roger, that prick, walked away from Abigail before the wedding. It was one of the worst days of his life when Abby announced she was marrying that worthless bastard. Roger never loved her, but no one could ever love Abby as much as Zach does.
Abby makes a list of things she needs to do next, including having “a torrid affair.” When Zach finds out Abby’s plan, he knows he can’t keep quiet any longer and watch her with another man or worse, risk losing her to someone else. This is the chance he has been waiting for most of his life. He only needs to convince Abby that he would be the perfect man for this torrid affair, then maybe he can finally convince her to love him forever.
THOUGHTS:
I’m a sucker for a good friends to lover story. You can tell that Abby and Zach had a solid friendship and you feel for Zach in his almost lifelong love for Abby and how painful it has been to support her in relationships with other men who have continually hurt the one woman he wants to worship.
Once Abby takes a good long look at her best friend, she realizes how gorgeous and sexy Zach is and how perfect he would be for her. After all their years together, they knew the best and worst of each other, but at first she feel creepy lusting after her best friend. That is until she gets up the nerve to kiss him and things quickly sizzle between them in new and exciting ways.
Poor Zach, as he finally gets the woman he has been desperate for, several “friends” who have watched him moon for Abby for years seem to try sabotage his relationship just as it is getting off the ground.
I enjoyed reading the story unfolding between them as their new romantic relationship deepens their friendship.
Received an ARC from netgalley.com, courtesy of the publisher. Thank you.
Favorite Scene:
Once she left the room, Zach dropped his head down on his desk and groaned. He had to do this. He knew he did. And he wasn’t going to deny a very huge part of him wanted to do this—wanted it so bad, his hands were shaking from it, but how in the hell was he supposed to handle this without losing his damn mind?
“By doing your damn job.” She came here because she wanted some ink. So that was what he was going to do.
As he pushed back from the desk, he kicked the chair she’d dragged over and knocked her purse over. The journal fell out as he scooped up the purse. He went to dump them both back on the chair, but found himself flipping through the journal. She hadn’t done much of anything.
But then he stopped.
One page held her neat writing.
She’d titled it. That was typical Abby, although it made him a little nervous. Wreck this life. What the hell…
But the first goals had him smiling. Tell off Roger. Cool. Flip off the photographers? He’d been telling her to do that for years. Stop worrying so much. Wonderful.
The tattoo…yes. She was serious.
But the last one had the blood draining out of his head.
Ffffuuuuccck…
Snapping it closed, he dumped the book on top of her purse and shot upright. Have a fucking affair? What the hell?
Thunder crashed inside his head. At least it felt that way, although more than likely, he was having a stroke or something. His feet seemed to get in the way as he turned around and started for the door. They needed to talk.
Abby had just broken things off with that prick she’d been engaged to. She was upset and feeling a little lost, needed to do something crazy. He could understand that, he thought. And while he was completely on board with her learning to live a little, the idea of her having a fucking affair with some guy who wouldn’t give a damn about her made him want to chew glass and break things. Lots of things.
Still, that journal was her personal property and he hadn’t had any right to go rooting through it. He hadn’t expected to find anything like that and how could he explain he’d read it? He couldn’t lie to her. But did he tell her that she needed to think this through?
Damn it.
Following the sound of her voice, he stopped in the doorway and made himself close his eyes while she finished placing the order.
Breathe, man. Gotta breathe. Gotta think. Gotta be calm.
First he had to explain just how he’d managed to see it in the journal. He hadn’t exactly been prying…well, he had, but he was her best friend and he was nosy, and she knew that, and…
Feeling the weight of her gaze, he lifted his lashes, not looking directly at her. Not yet.
But Abby wasn’t looking at his face.
She was eyeing his arms. Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she tugged on the soft curve and he almost went to his knees at the sight. A second later, she glanced away, but then she looked back.
The thunder that had been crashing inside his head grew louder and louder.
Have a torrid affair.
Damn it, if she was dead set on that idea, she could have an affair with him, he decided.
Even as the idea slammed into him, he tried to brush it aside. He’d kept what he felt wrapped up and buried deep for years. Spilling it now?
Just wondering if you’re ever going to do anything about it.
It’s complicated…
Hell. He was lecturing Abby about living life and letting go, and here he was, afraid to grab on.
The woman he wanted like he wanted his next breath was standing right there and he was afraid to even make a move.
