Even after years of trauma therapy, Peyton still believes she’s broken. She has little desire to date or show off her natural beauty, content simply to hang out with her best friends and run her pie shop in New Orleans. But her world turns upside-down when a handsome architect and self-confessed player shows up in her shop and thinks she’s perfect, much more than the usual hook-up. While Peyton does her best to resist his charms, believing she could never be enough for him, she can’t deny the obvious heat between them. With Reed determined to have her, Peyton must decide whether to continue to hide behind her apron and baggy clothes or take a chance and share her scars with Reed, a man with a playboy reputation and scars of his own -- a dark past he can’t possibly share with Peyton, not after learning the horrors she’s endured. But if they can find a way to trust each other, and themselves, they just might be able to heal, to save each other, to live perfectly broken together.
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Get ready for Peyton & Reed.
Peyton is a broken girl, or she believed. After years of going into therapy, she still has residuals of her dark past - haunting her, taunting her. She prefers to hide in baggy clothes, thinking that her sexiness, her sexuality, her weakness had led her to that sad awful night where her life did a complete 180. Now, she’s contented running her successful pie shop in New Orleans and hanging out with her best friend, Quinn who would move heaven and earth for her.
Her life was a little mundane, getting up in the morning and going through her day was more of a habit rather than living until an uber-sexy architect-slash-player strutted inside her store and decided that he wanted THIS girl.
But wanting this girl and having her is a lot of hard work. Being able to get woman without any effort, and having his way with them brought out my doubts, will he be able to handle her? Because this girl? She might be broken, but she knows she deserves MORE than what he was offering. She knows her worth, broken or not, and she wouldn’t dare haggle. This was what I love most about Peyton, no matter how grand his gestures were, how much she would like to melt in his hands, she was strong enough to held out, stop herself, resist temptation. She wasn’t playing hard to get, she just knows what she deserves, and I guess girls should remember this one from time to time. Sometimes, when we are very much attracted to a person we don’t mind being treated like another notch on his bed post, we forgot that we are worth more than that.
And him – I didn’t expect him to be PATIENT. OMG. I guess, he wanted her badly for him to stay, and wait. For a player, and for someone who had been with a lot of women, this type of gesture is really something. But he was determined, one grand gesture after the other, I was swooning for Peyton. MELT! MELT! MELT! Ah, but this girl has been through A LOT for her to just melt that easy. Then, I was wondering, what could possibly HE do for him to get into her heart, and her, ummm… bed?
IT WAS A LONG, LONG, LONG WAIT. I can feel myself dry up, and hopelessness consumed me, until finally! THE WAIT WAS SO WORTH IT – they were effin HOT!
Their relationship? It wasn’t easy. There were a lot of dark past, and baggage. He wasn’t perfect, she was broken. Theirs was a time bomb waiting to happen. There were trust issues, family issues, some old flames, and some friends-who-wants-to-be-more. It was a rough journey for the both of them, but every pain, every tear, and even the heartbreak were pretty much worth it for the HEA that awaits in the ending.
I love the people that surrounded them – Quinn, Bret, Marion, Dr. Lorraine and even Griffin. I just wish the circumstances between her and Griffin were a little better in the ending. I guess, it was much more of a reality with them. Sometimes, when you love someone, and that someone doesn’t love you back – it’s hard to become friends and watch them happy with someone else. How I wished it was Griffin at first, but then watching Peyton with Reed, they were just perfect for each other. Marion – HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY DO IT? I think besides Peyton, this woman is one of the strongest characters I have known. Living with her husband is not a walk in the beach, and not for the weak. But she did it, set her ground rules and made the best out of the situation all because of Reed. She loved him enough for the both of them, and I loved her for it. Then there’s Quinn who loved Peyton immensely, and the humor of the story. I can’t help but to smile, giggle or laugh when she arrives in the scene. She was the friend that Peyton needed, and despite the guilt that has been eating her, Peyton never let her got the blame.
Just like her first novel, The First Position, I have enjoyed reading this novel. A little bit long compared to what I would usually read, but the journey and the waiting were worth it. I loved the rough ride, the twist, the agony of waiting, and even the complexities of the characters. It was just amazing watching these two broken people found each other and fall in love. Gives us hope, that even in the darkest of times, there will still be that light at the end of the tunnel. This is a story of hope, love, trust, and moving forward.
★Complimentary Copy was given in exchange for an honest review.★
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“Sometimes it’s better to push people away, so you don’t hurt them,” Peyton said, “and they don’t hurt you.”
“Bullshit!”
Peyton shook her head. “I’m never going to be whole again.”
“That’s bullshit, too. I won’t have talk like that, Miss Peyton. I just won’t have it.” Dr. Lorraine cocked her head to the side. “It’s time for a change in direction -- a serious change of direction. This is what we are going to do. You made a lot of progress with Reed – lots of good oral and other stuff. But now you’ve cut him off, and I see you backsliding. I don’t like to see it. I won’t allow it.” She stroked her chin then cracked her knuckles in preparation for some great declaration. “I’m prescribing a little retail therapy.”
“What?” Peyton cried.
“Yes, that’s what I’m prescribing. You get that friend of yours, Quinn, and hit the shops – Canal Place, Magazine Street, St. Charles Avenue, wherever,” Dr. Lorraine ordered, her whole body bouncing. “I don’t want to see you in those sad, baggy ass clothes anymore. Just looking at them, they mess with my head, and they screw up my whole day. You ever think about how they make me feel?”
“No,” Peyton said with a laugh.
“Makes me sad. I hate them. So I want new shoes, clothes, athletic wear, undergarments! Everything new. Got it?”
“How is this therapy?”
“Honey, you’re hiding again. You’ve flipped your sex switch back to off, and I’m not about to let it hibernate in some frozen tundra again for years. We’ve worked too damn hard. You need to get in touch with your sexuality without a man helping you do it. You have to do it. And clothes are the perfect place to start.”
Peyton shrugged. “I don’t feel like it.”
“You don’t feel like it? Tough shit! I didn’t feel like getting my pap smear last week, but I did.”
Peyton smiled. “It just seems like a waste of time and money.”
“Well, if you don’t want to do it through clothes, I can prescribe something else. Maybe a pole dancing class?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Or daily masturbation?”
Peyton rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll get the clothes.”
“Good,” Dr. Lorraine said, writing in Peyton’s chart, as if filling out a prescription to take to the drugstore. “Among other things, I want you to get some power panties.”
“Power panties?” Has she been talking to Bret?
“Sexy underwear,” Dr. Lorraine said, still writing. “They can make a woman feel very powerful.” She put down her pen and looked at Peyton. “When a man wants to be taken seriously, he usually wears a red tie. Ever notice that in presidential debates? Lots of red ties. Red is the color of power.” Dr. Lorraine waved her hand and snapped her fingers. “So get yourself some red panties, girl! Take back your power! Do it for yourself!” She handed Peyton her prescription.
“I didn’t realize my power was in my underwear.”
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Prescott Lane is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, and graduated fromCentenary College in 1997 with a degree in sociology. She went on to Tulane University to receive her MSW in 1998, after which she worked with developmentally delayed and disabled children. She currently resides in New Orleans with her husband and two children.
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