Synopsis

It seems the things worth keeping are often the hardest to hold...

KAI

I had two things in life that mattered. My mother and my music. Mama was taken from me too soon, and now music is all I have left. It’s the thing that’s pushed me right out of backwoods Georgia into Los Angeles, where the line between fantasy and reality shimmers and blurs. I’m finally making my way, making my mark. I can’t afford to fall for one of music's brightest stars. Not now. Music is all I have left, and I’m holding on tight with both hands. I won’t let go, not even for Rhyson Gray.

RHYSON

I had one thing in my life that mattered – music. The only constant, it’s taken me to heights most people only dream about; a gift dropped in my lap at birth. I thought it was enough. I thought it was everything until I met Kai. Now she’s all I think about, like a song I can't get out of my head. If I have to chase her, if I have to give up everything - I will. And once she's mine, I won't let go.

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Excerpt

I shouldn’t have come. All the things I felt and fought, the things I suspected he felt too, he just spewed all over me. And as much as I want to be, I’m not sure I’m ready. I’ll never forget seeing my Mama in bed for days after Daddy left. And even though she got up, I suspect a part of her never left that bed, but just stayed there, waiting. We had to leave the house where she grew up and where I spent my first years, because Daddy left us with nowhere to go. Mama learned to stand on her two feet, and I’ve done the same. I just didn’t count on Rhyson sweeping me off of them. “We’re obviously on different pages about this.” I pull my hands free and turn to leave, but he steps in front of me, blocking my grand exit. “Let’s talk later.” “Enough talking.” The heat of his body grabs me before his hands do. He traps my chin between two fingers, taking my mouth in a paradox of rough and tender. I want to move. To slide away from his body pressing me into the pool table. But I can’t. Not with his hand caressing my back. Not with his tongue in my mouth. Not with his erection pressing into my stomach. I can’t. I won’t. I have been denying myself this, and I’m so damn hungry. My mouth opens under his, ravenous and wet and hot. His groan vibrates against my lips. “Yes. Good God, yes, Pep.” His words slip down my throat. I strain up on tiptoes, clawing my fingers into his dark hair, forcing him closer. He lifts me onto the pool table, planting himself between my knees. His fingers skim my bare thigh, working up my leg until he reaches a damp patch of silk. He pushes my panties aside, rubbing his hand into the wet flesh there before sliding one long finger and then another inside of me. I rock into these fingers which have awed millions with their skill. They own me. I’m the instrument in his hands. He’s playing me. Plucking at me. Strumming me. He tugs at the wide neck of my sweater until it falls away from my shoulder, slipping his hand in and cupping my naked breast. He brushes his fingers over my nipple, and I lose my mind and every inhibition. My head flops back and I stretch my legs wider, offering him anything he wants. “Are you kidding me?” His question burns the vulnerable curve of my neck as he drags his lips to my shoulder. “You come here wearing no bra and think I won’t…” He abandons the words, his dark, untidy head disappearing under my sweater, and before I have time to regain even millimeters of sanity, my nipple is in his mouth and he’s suckling me. Not gentle. Not soft. My breasts are so small, he almost eats me whole. Every draw, every suck, every bite sends a power surge to my core until my knees hold his hips in a desperate grip, and my nails rake across the flat surface of the pool table behind me. His mouth at my breast. His fingers inside me. His clean scent surrounding me. I have nowhere to hide anymore. I am exposed. I want to spread myself wide open for him. That voice that has been telling me I can’t rely on him. I can’t trust him. I can’t need him—that voice is stunned into silence by his thorough possession of my body, by the inferno between my legs, blazing a hole right through my soul and scorching my heart.

My REVIEW:

This is a hard review for me to write. Not because I didn't like the book, but because it is so hard to put into words how much I LOVED this book and express how much it affected me. Have you ever read something so moving, that hits yo uon such a deep level, it feels like it touched your soul? That would be this book. It's also difficult to write this review, because I don't want to risk spoiling this beautiful book for anyone, much better to go into a book with no idea what to expect so you can experience every twist and turn of the ride yourself.

My Soul to Keep didn't just pull me in, it sucked me straight into the pages and I felt like I was a part of this book, I felt as if I could touch these characters and feel every single feeling they felt. I had an intensely personal connection with these characters and truly felt this book with every page I turned. The writing is splendid, and I don't just mean its pretty prose, I mean each thing that happens and the way it is explained and/or described is almost pure perfection.

Kai is struggling with the grief of losing her mother, but more than that she's also struggling to just be. She works hard, not only to keep herself busy, but also to take care of debts. She is practically in a state of merely surviving life, not living it. She's had a time of it, with her father gone who knows where and her mother lost after a long miserable fight against an illness, it's easy to see why Kai is lost. Kai takes note from her past, learning things the hard way, she knows what she is and isn't willing to risk in life.

Rhyson (Rhys) should be one of the happiest people around. He's got his music, he's a famous musician known world wide but he has his own problems to deal with, and demons to fight but he's buried them deep. He's also pretty alone, with only a few people he can trust and call friend.

When they meet, Rhys notices immediatly that the is something different about Kai, meanwhile Kai does all she can to get away from the situation and him.

The one thing Kai and Rhys share is music. They feel music on a different level than most and its a beautiful thing to see and feel as you read further. Kai doesn't know that she has it in her to be anything more than a friend to Rhyson even though they share a unique connection. Both of these characters struggle with trust issues and letting go of the past, but they both also know and realize at some level that there is something there.

There are moments in the story where Rhys does something that left me feeling ragey, but it was easy to see why he did those things and be able to understand more about him as a complete person. Kai also does things that left me shaking my head, but again I understood her reasoning, even if I couldn't agree with it.

This book is about two people who have such vivid pictures in their mind of what their lives should be and what to expect of others. But they are screwed up in these visions, blurred by acts of the past that have given them falsely compelling evidence that goes against what they feel in their heart and mind for themselves. They both want to be loved for who they are, not what they are or what they can be.

Kennedy Ryan has written an engrossing story here that will not only draw you straight in, it will punch you in the gut and steal your breath a few times. It will hit you right in the feelers and it will leave you feeling like if you don't know what's coming next, you just might die. You will laugh, you will cry, you will want to hurt someone, and you will hurt for someone, but most importantly, this story will make you broaden your mindset and look deeper at the characters and form a clearer perception of the characters and their motives.

I will remain on the edge as I await the continuation of this story.

Buy Links

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ZXWV2Y

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About Kennedy Ryan

I just can't write about myself in third person for one more bio! I'm a wife, a mom, a writer, an advocate for families living with autism. That's me in a nutshell. Crack the nut, and you'll find a Southern girl gone Southern California who loves pizza and Diet Coke, and wishes she got to watch a lot more television. You can usually catch me up too late, on social media too much, or FINALLY putting a dent in my ever-growing To Be Read list!