Release Blitz: Garrett by Karla Sorensen

Title: Garrett

Series: Bachelors of the Ridge #2

Author: Karla Sorensen

Release Date: Oct 21, 2016

The one thing Garrett Calder and Aurora Anderson have in common is that they absolutely hate each other.

Garrett has the job that Aurora has worked for and wanted for years and it was handed to him on a silver platter, just like everything else in his life. The fact that he manages everything with the most annoyingly handsome smile on his equally annoying, handsome face is just icing on the freaking cake.

Aurora is not only the most beautiful, but the smartest, most infuriating woman Garrett has ever had the misfortune of meeting. Her sharp tongue and inability to be charmed by him makes her somehow more maddening, and she’s never let him get away with a single thing, not for the eight years they’ve worked together.

Garrett and Aurora are pushed into a situation neither of them want to be in— forced to work together for twelve months or risk losing everything. Twelve months where they can’t kill each other. Twelve long months, and only one of them will be left standing at the end. And in the process of surviving it—and each other—they’ll discover that there’s a very fine line between love and hate.

Damn him, ooooooh, damn him and that highly amused grin that he gave me in answer. That’s what made it so much worse. Garrett Calder was handsome. He was tall and muscled with broad shoulders that looked (I could only admit this in my head, because I’d likely choke on the words if they came out of my mouth) incredible in a suit. Oh, I’d have liked it so much better if he was a hunchback with two teeth and pockmarks covering the left side of his body.

You know, have the outside match the inside.

“But my old man does?”

With brisk movements, I straightened my blue cotton blouse and sniffed. “Yes.”

Garrett leaned up against the door behind him, clearly not planning on going anywhere. Ass.

“How come?”

“You realize that I don’t have to answer you, right? It’s my prerogative who gets to call me a nickname and who doesn’t.”

When he snorted, I risked a look at him under my lashes. Still smiling that stupid smile. It was one of the non-professional things that I envied about him. The ease with which he smiled and joked, making the people around him happy in turn. The people who I reported to and the people who worked under me all respected me and liked me. But we weren’t exactly friends. We didn’t swap jokes or secrets.

But I’d take respect any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. So I straightened and faced him, giving him the full weight of my annoyed expression. “What?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head, completely amused by my snippy response.

“You are so aggravating.”

“And you are so defensive, Rory.”

I narrowed my eyes and he smothered a laugh. “I’m not defensive. I’m simply explaining to you that it’s my right to recognize that certain people are deserving of informalities over others.”

He clutched a hand to his heart. “So many big words. Stop.”

When I lifted an eyebrow, he gave me a mildly apologetic look. “Okay, fine. I’ll stick to Aurora.”

“Thank you,” I conceded. “Can I leave now? This kind of proximity to you gives me hives.”

REVIEW

Karla Sorensen has done it again, stolen me away into the world of the Bachelors on the Ridge and kept me captive from page to page to page.  

I loved that this book was more of a hate to love and that there was SO much tension and angst between Rory and Garrett.  Their hate for each other really made the story because it led to deeper revelations.  

Aurora, Rory, is determined to prove herself at her job, she's aiming for respect and more on her club up the corporate ladder. She's worked hard to get where she is, but she's still got a climb to go.  Her animosity with Garrett stems more from the fact that she doesn't see him as worthy of his title, and she wants his job. But Rory doesn't know all there is to know about Garrett or his behavior or why he doesn't seem to appreciate all that's been given to him and Rory's keeping her own secrets.  I love that Rory is tough, but also has vulnerabilities, love her determinations, her sassiness when it comes to Garrett.  But she's also sort of a loner, content to just move up in her career and focus on the next job, the next level.  

Garrett. What can I say about Garrett. He's hot, he's smart, but he's also a little confused, and he's in an untenable position. If he tells his father the truth, it could ruin what little of a relationship they have, but if he doesn't he'll never be happy.  I love his loyalty to his family, his will to be who they want him to be, but also that deep down he knows he can't continue that way.  Garrett is vulnerable, he wants to know his father's love is unconditional and he's afraid it won't be.  

When Garrett and Rory are paired up to come up with new solutions for thei business, they think things can't be any worse.  Their futures could hang on what they come up with and it's going to be hard to set aside their personal feelings and focus on the job at hand when so little civility exists between them.  But then things take a change of direction and they are faced with an even larger seemingly impossible task.  

I think my favorite thing about this book is that both of these characters jumped to conclusions about the other before knowing anything about their lives or their focuses or their motivations.  It was easy to dislike each other, easy to feel animosity towards someone who had something you wanted, but it was also a cover in some ways.  

I loved watching as Garrett and Rory worked together, talked, I mean really talked, and how they learned more about the other.  Rory learned to handle Garrett, and she wasn't always easy on him, but she always told him the truth and she did it to get him going in the right direction. Whether or not he stayed in his position or kept his job, Rory wanted him to do the best he could while he was there.  It was easy enough to see how their feelings changed over time as they began to know the real person behind the mask, as they learned to work together.  

Garrett brought me laughs, tears, a touch of frustration and elation.  The chemistry and tension reeled me in and I kept waiting for the fireworks. I loved seeing characters from book one and how they interacted with Garrett and helped him.  I'm looking forward to learning more about the rest of these bachelors and seeing glimpses of Garrett and Rory in future books.  

Dylan (#1) – Released June 2016

On sale for $0.99 through Oct 22

Dylan Steadman has never seen his stubbornness as a bad thing. It's always been easy for him to make up his mind and stick with it. It's why he works a lot, why he doesn't need to make time for a girlfriend, and why he recently decided to move across the country for a new job. His brothers and sister and happily settled, and now that all eyes have turned on him, he needs a change. He does not need a relationships, and moving to Colorado lets him breathe. What he didn't see coming was Kat, the much-too-young-for-him employee at his new restaurant.

Kat Perry doesn't have a family. She doesn't even really have friends, but that's by her choice. Her new manager, Dylan, has all the things that she should avoid: the muscles, the eyes, the smile, and the kind of white-knight syndrome that she doesn't know what the frick to do with. Dylan should be easy enough to disregard since she's managed to hold people at arm's length her whole life, especially when a relationship is the very last thing she wants

But she can't ignore him, not when he befriends her, and definitely not when they tap into combustible chemistry that threatens to burn down everything around them. So instead of fighting it, they come to an agreement- just friends with a bunch of benefits on the side. Easy, right? Not exactly.

Especially when the heart gets involved.

**Dylan is a 70k romantic comedy with a mild/medium heat level. It is a spin-off of the Three Little Words series and can be read as a standalone.**

Well, let’s see ... I’m a wife and a mother. I’m a writer who wants to make people smile when they read my words. I own a dog that sheds roughly eighteen pounds of hair every day. I am obsessed with Outlander (both the books and the show). I’m almost exclusively a romance reader, which means some people will never consider me a literary snob. If I could meet one historical figure, it would be Jane Austen. I received my Bachelors in Public Relations and worked in health care marketing before I had my babies. I hate Twitter. I do it, but I hate it. Also, if you want to get on my good side, bring me wine and I'll love you forever.