First Love, Last Crush + Giveaway
Book Title: First Crush, Last Love by Elizabeth McKenna
Category: Adult Fiction, 314 pages
Genre: Romance - Contemporary
Publisher: Elizabeth McKenna
Release date: Aug 1, 2017
Tour dates: Oct 16 to Nov 3, 2017
Content Rating: PG-13 + M (There are a few short, mild sex scenes - nothing too graphic. There is swearing by certain characters. Mature themes include drinking/alcoholism, verbal abuse with some physical pushing, AIDS (a minor character is gay), stalking, brief descriptions of child abuse by a step parent, and suicide attempt (overdose).
Book Description:
Remember your first crush? How your heart raced and your cheeks flushed whenever you saw him? Jessie Baxter does, and it’s happening again. Ten years ago, despite her best efforts, Lee Archer wanted to be just friends. Now, he wants more, but Jessie's still recovering from a psycho ex-husband. Can she learn to trust again and make her first crush into her last love?
Elizabeth McKenna’s latest novel will have you remembering the angst of high school, the grief of a failed relationship, and the happiness of true love.
To read reviews, please visit Elizabeth McKenna's page on iRead Book Tours.
My Review
I really enjoyed this book. The author infused lots of life into the characters, which in turn made the storyline come alive. This book is broken out into three sections...Senior Year, Marriage Interrupted, and 10-Year Reunion. Not a lot of time is spent in the first section. Yet, the story starts out fine. It was frustrating that Jessie was all about Lee and he did not reciprocate the feelings. Well maybe a little but he did not act on them.
The second half of the story was hard to read. This is because while Jessie saw some of the signs that Billy was the jealous type and she was warned by her friend; yet, she still proceeded to marry him. This is when the abuse got worse. While the scenes were few and far between and not very graphic, it is still hard to read about anyone...woman or man being abused by another. Jessie may have been married to an abuser but Lee did date one as well with his old high school girlfriend.
The final act was short as well but it felt as if Jessie and Lee had been interacting with one another for a long time and not just reconnecting for the first time in ten years. I am glad that Lee and Jessie found their happy ending.
Buy the Book:
Meet the Author:
Elizabeth McKenna works as a full-time technical writer/editor for a large software company. Though her love of books reaches back to her childhood, she had never read romance novels until one Christmas when her sister gave her the latest bestseller by Nora Roberts. She was hooked from page one (actually, she admits it was the first love scene).
She had always wanted to write fiction, so she combined her love of history, romance and a happy ending to write Cera's Place and Venice in the Moonlight. Her short story, The Gypsy Casts a Spell, is available for free on her site http://elizabethmckenna.com/. She hopes you will enjoy her first contemporary romance novel, First Crush Last Love, as much as others have enjoyed her historical romances.
Elizabeth lives in Wisconsin with her understanding husband, two beautiful daughters, and a sassy Labrador. When she isn't writing, working, or being a mom, she's sleeping.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram
Enter the Giveaway!
Ends Nov 11
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