I just finished Tessa Bailey’s Too Hard to Forget and I’m a bit stunned, but in a good way. I spent a good part of this book wondering if this couple could see their way past their past and trying to figure out the somewhat twisted relationship they had and what the future holds for them. This wasn’t an easy romance, their previous relationship left them both raw and unsettled and being near each other again brought everything back to the forefront with some added complications. A May –December romance with the added taboo element that our hero is a very prominent coach of a very successful college football program and the heroine at the time they begin seeing each other is a senior in college, add to that his wife had recently passed away and it becomes clear how messed up this relationship is from the start and that’s only half of it. Poignant, emotional, yet with an air of hopefulness, Tess Bailey’s Too Hard To Forget is an exceptional romance.

Coach Elliott Brooks is passionate about his Catholic faith and coaching football and not necessarily in that order. Some might even say he is blinded by his devotion to those two things, so much so that he neglected his marriage, his now deceased wife, and his now twelve year old daughter. He has a reputation as being a no-nonsense coach, a good but hard man, but one woman knows there is another side to him and when she returns to the University of Cincinnati for alumni weekend, he isn’t sure he’ll survive.

Peggy Clarkson has one objective in mind returning to the university she graduated from, to see out Elliott Brooks, get his interest and then leave him so that he’ll hurt the way she’s been hurting the last three years since they parted ways. If might sound petty, but four broken engagements and never being able to fully give herself to another man let alone achieve sexual pleasure has left her no other option, she just doesn’t realize how much he still affects her in more ways than one.

I’m not going to lie folks, there were some messed up flashbacks between these two and while at times the behavior seemed almost abusive, when both parties are agreeable to what is happening you can’t really call it that. Peggy was the seducer but only because she noticed the way Elliott’s eyes followed her around when she was cheering and he was coaching, she also saw the pain and sorrow in his eyes and wanted to help. He turned something on in her no one had ever before and there was no doubt she was well satisfied, but his faith and his guilt over being with her led to some pretty intense and interesting things being said during sexy times.

With Peggy’s return she is thrust into a situation where she meets Elliott’s daughter, Alice, and even has the opportunity to help her. She also sees the disconnect between father and daughter and finds Elliott’s temperament has hardened even more in the years she’s been gone. What I loved was that slowly we saw Elliott realize how his behavior was affecting others and he made great strides to change it and that was largely due to Peggy’s absolute faith in his ability and his desire to show her he could be the man she saw him as.

This was a busy book with a lot going on, but everything in it revolved around Peggy and Elliott. We also spend time with Peggy’s brother, Belmont and her best friend, Sage who have a very unique bond and I am very intrigued as to how their story will play out.

Too Hard to Forget was a bit twisted, but it was also a very satisfying romance expertly crafted by Tessa Bailey and I look forward to the next and final book in this series.

5 stars!!!

Full Review on my blog

Summery:

Okay so I have to admit that I’m not really a fan of second chance romances so I had a little misgivings going into reading but this story did second chance romance so damn right, it was so on point! And I was a very, very happy reader. I loved the intensity and depth of the story and it was that instantly that pulled me in and held my attention throughout with the multiple issues raised.

Even though the characters were typical, college coach, popular cheerleader their situation was filled with complications, depth and heat that made it super interesting. Peaking my curiosity to want to know more and see how their lives would change for the better. The author did such a great job evolving the characters and keeping me along for the ride.

The romance was super blazing and complex and I loved how even though they had an instant connection things was far from easy for them and they really struggled through dealing with the issues of their past about themselves as well as their relationship. What I enjoyed the most was the flash backs of the beginning of their relationship alongside the story since this was a second chance romance with strong history between them. Being given the full scope of their relationship with scenes that were super intense and packed with information, made the story much more enjoyable for me.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this story as much as the past stories and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Overall I loved reading Too Hard To Forget by Tessa Bailey and can’t wait for the final story to unfold.

Interesting & Emotional

This is my first Tessa Bailey read and one I WILL NOT forget.
A story that possesses a lot of HEAT in the form of a twisted but consenting relationship of a coach and student.
Peggy's goal is to return for closure and be the one who leaves this time around.

I honestly don't know how she does it, but Tessa Bailey has a way with words that will leave you craving more. This book is no exception. I have read the three books released so far in this series and each one is better than the last.

I have been anxiously awaiting Peggy's story from the beginning. I just had this feeling that there was more to her then she showed the world and couldn't wait until her story was revealed. In all honesty, Peggy and Elliott knocked me on my ass.

Elliott was such a complicated man that didn't know how to let his feelings show. Not only did his relationship with Peggy suffer because of it, but so did his relationship with his daughter. When Peggy shows back up into his life, he is more confused than ever but knows he can't let her go again.

This book will pull at your heart something fierce. I absolutely adored Peggy and Elliott. Both were wounded and needed each other more than they could possibly realize. I loved every word and the ending was absolutely perfect! I highly recommend this read, I promise you will not be disappointed. Now, I am off to find a way to speed up time and get Belmont's book in my greedy hands........

Belmont had just driven into Ohio and Peggy- his sister-felt like she was going to throw up. The third person with the siblings was Sage who was Peggy’s best friend. In two weeks Peggy had lost two siblings. -Rita and Aaron. She was on the way to losing Belmont. Peggy was going to Cincinnati to complete a mission of revenge she had decided to do.Peggy had been engaged four times. And wore the rings around her neck as a symbol of her shame. Soon Peggy would be on the campus where Elliott Brooks - who was a coach- who had ruined Peggy for all others. Rebounds hadn’t worked for Peggy so she was returning the favor. Peggy was going to make Elliot’s life hell. It was Peggy’s last chance to move on. Elliot was head coach of the Bearcats and had the coach of the year award two times. Elliot had broken Peggy’s heart. Elliot came from a very religious background. Elliot had lost his wife but it wasn’t a loving marriage but Elliot still felt guilty for the way he felt about Peggy. Elliot pushed Peggy out of his life but three years later Peggy was back and since seeing Elliot was starting to get the closure from Elliot bu then he seems to change his mind and realizes how much he had hurt Peggy.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I loved how Peggy was a determined to get revenge and I hated how she felt she wasn’t good enough. But this did pull me in right from the beginning and kept my interest until the end. This choked me up at times. This book was busy at times and sometimes it was hard to keep track of everything. I recommend reading the first book in the series before this one. There was definitely a very hot chemistry between Elliot and Peggy. This was like a roller coaster at times. This was very well written. This also had a very good plot. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend.

This is my first story by Bailey, and it's the third book in Romancing the Clarksons. Now I need to go and read the first two to play catch up. Bailey did a fantastic job. Ripped my heart out then stomped it into the ground before finally putting it back together. She kept me on the edge of my seat. I had no idea where this story was going. Bailey is now a one-click author by this gal.

I sincerely apologize but this unfortunately is a DNF for me at 28% as I could not relate to the characters nor feel their chemistry. I also felt like the heroine was very immature. I apologize profusely but had to put this down. Thank you for the opportunity!

I really feel like I needed to have read the first two books in this series before starting this one. I had a hard time getting into this story, maily because it felt like I was supposed to know who all these characters, at least a little bit, before moving on to Peggy and Elliott. While I enjoyed the story, that difficuly I had in the beggining, and also not really enjoying the intro with the mother, left me having a hard time loving this story. But Tessa Bailey is a great story teller and I'm confident that I would have enjoyed this more had I realized that I should have probably checked out the previous books in the series prior to picking this one up. I intend to go back and read those.

This book, while interesting, is not exactly my cup of tea. As a Christian, the text was basically blasphemous at times. Not cool.

Okay, so I havent been reading Tessa Bailey for a long time, but this book just put this woman in my orbit as auto everything! The feels people … sweet Jesus! And let me tell ya about these two leads … intense is the first word that comes to mind, but they are just SO MUCH MORE. They are compelling and ridiculously kismet. This story line … it’s just everything. By far my favorite Tessa book! I dont get book hangovers often but this one left me completely spent!

I absolutely LOVE this Clarkson family! Each story just keeps getting better and better! Loved the second chance romance between Peggy and Elliott--they were amazing in and out of the bedroom. :) Cannot wait for Bel and Sage's story next!

http://kimmyloves2read.blogspot.com/2017/04/release-week-blitz-5-star-review.html

Tessa Bailey is a fantastic author but this book did not grab my attention and it is a little creepy. Elliot's behavior is strange and so wrong. What he's done and continues to do to Peggy is terribly disturbing. He has shaped this young woman's mind into believing she's nothing but bad and she doesn't deserve anything good. She's nothing but a sin to be ashamed of and at the same time can't stay away from her. The religious aspect of his guilt and especially praying out loud while having sex was very unpleasant to read.

It wasn't until halfway through the book that he realizes what his behavior has been like and what he's done to her. The single word I can use to describe the first half of the book would be disturbing. The word I would use to describe the second half of the book would be fabulous. It was almost like reading two completely different books with different male leads.

I honestly don't know which rating to give this book. Do I rate it on the disturbing first half or the fantastic second half? Maybe an average of both. Even so, I still look forward to reading this author's many fabulous books.

Normally I don't like Novella's...as a matter of fact I hate them. So, when I saw this was a Novella - I was in utter despair because I love Tessa!!! However and here is a GIANT ASS however, I loved this one!! It packed a lot of information into not a lot of pages. Kyler and Bree’s story was epic to me because I loved Kyler in the other book - Hard to Forget. You don't have to read all the books to understand this one but I would for enjoyment purposes. You do get to see in that book that he's somewhat pining after Bree who happens to be his high school sweetheart and then it picks up in this one of what happened. Bree was needed at home and Kyler had this football career that was going somewhere and she knew she couldn't hold him back but she couldn't go - so she let him go!! NO GIRL...NO...Just saying. I don't care how old Kyler is...I want one...like right NOW! He's my all-time favorite hero in a book of Tessa's and that's saying alot. She writes OTT heroes but this one took the cake. I loved him because he wouldn't take "no" for an answer (in a good way y'all.) Not in a stalker, I'm gonna make a skinsuit out of you way! This book was sizzling and usually I don't like that, but it was okay this time because it was written so well. So...WELL DONE TESSA!!!!

I was given a copy of this ARC from the publisher/author for an honest review. All of the above comments are my express opinions and no one else's.

Tessa Bailey is a Queen in the craft. Heat and heart.

Tessa Bailey writes some of the sexiest, dirty dialogue. The Clarkson series are fun, flirty, fast reads that feature strong and sexy men and women. This story was scorching hot. I recommend Tessa's book to everyone and she's an auto-buy author for me. Looking forward to the next in the series.

I have loved this author for a while and this book just reaffirms my love for her words. This book touched my heart and I’m really glad I read it! I look forward to more from this author!

3.25 Stars - This one is definitely a case of 'It's not you, it's me".

Tessa Bailey is a go-to author for me for sexy stories with blue collar heroes, and she takes on a provocative story idea here, with a forbidden romance between a college football coach and a student cheerleader, with a side of good old fashioned Catholic guilt in the mix. It's a second chance romance and it's fair to say that the first round of their story was full of angst and emotional anguish. Elliott is a recent widower and a practicing Catholic who is attracted to Peggy, a young woman who makes it her mission to help him forget his grief but in doing so damages her own self esteem. Fortunately when they meet up again they get a chance to fix all the broken bits.

My favorite parts of this story involved the growth of the characters. Peggy comes to realize that she's got value as a person, as a sister, and as a partner. Elliott comes to understand that keeping a relationship with Peggy hidden, as required by the obvious ethical dilemmas of their relationship, did her a disservice and he aims to correct it. The ethical issues are skirted with in the sense that he's older and wiser and in a position of power at the school, however she is not a student of his directly, and she is over 18 so legally an adult who can make her own decisions - and it is she that makes the first move.

My problem with the story is a personal one because as a practicing Catholic, I found myself being turned off by Elliott's penchant to recite the Lord's Prayer out loud during sex scenes with Peggy. This made me cringe - like reaching for a cookie expecting chocolate chips and getting raisins. Though Elliott gets over this habit in their second go around, part of his understanding of how doing so contributed to the damage being caused to Peggy by casting her as the one leading him into sin, it was a real buzzkill for me.

I think that the majority of readers who are fans of Ms. Bailey will really enjoy this story, and will likely be more titillated than turned off by the sex scenes, as there is no doubt they are hot! Peggy and Elliott get their happy ending and we get more insights into the Clarksons and the relationship of the siblings as they deal with their mother's last wishes, the thread going through the series. I enjoyed previous ones, I look forward to the next one, but I won't be rereading this one.

Review has been posted at Amazon and Goodreads.

From NPR: 4 Romances To Kick Off Your Summer

May is here — with the weather warming, the flowers blooming and the sun shining, it's officially the season for outdoor activities. But if your idea of an outdoor activity is taking a book outside to read, then these four romances — featuring Regency pirates, FBI agents, football players and a few rock stars — are just what you need for a delightful and deeply romantic escape.

Never Trust a Pirate, the latest in Valerie Bowman's Playful Brides series, is not the novel you think it is at first blush. She hits all the classic Regency historical romance buttons — the rake with a secret life, the virginal heroine, mistaken identities — but delivers quite a twist that even I, a seasoned romance novelist, didn't see coming.

Danielle LaCrosse is a ladies' maid, and also a spy. Naturally. The subject of her investigation is Cade Cavendish, a ne'er-do-well rake who has come to London on a mysterious mission. Our hero and heroine live under the same roof — he is enjoying his twin brother's hospitality while she is acting as his sister-in-law's maid — which allows plenty of opportunities for romance to blossom. But then things get complicated.

At first I feared this was another "Inland Pirate" novel (my name for a particular subcategory of romance in which all piracy happens prior to the beginning of the story, and the romance actually takes place in London) but this was not the case. Bowman blends a lighthearted romp through Regency London with a secret spy mission and, yes, action aboard a pirate ship for a perfectly lovely novel.

Two highly competitive FBI agents at the top of their game reluctantly fall for each other in The Thing About Love by Julie James, a perfect beach read. Jessica Harlow and John Shepherd are assigned to one sweet undercover mission – they have to stay in a romantic beachfront resort while posing as entrepreneurs in order to investigate a corrupt Florida politician. The only problem: They hate each other.

As students at Quantico six years earlier, Jessica and John were intense rivals for the top spot in the class. In a few flashbacks that might be the only effective "big misunderstanding" plot in romance, James presents the same moments from each character's point of view, showing how well-meaning quips or actions can be totally misconstrued. As a result, Jessica and John think they hate each other, which is a problem because they are really hot for each other.

Like James's other books, The Thing About Love is an excellent enemies to lovers romance that blends snappy dialogue with FBI action, serious sexual attraction, and a swoonworthy declaration of love from the hero: "The thing I want most is to spend the rest of my life with the one person who drives me crazy in all the best possible ways."

If Julie James whets your appetite for characters with a complicated history who get a second chance at love, check out Tessa Bailey's Too Hard to Forget, the third novel in her Romancing the Clarksons series. College football coach Elliot Brooks cares about three things: God, football and Peggy Clarkson. Three years earlier, when he was a grieving widower and she a senior cheerleader, the passion between them was intense and complicated, but loving (and, lest it seem squicky, totally consensual and legal).

Now Peggy is back for reunion to confront the man who did a number on her heart. Of course, it's not that simple — even after all this time, their attraction is as strong as ever, while their feelings are sweeter and more conflicted. As they struggle to get their relationship on track towards something real and forever, we see that Peggy is more than a hot cheerleader; she's got a really good heart. She hatches a plan to help the star receiver make it to the big game, smooths over some drama with Brooks' teenage daughter and even saves the coach from himself.

You can tell Bailey is in love with her characters and delights in sparking fires between them. The sexual attraction between Peggy and Elliot is potent — this novel is breathlessly sexy, and very hot'n'heavy, but the love between them — like the novel — is sweet and angsty all at once.

And finally, the anthology Summer Crush, by Jay E. Tria, Six de los Reyes, and Tara Frejas, features three gorgeously written novellas that will get you in the mood for sundrenched days at the beach, wild nights of rock n' roll fun and sweet summer romances. At the Summer Crush music festival on the island of La Union, a corporate warrior surrenders to love with her rock star boyfriend in "You Only Need Reminding," in "Almost There" another sleep deprived heroine — a roadie — deals with a new romance, a lost band member and a startling revelation, and in "Ocean Eyes," a heroine nicknamed Little Miss Boss works through her fears about love and singing her big hit to the raucous festival crowd.

Tria kicks off the set, creating the perfect mood with her luscious prose:

Ana is reminded of one of the best things about going to the beach. Surf and sand and seashells, sure. But also, beams of sunlight pouring down and glinting against broad bare backs, against ropes of muscles of arms and strong calves, orchestrating trails of sweat down hard planes of glistening stomach. YES. Hello there, beach. How you doin', summer?

From there, Frejas and de los Reyes beautifully build up this fictional world. While the stories can stand alone, they're best enjoyed together, since they take place concurrently and a few characters connect the stories. Combined with treats like the tweets, song lyrics and band set lists that are included with each story, you'll feel like you're right there on the beach, rocking out, falling in love and savoring the summer.