Peaces of Me: Blog Tour! The Rebel by Adrienne Giordano

Blog Tour – THE REBEL by Adrienne Giordano

About the Book

Title: The Rebel

Series: Harlequin Intrigue

Authors: Adrienne Giordano

Release Date: October 1, 2015

Blog Tour Dates: October 1, 2015 – October 9, 2015

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Buy Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Google Play / Harlequin / Kobo

Book Summary:

Bad to the bone…in all the right ways

A brilliant civil lawyer, David Hennings has always been the outsider—at odds with his wealthy family, shunning relationships, defying convention as a sexy leather-jacketed biker. Which is why sculptor Amanda LeBlanc agrees to his request to reconstruct a skull from a cold case murder. The instant heat between them is scorching.

But once Amanda takes the job and gets too close to the rebellious attorney, her carefully balanced life is upended by a series of methodical attacks. Someone doesn't want her to finish the job. Now David will risk everything not to lose the woman he unknowingly put in jeopardy.

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My 5 star Review:

In The Rebel, Adrienne took me on an unexpected adventure I enjoyed with two great characters I really liked! Amanda is an artist who has unresolved feelings and issues in her past. They control how she lives her life...with caution and in control. David is a lawyer who has never really felt like he fit in with his family. Always feeling like the black sheep, he is The Rebel in his family. When he suddenly finds himself helping out on the PI side of his family's business thanks to his mother's pushing, he finds himself not only seeking the help of Amanda, but soon he is feeling much more than professional towards her. When unexpected danger rears it's ugly head after Amanda decides to help David with his cold case, David will do whatever he can to keep Amanda safe and find out the truth. Will he be able to though?

Adrienne quickly grabbed my attention and held me close to the story. This was due to great characters and an exciting, suspenseful plot. I really liked Amanda and David. I liked learning where they came from, what drove them, and what held them back. I liked how they were with each other. Their attraction is obvious and easy to feel, and I liked how their relationship grew through out The Rebel. What starts out as a professional relationship soon becomes so much more, and I felt like they were really good for each other. Both of their characters grew a lot as the plot progressed, and it felt good. They had so much to offer each other and as the reader they just felt so right together. I liked that they both had issues in their past that they were still struggling to deal with, and they unexpectedly help each other with these. The Rebel is told in alternating third person POV which made it so easy to read and connect with the characters.

The mysterious part of the plot kept me guessing and was easy to lose myself in. The unknown and the fear factor really pushed the plot forward to an unexpected conclusion that I did not see coming!

Of all the secondary characters, I really enjoyed David's mother the most! She is a unique, fun addition to The Rebel.

The Rebel has a pace that kept me turning the pages quickly, but at the same time not always wanting the story to end because it was so good! I'd highly recommend The Rebel to any romantic suspense reader.

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Chapter One Excerpt:

“Come on, boy. Another quarter mile and we’re done.”

Larry McCall whistled for Henry, his black lab, who needed exercise more than Larry, to move along. Sunrise illuminated the sky, streaking it in shades of purple and orange that made even a grisly homicide detective marvel at the beauty of nature on an early fall morning.

With Henry busy sniffing a patch of dirt, Larry paused a moment, tilted his head back and inhaled the dewy air. Another two weeks, all these trees would be barren and the city would come in and scoop up the leaves. At which point, his body would make excuses to stay in bed rather than hoof it through ten acres of fenced-in fields on Chicago’s southwest side.

Half expecting Henry to trot by him, Larry opened his eyes and glanced to his left, where the dog always walked. No Henry. Since when had he gotten subversive? Larry angled back and found Henry still at the spot he’d been sniffing a minute ago. Only now he was digging. Hard. Terrific. Not only would he have dirt all over him, but he’d also probably snatch a dead animal out of the ground and drop it at Larry’s feet. Here ya go, Dad.

Not happening. He whistled again. “Leave it,” he said in his best alpha dog voice.

His bum luck was that Henry had alpha tendencies, too, and kept digging. He’d have to leash him and pull him away before a dead squirrel wound up in his jaws.

Years earlier the city had torn down three low-income apartment buildings—the projects—because of the increased drug and criminal activity surrounding the place. All that was left was the fenced-in acreage that made for great walking. Problem was, there could be anything—rodents, needles, crack baggies, foil scraps—buried. Needles. Dammit. Larry hustled back to the dog before he got stuck. Or stoned.

“Whatever you found, Henry, we don’t want any part of. Leave it.”

He snapped the leash on, gently eased Henry back and was met with ferocious barking. What the hell? His happy dog had gone schizo.

“What is it, boy?”

Holding the dog off the hole he’d started, Larry bent at the waist to focus on something white—dull white—peeking through the dirt.

Henry barked and tugged at the leash.

“Okay, boy. Relax. Let me look at it.”

He led a still barking Henry to a tree, secured the leash around it to keep him at bay and walked back to the spot. Using the handkerchief he always carried—yes, he was that old school, so what?—to protect his hands, he cleared more of the loose, moist dirt from the top, and more white appeared. He tapped the surface. Solid. Rock solid. And Larry’s stomach twisted in a way it only did on the job.

Stop. Twenty years of working homicide told him he should. Right now. Don’t go any further; call it in.

Birds chirped overhead, the sound so crisp and incessant it sliced right into his ears. Henry apparently had riled `em good. Still squatting, Larry scanned the desolate area. Beyond the fence at the end of the last quarter mile, the early morning rush began to swell on Cicero.

Henry barked again. Normally calm as a turtle, he wanted to dig.

Larry cocked his head to study whatever peeked through the dirt, and once again his stomach seized. After all these years, only one thing futzed with his stomach.

Crime scene.

But, truth be told, he had a tendency to overthink things. Something else years on the job had done to him. Hell, he could be staring at an old ceramic bowl. And how humiliating would it be to call this in and have it wind up being someone’s china?

Just hell.

Henry barked again, urging him on, and Larry gave in to his curiosity and pushed more loose dirt around. At least until he hit a depression and his finger, handkerchief and all, slid right into it. Gently, he moved his finger around, hitting the outer edges of the depression, and a weird tingling shot up his neck. His breathing kicked up.

What’d this dog find?

He cleared more dirt, his fingers moving gently, revealing more and more of the surface of whatever was buried here. Once again, his fingers slipped into the depressed area and he knew. Dammit.

He’d just stuck his finger into an eye socket.

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Adrienne Giordano writes romantic suspense and mystery. She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her workaholic husband, sports obsessed son and Buddy the Wheaten Terrorist (Terrier). She is a co-founder of Romance University blog and Lady Jane's Salon-Naperville, a reading series dedicated to romantic fiction.