{Blog Tour Review & Giveaway} The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) by Kristen Ashley (@KristenAshley68)

Tobias Gamble knew from a young age precisely the kind of woman he was going to make his. She was not going to be like his mother. She was going to be like the mother he claimed. 

In other words, she was going to be just right.

And when Toby returns to his hometown of Matlock, Kentucky and claps eyes on Adeline Forrester, he knows she’s the one.

The problem is, his brother Johnny has a new girlfriend. And Addie is her sister. Last, Toby would do nothing to hurt Johnny’s chance at happiness.

Toby hangs around town to get to know the woman Johnny fell in love with. He also hangs around to get to know Addie.

But he’s fallen hard, and he knows the best thing for him—and Addie—is for him to leave.

Addie Forrester is thrilled her sister Eliza found a good, solid man. Johnny Gamble is the salt of the earth. The best guy in the world.

The best except for his brother, Toby.

Toby doesn’t know it, but Addie’s fallen hard too. He’s perfect, except for the fact that he’s hands off and it’s torture, being friends with Toby when she wants so much more.

Addie also has a lot on her mind. She’s got bills to pay, her young son needs food, Christmas is coming and her job at the grocery store just isn’t cutting it.

Toby is steering clear of Addie. Addie is steering clear of Toby. But everyone around them knows this is the slow burn.

Because just like Eliza and Johnny, Addie and Toby were made for each other.

​Adeline Forrester never cared if she didn’t have much money in the bank.  She grew up with a mother and a sister that made her feel rich every single day. They loved as hard as they worked and it gave the girls a solid foundation to draw from. 
 
Her sister Izzy always had her feet on the ground while she always had her head in the clouds. Now at the age of twenty-nine, it’s time to come back down.
 
She’s going to be the best mother to her baby boy and stop wanting things that she shouldn’t.  

And that includes the man that is her most forbidden desire of all.

I’d learned like I always learned. 

You couldn’t tell me dick. 

I had to fuck up and then I’d know. 

And never do it again. 

Now, I had a son. 

And he was everything. 

I couldn’t take those risks anymore. Especially not the ones involving my heart. 

I couldn’t learn lessons the hard way. 

Because Brooks would be forced to take those knocks with me. 
And that could not happen. 

So Toby Gamble built his wall.
 
And I was gonna stay on my side. 

For Brooklyn. 

And for Izzy. 

Also for Johnny. 

For me. 
​
And last, for Toby.

There's a reason why Tobias Gamble is known around town as Take ‘Em and Leave ‘Em Toby.

His appetite for adventure wasn't exactly conducive to putting down roots and it never bothered him at all. His freedom always meant more than anything else.
​
But all of that changed the day he met Addie.
 
Not only is she out-of-this-world gorgeous, she’s hardworking and loyal to the people that she loves.  Being close to her and her son is the only reason he's staying in Matlock.  And if he ever gets the chance to claim any of that beauty as his own, he’s going to take it.  
​
​Consequences be damned. 

“We need to talk,” he told her. 

“Fuck talking,” she replied. 

And then she kissed him. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck! 

For a beat, he thought of pulling away. 

In that beat, the tip of her tongue touched his lips, and nothing was in his mind but opening his mouth and sucking that tongue inside. 

He tasted her, finally tasted Adeline...

And what was left of him she didn’t already have was lost. 

To her.

The Slow Burn is Kristen Ashley at her Gypsy Goddess finest!  

If there is one thing that can always be counted on in any book from her, it’s that her female characters are strong - right down to the marrow of their bones - and Addie just might be her most powerful yet.

She’s soulful, wild and independent with a stubborn streak a mile long.  Yet mixed together with an alpha protector like Toby, they create a very special kind of sweetness that only adds to her vibrant depth.
 
Everything about this story resonates within the heart.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the adorable shenanigans of baby Brooklyn or of their chosen family forged not just of blood, but of true adoration.   They will make you laugh, swoon and perhaps even shed a few tears.  
 
Because it's all about the hard and the soft – the leather and the lace.  

​And never wasting a single moment…

For Addie and Toby ~ 

An Excerpt From The Slow Burn ~ 

“What I’m tryin’ to say is my history with women has been rocky, that’s on me and you gotta know I get that,” he admitted. “But because I do, in the end, I’m gonna get it right.”

Addie assumed a confused look. “How’s it on you?”

“Just like my dad, until you, my choices weren’t sterling.”

Unexpectedly, and instantly, she got pissed.

Also instantly, she explained why.

“Well, you know, when Perry asked me to marry him, he told me he loved me, his world revolved around me and he couldn’t think of a life without me. He didn’t tell me that would wane once we decided to start a family or that he’d eventually quit the band, sit on the couch all day, not look for a job and bang some woman who was not me in a bed I bought. And I’m sorry, but none of that is on me. I loved him. I trusted him. I believed in him. And he fucked me over.”

“You’re right. It isn’t on you,” Toby agreed.

He had more to say but that was all he got out before she kept going.

“And my father was handsome. He was a dreamer. He was a talented musician and songwriter. He had a beautiful voice. He wrapped my mom up in that dream and carried her away from her family. And it isn’t on her she believed him. It isn’t on her that he didn’t get discovered and whisked to LA and lauded as the next Lou Reed. It isn’t on her he lost faith in his own damned self in his twenties and took that out on her with his fists. She loved him. She trusted him. She believed in him. And he fucked her over.”

“Baby,” he murmured, about to roll her and attempt to pull her out of the place he’d inadvertently taken her, but she kept talking fiercely.

“I have not met your father or your mother, but I know both men he made, and I can tell you this, his choice of wife and mother to his sons was not some curse he bestowed on you. Some men suck. Some women suck. I couldn’t even begin to understand why they do what they do. But it isn’t on the people they do it to. I actually hope one day your mother comes back and explains herself to you, because there is nothing she can say that won’t make her seem anything but what she is. Shallow and selfish and wrong. And if you know that, you’ll get it. You’ll get it’s all on her. Though I bet your father loved her. Trusted her. Believed in her. It was just that she fucked him over.”

“Honey, stop,” he ordered.

She didn’t stop.

“I won’t have you taking that on, Toby. It’s not right.”
​
“Okay, Addie, I won’t take it on.”

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