{Blog Tour, Review & Giveaways} Pulled Beneath (Bar Harbor #1) by Marni Mann (@MarniMann)

What happens when you uncover years of secrets and find out everything you thought to be true was a lie? 

Drew Stevens finds her world turned upside down when her parents are brutally murdered. Soon after, she learns she inherited a property in Bar Harbor, Maine, from recently deceased grandparents that she believed had died when she was a baby.  

Drew travels north to settle her grandparents' estate, but finds more questions than answers as the truth starts unraveling. What she didn't expect to find was Saint, whose reputation is as tumultuous as his past. But the very thing that brings them together is the same thing that keeps them emotionally caged.

With Saint's scars so deep and Drew's so fresh, can the pair heal from their painful wounds or will they be pulled beneath the darkness of their pasts?

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Welcome to Bar Harbor, Maine – Where nothing and no one is as they seem…

Tragedy brought Drew Stevens to Bar Harbor and she has every intention of wrapping up her unpleasant business and returning home to Florida as soon as possible.  But what she finds there is that her life, as she knew it – was a lie.

Justin “Saint” Drake is her mysterious and far too gorgeous next-door neighbor.  Everyone in town tells her to stay away but something about him draws her like a moth to a flame.  But with every answer that Drew uncovers, more questions are revealed.  Is the truth too lost to ever be found?

“My hands clenched and released, my fingers squeezing back into a fist. My sickened stomach churned and pulsated. The tears in my eyes were making it hard to see. Why was I here alone? Why had everything been taken from me? Why had she left her family and pretended they’d never existed? Why?“

Saint knows what everyone in town thinks of him.  They say that he’s a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” kind of guy and he never really cared about that – until Drew came to town.  But they are both fighting to keep their heads above water in the vast ocean called regret.  Is it possible for two such damaged people to heal each other or will they just be pulled beneath?

“You’re too good for me, Drew.” “No…” Our faces finally separated. We didn’t, though. He brought my fingers up to his lips, kissing the skin between my nails and knuckles. “You need someone better than me.” And then he was gone. Again. When he reached the top of the peninsula, he crossed the grass that separated our properties. He never turned to me, never paused. The last thing I heard was his door shut. “But I want you…” I knew he couldn’t hear me. I didn’t say it loud enough for my voice
to carry across the water. But I said it. For my sake, at least.”

Pulled Beneath is a bit of a departure for Marni Mann.  She weaves this complex web of mystery with her usual multi-sensory approach.  I could almost smell the salty ocean air and feel the cold water rushing across my feet!  There is such a delicious tension that runs through the entire story and I loved that she had me teetering on the edge all weekend long…

Rating:

Exclusive Excerpt - 

I pulled into the entrance of my parents’ subdivision and rounded the first bend. I could smell smoke in the distance. Brush fires were common this time of year, and since the weather affected my parents business, I was constantly reminded of how little rain we had received this spring. The current fires were several miles east and largely contained. But a few years before, I’d witnessed how fast they could spread and how much damage they could cause. I had volunteered to help clean-up after one. They were serious danger. I hoped they wouldn’t be heading our way.

I took the second turn and noticed red and white lights flickering across the palm trees up ahead. Blue lights followed. I knew those colors came from emergency vehicles, but why were they in my neighborhood in the middle of the night? It couldn’t be the fires…the smell would be stronger, clouds of smoke would be filling the air. Maybe someone got sick. It couldn’t be for any other reason…not where I lived. Nothing ever happened here.

My fingers gripped the steering wheel even harder as I prepared to take the final corner. The road straightened as our block came into full view, and my foot hammered the brake. A crowd stood in the middle of the road. Faces I recognized. Neighbors….my neighbors. They were huddled together, dressed in their pajamas, their arms wrapped around each other. Their bodies were pointed toward the house at the end of the cul-de-sac.

My house.

A sharp pain began to stab at my stomach when I noticed the yellow tape. It bordered our lot, wrapping around each of the palms and disappearing into the darkness of the backyard. Our front door continuously opened and closed, strangers moving inside and out.

Strangers dressed in uniforms.

I knew my mouth was open. I knew my hands were squeezing the steering wheel so tightly that my fingers were cramping. I knew my feet were pushing so hard on the brake that my toenails were threatening to bend. But even as my mind bolted to the house, rushing between the crowds and tearing through the yellow tape, my body was unable to move.

“Drew,” a woman said. “Thank God you’re okay, honey. We all thought you were inside…with your parents.”

I turned my head and looked toward the voice.

“Drew’s here,” the woman yelled. It took a few seconds, but I finally realized it was Carol, a neighbor I’d known since middle school when my family bought this house. She pointed down to me and waved. “Drew’s here,” she repeated, “she’s safe.” She then glanced at me. “Drew…I…”

I concentrated on her face. She was trying to tell me something.

It suddenly became so clear… in her stare, in her mouth, in the way her shoulders drooped. In the way she had said my name.

Yellow tape.

It was surrounding my house, which everyone was staring at. They knew. But what exactly did they know?

“What happened?” I asked her. I felt the words come from my mouth, but they had slid through my lips on their own as if someone other than me was forcing them out. I had no control. It had been lost as soon as I’d passed the last turn in our neighborhood…as soon as I’d witnessed the people standing in the road. The same foreign strength that had pushed those words out of my mouth also put my car in park, opened the driver side door and compelled my feet onto the pavement.

I was moving, rushing, sprinting toward the house.

To my parents.

I didn’t feel the shoulders that bumped me as I passed. I didn’t feel my flip-flop fall off. I didn’t feel the rain trickle down on my forehead, burning my eyes as it softened my makeup.

“I can’t let you go in there,” a man said. His face was close to my ear.

I felt his breath spreading over my cheek, warming skin that felt frozen despite how sweltering it was outside. Then I felt his arms as he wrapped them around me from behind, lifting me off the ground and holding me against him. I couldn’t take another step. He wouldn’t let me.

“It’s a crime scene,” he said. “Only authorized personnel can go inside.”

Crime scene.

About the Author - 

A New Englander at heart, Marni Mann is now a Floridian inspired by the sandy beaches and hot pink sunsets of Sarasota. She taps mainstream appeal and shakes worldwide taboos, taking her readers on a dark and breathtaking journey.

When she’s not nose deep in her laptop, she’s scouring for chocolate, traveling, reading, or walking her four-legged children.

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