{Release Day Review} The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil #1) by Kristen Ashley (@KristenAshley68)

✮✮✮From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley, comes the first standalone title in the exciting, new Moonlight and Motor Oil series, THE HOOKUP! A rich, emotional love story, THE HOOKUP is available now!✮✮✮​

When the new girl in town, Eliza “Izzy” Forrester decides to hit the local drinking hole, she’s not ready to meet the town’s good, solid guy. She’s definitely not prepared to engage in her very first hookup with him.

Then Izzy wakes up the next morning in Johnny Gamble’s bed and good girl Izzy finds she likes being bad for Johnny.

Even so, Izzy feels Johnny holding her at arm’s length. But Johnny makes it clear he wants more and Izzy already knows she wants as much of hot-in-bed, sweet-out-of-it Johnny Gamble.

Floating on air thinking this is going somewhere, Izzy quickly learns why Johnny holds distant.

He’s in love with someone else. Someone who left him and did it leaving him broken. Whoever was up next would be runner up, second best. Knowing the stakes, Izzy will take what she can get from the gentleman that’s Johnny Gamble. And even knowing his heart might never mend, Johnny can’t seem to stay away from Izzy.

Until out of nowhere, his lost love comes back to town. He’s not going back, but Johnny still knows the right thing to do is let Izzy go.

And Izzy knew the stakes, so she makes it easy and slips though his fingers.

But that’s before Johnny realizes Eliza moved to town to escape danger that’s been swirling around her.

And that’s why Johnny decides to wade in.

That and the fact Eliza Forrester makes breakfast with a canary singing on her shoulder and fills out tight dresses in a way Johnny Gamble cannot get out of his head

​Eliza “Izzy” Forrester is the very definition of a good girl.  She moved to Matlock to find a small slice of peace and she found it on a three-acre ranch just outside of town.
 
She shares her time only with her trusted friends, her sister and menagerie of animals.  And the one night that she decides venture into Matlock proper for a friendly drink at the local watering hole, she comes face to face with a man who’s determined to turn her glitter dusted world upside down.

​So it was what it was. I’d had my first hookup, which wasn’t going to be a one-night stand. That soothed the inherent good girl in me but ravaged the dreamer I wouldn’t ever let myself be.

I stared at my horses and dogs.

This was my dream.

This was mine.

This was my heaven.

It was ordered and it was pretty and it was filled with love. It reminded me of what I had with Mom and my sister, but without all the bad parts mixed in.

Would it be better with Johnny or a Johnny-type person in the mix?

Maybe.

But this was what I had now.
And it was beautiful.

So I’d take it.

And do what my mother always told me to do.
​
Just be happy.

​Johnny Gamble is the enigma that everyone in town likes to talk about.  He’s sinfully gorgeous, independently wealthy and he’s been burned by love so completely that no other woman has been able to reach him. 
 
But Izzy clearly isn’t like everyone else.  She’s the warrior gypsy earth mother that his soul has been looking for. And regardless of the past, their crazy families and even crazier former loves – he’s going to prove to her that real passion never fades.

“Did you get what happened when I was inside you last night?”

She stared up at him.

“Did you get it, Izzy?” he pushed.

“I think so,” she whispered.
​
“That’s the guy I am. Yours. Simple. That’s it. And you’re mine. Mine, Iz. And we take care of each other. And we look after those in our hearts and lives. So the Forrester Girls Club has a new member, baby. And he’s got a dick.”

​ 
The Hookup is classic Kristen Ashley! It’s reminiscent of her beloved Colorado Mountain series with a cast of characters that will make you laugh out loud and then make your heart ache in the very best of ways. 
 
Izzy is pure strength and soulful beauty while Johnny is an off-the-charts sexy Ashley Alpha.  And mixed all together, the result is a romance that is epic enough to stand the test of time…

Exclusive Excerpt ~ 

“Izzy?” she answered.

“Hey, I’m home,” I told her. 

“Okay, well…how are you?”
How was I?

Johnny’s behavior explained by the sad fact it was the anniversary of his father’s death, but still explained, and he was coming over for dinner the next night, not to mention, after not being affectionate (at all, unless you counted sitting me on the countertop, which I kind of did) after the last time we’d had sex, he made out with me at the door of my car for a good, long, happy while—I was great.

“I’m great,” I told her, opening Serengeti’s stall and moving in, lifting a hand to pat her jaw while she moved her nose to snuffle my neck and blow at my hair. 

“Damn,” Deanna muttered.
My hand arrested on Serengeti and I focused on Deanna. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Damn,” she repeated. 

“Damn what?” I asked. 

“Well, just to say Johnny Gamble is Johnny Gamble.”

A specific area in my chest squeezed at the way she imparted that obvious but still confusing information. 

“What’s that mean?” I asked. 
​
“He’s Johnny Gamble of Gamble Garages. Did he tell you that?”

No he didn’t tell me that. 
And suddenly I was embarrassed about something that I hadn’t liked all along. 
But it was worse since Deanna knew more about a man I’d slept with than I did. 

Serengeti was getting fidgety, so I used my hand on her to lead her out of her stall, and once in the corridor, she trotted out the open bay at the back, directly into her pasture. 

I moved to Amaretto as I shared with Deanna, “No, he didn’t tell me that. I mean, we talked but we were also doing other things.” I let that lie. It did, weighty between us on the phone, before I went on, “I don’t know what that means.”

Even though it seemed like I did. Something seemed familiar about that. 

“You haven’t lived here long enough,” she murmured while I opened Amaretto’s stall and moved in for some quick pats before I let him loose. Louder, Deanna said, “You know the gas station in town?”

Oh yes. 

That was where I’d seen it. 

“He owns that?”

“That and seven more of them across three counties. None in the city, just in the counties. Some of them are like mini-mart stores. All of them sell gas and do work on cars.”

Wow. 
​
That was impressive.

About The Author ~ 

Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA and nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorize and she hadn't taken her first breath!). Her mother said they took Kristen away, put her Mom back in her room, her mother looked out the window, and Gary was on fire (Dr. King had been assassinated four days before). Kristen's Mom remembered thinking it was the end of the world. Quite the dramatic beginning. 

Nothing's changed.

Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana and has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus, she's blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her family was (is) loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write. They all lived together on a very small farm in a small farm town in the heartland. She grew up with Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).

Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up. 

And as she keeps growing, it keeps getting better.​

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