Only Love, an all-new sexy standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Melanie Harlow is AVAILABLE NOW!!

 

 

ONLY LOVE
(One and Only, #3)

by Melanie Harlow

 

Released – 26 November 2019

 

Buy it today!
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Blurb

A gorgeous former Marine with a tortured soul.
The beautiful, compassionate therapist living next door.
A meddlesome grandma determined to get them together.

I was expecting a proposal on my birthday, and I got dumped instead.

How could I have been so clueless?

Grams knew exactly how to distract me.

The “cute boy next door” who’s been helping her with yard work clearly needs a little therapy. Who better to call than her newly single therapist granddaughter?

She even fakes dementia to get me to visit, and now that I’m here she’s doing everything in her power to throw us together.

Not that I’m complaining. Ryan is the sexiest man I’ve ever met–I mean the full package, from the chiseled jaw to the massive shoulders to the rippling abs. (And yes, his package is full, and he knows exactly how to deliver it.) He makes me want to get out of my head and follow my heart. He makes me want to take chances I never thought I’d take.

He also makes me want to take my clothes off. A lot.

But he’s moody and challenging–one minute he’s an open book, and the next he’s completely closed off. He holds me like he’ll never let go, but insists he wants to be alone.

Some wounds are so deep, only love can heal them.

How can I convince him to let me try?

Find Only Love on GOODREADS

 

 

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Review

4 stars!

Finally, we get Stella’s story! I was intrigued by her and the way she viewed love and relationships from the first time I met her, and I couldn’t wait to see her finally experience real love. However, before she can find her happily ever after, she must face heartache. Then she discovers that sometimes it’s the person least expected who ends up picking the pieces, and I loved watching the love she finds grow. It’s sweet, sexy, and full of heart, and I loved it!

Just when Stella thinks she’s getting a ring on her finger from her long term boyfriend, she ends up dumped instead and on her birthday no less. She finds her life off kilter and ends up taking a week off work as a therapist to visit her grandma. When she meets the “boy” who has been helping her grandma with odds and ends around the house she is caught off guard because he is definitely not a boy.

Ryan is all man. He is broody, quiet, and keeps to himself. A former marine with a failed marriage, he just wants to live in peace and move on with his life. He pushes people away and prefers to be alone; however, he can’t seem to stay away from the gorgeous woman next door and the meddlesome neighbor who keeps interfering with his quiet life.

Stella is attracted to Ryan immediately and she begins to feel things she hasn’t felt before. We know from previous books that she thinks that the “spark” isn’t what makes a relationship last and that she doesn’t have much experience when it comes to being physical with a man. She usually dates safe guys and Ryan definitely does not fall in this category.

Ryan shares the attraction but he is conflicted with his feelings. He doesn’t want to get involved so he pushes Stella away even if he knows there is something about her that draws him in.

I couldn’t see Stella again. She had me feeling things that made me nervous, things that were more than physical. Connection. Understanding. Ease.
And if I wasn’t careful, I might start to feel other things too—things that had threatened to destroy me, things I’d worked so hard to escape. Guilt. Grief. Regret. The kind that could swallow you whole.
I couldn’t risk it. Not even for her.

Ryan and Stella seem to be opposites but they work so well together. Sure the attraction is palpable and the chemistry is sizzling (with some intense sexual tension and steamy sexy times), but it’s the way they are towards each other when they aren’t intimate that really brings them together. They both have vulnerabilities and different insecurities that influence their choices. It’s hard to show their flaws around someone else but they are able to truly be themselves with each other. I loved that they understand and accept the other for who they are without trying to change one another.

She had sweet dreams about me and believed I was a good man. She was the first woman in a long time that made me wish I were.

Ryan breaks down Stella’s walls and takes away her insecurities with his honesty and love. She is strung tight but he has the ability to make her relax and gives her a safe place. Stella gives Ryan a chance to open up without judgement. He shoulders so much grief, guilt, pain, and regret, it made my heart break for him. When he lets his emotions out, I loved watching him feel everything.

But Ryan has a hard time and there’s some back and forth that is frustrating. I understood where he is coming from even if I didn’t like how he handles some things. I hated that they have to face heartache before they can find their HEA but I think it made them stronger and proves that you have to work at relationships. They both grow and heal together as well as individually which was necessary for a future together.

I loved seeing Emme (from Only You) and Maren (from Only Him) again and loved getting to know Grams. She is a hoot. I loved her scheming and shenanigans. I found myself excited to she was going to cook up next and I loved that she didn’t give up on Stella or Ryan.

Never underestimate a granny on a mission.
Especially the matchmaking kind.

Only Love deals with some serious issues that aren’t taken lightly and I feel that the emotion surrounding the situations were well written. It pulls at your heartstrings and I wanted nothing more than to take away the pain.

Overall, this book has a perfect mix of humor, heart, and heat to balance the light and dark moments, and I loved it.

*ARC generously provided by the author and Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review*

 

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Excerpt

“Ryan?”

Startled, I turned around to find Stella standing a few feet away on the grass, wearing a T-shirt and pajama pants, arms crossed over her chest. Her feet were bare, and her hair was loose around her shoulders and a little messy, like she’d already been asleep. Thinking about her in bed did things to my insides. “Hey. Did I wake you?”

“I was awake. My windows are open, and I heard something and thought I saw you through the window. What are you doing?”

“Uh, building you a swing. But it was supposed to be a surprise.” Now that she’d caught me at it, I was kind of embarrassed. What if she thought this was stupid?

“You built me a swing?” She came a little closer, and I realized she might not be able to see it in the dark. The moon was only a sliver tonight.

“Yeah.” I grabbed one of the ropes. “Right here.”

She stared at it. “Why?”

“I’m not entirely sure.”

Her eyes met mine, and my heart pumped harder.

“Want to try it?” I asked.

“Like right now?”

I moved behind it and held both ropes steady. “Come sit.”

She hesitated, and I thought maybe she was going to tell me to quit being weird and go home before she called the cops, but after a few silent seconds, she came toward me. Turned around. Lowered herself to the seat and closed her fingers around the ropes.

“Well?” I asked. “How does it feel? Like you’re a kid again?”

“This was very kind of you, but not necessary.” Her tone was stiffer than her posture.

“Stella.”

She didn’t answer.

“I’m sorry.”

“About what?”

“Last night.”

“You’re sorry about what we did?”

“I think I’m more sorry about what we didn’t do.”

Her head turned sharply, and she looked at me over one shoulder. “You sure know how to confuse a girl.”

“One of my many talents.”

She looked straight ahead again. “Tell me about some other ones. And give me a push.”

I smiled, even though she couldn’t see it, and gave her a little nudge. “I’m fast.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah.” I gave her a little harder push.

“Track team in high school?”

“Tried. Didn’t take.”

“Why not?”

“They expected me to show up for practice.”

“Ah.” She straightened her legs and leaned back in the swing, her hair dangling behind her. “Tell me another one.”

I gave her another push. “I’m good with my hands.”

Her laugh floated back to me. “I have observed this about you already. Give me another one.”

I pushed her again, just so I could feel her hair brush against my hands. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“No? Nothing?”

“Nothing I can think of.”

“Hmm.”

“Are you analyzing me now?”

“Kind of. I mean, you can’t say something like that to a therapist and expect her not to reflect on it a little bit, right?”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Do you think I’m a liar or a fool?”

“Neither,” she answered. “I think you mean what you say. I think you only lie when you have to, and even then, you hate it. And if I dug a little deeper—which I won’t, because my sisters have told me it’s annoying and intrusive—I think I might discover that it’s because above all, you value your honor. Your word.”

For a moment, I was too stunned to think or move or speak. Then I said, “I take it back.”

“Take what back?”

“What I said. That I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Oh? And what are you afraid of?”

She swung back toward me and I caught her around the waist. Put my lips to her ear. “Your ability to read my mind.”

Beneath my arms I could feel her chest expand and contract faster. “I’m sorry, Ryan. I know I shouldn’t say those—”

“Come home with me,” I said, my voice raw with something like thirst. I pressed my lips to her throat and breathed in her scent. I let one hand move toward her breast. I waited for an elbow to the ribcage, a cry for help, a slap across the face. Because if she could read my mind right now, she’d know exactly what I wanted to do to her—and it was a long, detailed list.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”

 

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One and Only

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About the Author

Melanie Harlow likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. When she’s not writing or reading, she gets her kicks from TV series like VEEP, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and Homeland. She occasionally runs three miles, but only so she can have more gin and steak.

Melanie is the author of the AFTER WE FALL series, the HAPPY CRAZY LOVE series, the FRENCHED series, and the sexy historical SPEAK EASY DUET, set in the 1920s. She lifts her glass to romance readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.

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