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Harts in Love #4
Until Now
A kiss to warm her soul…
Never again, she vows. Now that her abusive ex-husband is in prison, Tamara Jackson has finally found some peace. Life can be sweet—as long as she remembers not to lose herself in another relationship. She pledges to remain strong, independent and single.
But now change is in the air in the form of a sexy, smoking-hot man. Police detective Marshall Jennings is hardly a stranger—Tamara has known him since college, and now his best friend is married to her best friend, Callie Hart. Marshall's athletic build, flirty ways and persistent pursuit soon have Tamara second-guessing her strategy.
Just one little fling, she thinks. No strings, he thinks. But they both thought wrong. Passion quickly cascades into something more—a wave of emotions that may sweep them into everlasting love….
Never again, she vows. Now that her abusive ex-husband is in prison, Tamara Jackson has finally found some peace. Life can be sweet—as long as she remembers not to lose herself in another relationship. She pledges to remain strong, independent and single.
But now change is in the air in the form of a sexy, smoking-hot man. Police detective Marshall Jennings is hardly a stranger—Tamara has known him since college, and now his best friend is married to her best friend, Callie Hart. Marshall's athletic build, flirty ways and persistent pursuit soon have Tamara second-guessing her strategy.
Just one little fling, she thinks. No strings, he thinks. But they both thought wrong. Passion quickly cascades into something more—a wave of emotions that may sweep them into everlasting love….
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
18 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 21, 2013
I love Kayla Perrin and her work. She gave us another thoughtful book. I love happy ending romance stories. I love love. Her detail and story line was perfect.
January 19, 2022
I really liked this last installment. Even though Tamara wasn't one of the sisters it wasn't without all the feels that she had written into the other books in the series. I loved how patient Marshall was with her, because TRUST and BELIEVE he had plenty of it dealing with Tamara and all her indecisiveness. She played the role of "hard to love" very well. Glad that it all worked out in the end, and even had a little drama in there to keep you until the end. Good storyline, and the plot, although a smidgen predictable, it was still GOOD to watch the two main characters fall in love.
February 8, 2014
Oops, I mentioned previously that Kayla Perrin's Harts In Love series has come to an end after three books. My bad, it looks like the author is going down the route of extending the series to include every friend, distant cousin, neighbor, Facebook friends, and Linked in partners. Despite the fact that there is no Hart in the main role in Until Now, this is part of the series. Don't worry, the Harts in question show up to remind everyone that they are still the most perfect people on earth, in incomparable loving bliss with one another.
Tamara Jackson meets her future husband in - where else? - the wedding party of those awesome Harts. A single mother to a scared son, Tamara is a domestic abuse survivor who is finally free when her husband got thrown to jail for daring to give the awesome Harts the finger in a previous book. She bumps into Marshall Jennings, whose best friend is marrying Tamara's best friend in this rather incestuous close-knit circle of physically perfect people. She hasn't seen him since college, but she knows that the police detective is a player. He wants her, so she must not give in. No! Unfortunately, he's not taking no for an answer.
Now, Marshall knows what Tamara had gone through. She is skittish about being touch. So what does our awesome alpha male hero do?
Force himself into her personal space. Touch her without invitation ten seconds into a scene. At one point, she faints from his touch, and his reaction is basically, "She's so hot! I can't wait to boink her! Next time, then!" Mock her efforts to tell him to give her some space, sneer at her when she tries to fight him off because he knows that she's gagging for it, and generally acts like a creepy horny one-eyed tentacled monster that one buys a tazer and a baseball bat for.
Oh, and there's the usual double standard flying around too. Marshall being a player is a virtue, a symbol of his virility, but the women that throw themselves at him are all whores. Now, this is nothing new in a Kimani romance - I won't be surprised to find out that the editors are mandated to reject any book that doesn't describe the hero as a player - and this double standard is always more awkward when the authors would also bring up faith and church in their stories. But it's a double standard that, like many other double standards in the genre, that I could live with provided that the author tells a good story. After all, romance is what it is, and if I was hoping that this double standard would die out when younger authors come onboard, the hope dies quickly without even a whimper when these authors starting churning out new adult romances like the happiest McDonald's workers in the world.
In this book, however, nothing goes well. The pairing of such a hero to a domestic abuse survivor who clearly needs time to get over her issues is horrific. The hero is selfish and self-absorbed to a terrifying degree: when he thinks about Tamara's abuse at her husband's hands, he compares that situation to an ex-girlfriend who dumped him to go back to her ex, with the conclusion that his love "couldn't give her the strength" to leave that ex, how sad for him and his poor wounded little winkie. Oh, and he is a player because every woman in the last sixteen years is like that ex - whores, whores, whores everywhere, oh my god. The implication of his prepubescent thought process is most unfortunate: apparently if you can't leave an ex, you deserve what you get. Well, ain't a woman lucky that Marshall is there with his love to give her the strength to leave the ex, doesn't it? That is, until he decides that she's a whore like all the other women he'd porked and borked, and then it's the same old song and dance all over again.
Until Now - never, more like. It's too bad that I'm a lady of genteel distinction, or else I'd have happily invited my dear doggies to use this book as their toilet.
Tamara Jackson meets her future husband in - where else? - the wedding party of those awesome Harts. A single mother to a scared son, Tamara is a domestic abuse survivor who is finally free when her husband got thrown to jail for daring to give the awesome Harts the finger in a previous book. She bumps into Marshall Jennings, whose best friend is marrying Tamara's best friend in this rather incestuous close-knit circle of physically perfect people. She hasn't seen him since college, but she knows that the police detective is a player. He wants her, so she must not give in. No! Unfortunately, he's not taking no for an answer.
Now, Marshall knows what Tamara had gone through. She is skittish about being touch. So what does our awesome alpha male hero do?
Force himself into her personal space. Touch her without invitation ten seconds into a scene. At one point, she faints from his touch, and his reaction is basically, "She's so hot! I can't wait to boink her! Next time, then!" Mock her efforts to tell him to give her some space, sneer at her when she tries to fight him off because he knows that she's gagging for it, and generally acts like a creepy horny one-eyed tentacled monster that one buys a tazer and a baseball bat for.
Oh, and there's the usual double standard flying around too. Marshall being a player is a virtue, a symbol of his virility, but the women that throw themselves at him are all whores. Now, this is nothing new in a Kimani romance - I won't be surprised to find out that the editors are mandated to reject any book that doesn't describe the hero as a player - and this double standard is always more awkward when the authors would also bring up faith and church in their stories. But it's a double standard that, like many other double standards in the genre, that I could live with provided that the author tells a good story. After all, romance is what it is, and if I was hoping that this double standard would die out when younger authors come onboard, the hope dies quickly without even a whimper when these authors starting churning out new adult romances like the happiest McDonald's workers in the world.
In this book, however, nothing goes well. The pairing of such a hero to a domestic abuse survivor who clearly needs time to get over her issues is horrific. The hero is selfish and self-absorbed to a terrifying degree: when he thinks about Tamara's abuse at her husband's hands, he compares that situation to an ex-girlfriend who dumped him to go back to her ex, with the conclusion that his love "couldn't give her the strength" to leave that ex, how sad for him and his poor wounded little winkie. Oh, and he is a player because every woman in the last sixteen years is like that ex - whores, whores, whores everywhere, oh my god. The implication of his prepubescent thought process is most unfortunate: apparently if you can't leave an ex, you deserve what you get. Well, ain't a woman lucky that Marshall is there with his love to give her the strength to leave the ex, doesn't it? That is, until he decides that she's a whore like all the other women he'd porked and borked, and then it's the same old song and dance all over again.
Until Now - never, more like. It's too bad that I'm a lady of genteel distinction, or else I'd have happily invited my dear doggies to use this book as their toilet.
September 23, 2013
3.5 Divaz Starz
Bouncing back from an abusive relationship is a tough and uphill journey, but Tamara Jackson is determine to leave the memories and relationship behind an forge a quest for independence, freedom and a safe environment for her and her son. Thus she makes the decision to leave Florida and move back to her home in Cleveland for a fresh start. Tamara never expects to run into an old crush in the form of Marshall Jennings and old feelings surface as well as issues Tamara had of Marshall’s womanizing days in school. Marshall is smitten with Tamara and tries to form a relationship with her. The two encounter challenges along the way especially with Tamara’s need for quest to not give another man that much control over her. Will Marshall succeed in changing Tamara’s mind and winning her heart? Readers must download their copy of Until Now for the answer.
Ms. Perrin did a good job with developing the characters, however there were several unresolved events in this storyline. The story started out find but several areas were left open and have the readers wondering was there no solution. The way the storyline was flowing in one direction and when I got to pinnacle of the story, Ms. Perrin never came back and provided a resolution to the event. It was left hanging in the wind and had this reader wondering how it tied to the story. All in all it was a good read.
Deborah A. Fortner
Urban Divaz Reviews
Bouncing back from an abusive relationship is a tough and uphill journey, but Tamara Jackson is determine to leave the memories and relationship behind an forge a quest for independence, freedom and a safe environment for her and her son. Thus she makes the decision to leave Florida and move back to her home in Cleveland for a fresh start. Tamara never expects to run into an old crush in the form of Marshall Jennings and old feelings surface as well as issues Tamara had of Marshall’s womanizing days in school. Marshall is smitten with Tamara and tries to form a relationship with her. The two encounter challenges along the way especially with Tamara’s need for quest to not give another man that much control over her. Will Marshall succeed in changing Tamara’s mind and winning her heart? Readers must download their copy of Until Now for the answer.
Ms. Perrin did a good job with developing the characters, however there were several unresolved events in this storyline. The story started out find but several areas were left open and have the readers wondering was there no solution. The way the storyline was flowing in one direction and when I got to pinnacle of the story, Ms. Perrin never came back and provided a resolution to the event. It was left hanging in the wind and had this reader wondering how it tied to the story. All in all it was a good read.
Deborah A. Fortner
Urban Divaz Reviews
September 2, 2015
This was an ok read but Tamara pissed me off. I'm glad she was able to escape her abusive husband and that he was sent to jail for a really long time. Even the move to Cleveland was good for her. She was trying to do go for herself and her son.
But ugh! She stayed judging Marshall! Based on the one sided info she had from a cousin he dated like 15 years ago! From the moment she laid eyes on him she judged him. Even after he explained his history she still judged him. And a pretty girl talks to him and she automatically thinks he's a player. That got on my last nerve!
And he was way too nice. He did all this stuff for her that she didn't ask for. It was sweet but a bit overbearing. That man let a women he slept with once and was still getting to know borrow his car. SMH
Their whole relationship irked me, despite the hot sex. Hell, for someone who wasn't gonna date and whatnot, she jumped in his bed pretty quickly. She was so hot & cold with him tho technically she was hot all the time for him. All her mixed signals got on my nerves. I kept wondering why he would go back for more cause she kept changing her mind. Ugh!!
I don't remember if I've read the other books in the series. Maybe I would have understood her better since they were introduced in previous stories. But man, I just felt something was missing in this for me.
But ugh! She stayed judging Marshall! Based on the one sided info she had from a cousin he dated like 15 years ago! From the moment she laid eyes on him she judged him. Even after he explained his history she still judged him. And a pretty girl talks to him and she automatically thinks he's a player. That got on my last nerve!
And he was way too nice. He did all this stuff for her that she didn't ask for. It was sweet but a bit overbearing. That man let a women he slept with once and was still getting to know borrow his car. SMH
Their whole relationship irked me, despite the hot sex. Hell, for someone who wasn't gonna date and whatnot, she jumped in his bed pretty quickly. She was so hot & cold with him tho technically she was hot all the time for him. All her mixed signals got on my nerves. I kept wondering why he would go back for more cause she kept changing her mind. Ugh!!
I don't remember if I've read the other books in the series. Maybe I would have understood her better since they were introduced in previous stories. But man, I just felt something was missing in this for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2015
I think this was my first read by Kayla Perrin and I must say I loved it. After being in an unhealthy marriage Tamara found herself making a few decisions with her sons best interest at heart. After everything with her marriage, Tamara made a vow to not get caught up in another relationship. Going back home things began to change once she sees Marshall after so many years. It took a while but Tamara learned just how wrong everyones perception of Marshall was. I liked whatever they had going on but Tamara blew a lot of things out of proportion. Michael knew what was up even at his young age. I just wanted Tamara to finally be true to herself and allow herself to love and be loved again. She was a strong person but at times it was a little questionable. With the good and the bad occurring around her, Tamara had to finally accept some turn of events.
January 7, 2014
Tamara is newly divorce and she just sends her ex-husband to jail for abuse. She decided to make a move to Cleveland to be near to her close friend and to start her new life with her son. She reach Cleveland in time for her best friend’s sister wedding reception and she also met her old crush, Marshall who is a womaniser in their younger days. Seeing him evoke the old feeling that Tamara has before and it is the least thing that she wants now. Marshall is smitten with the new Tamara and knowing that her perception of him, he strives to prove to her that he is not what she think he was. This is a story of failed love and the struggle of Tamara to accept a new love after the past experience that she has.
February 14, 2014
This is a story about a woman who was abused by her husband. After pressing charges aginst him, she picks up and moves her and her son to Cleveland, where she grew up. She doesn't want to enter into another relationship because of her past. When Marshall shows interest in her, she tries to ignore him. The problem is he's the best friend and co-worker of her best friends husband - so he's constantly around.
Eventually the two of them get together, but she has trust issues and thwarts him at every turn. Her so, of course, has a different idea. He's crazy about Marshall and soon realizes that Marshall loves his Mom.
Eventually the two of them get together, but she has trust issues and thwarts him at every turn. Her so, of course, has a different idea. He's crazy about Marshall and soon realizes that Marshall loves his Mom.
September 17, 2013
A deeply emotional read about two people with carefully guarded hearts and old wounds. Set in the context of the Black community, these two people have been successful in many aspects of their lives except their personal love relationships. Both have been "beaten up" in more ways than one. It's a sizzling affair between them but neither were prepared to deal with results they didn't anticipate. I really entertaining read.
December 27, 2013
Tamara Jackson has survived an abusive relationship, but she is grateful she never burned the bridges she crossed. Police Detective Marshall Jennings is a long lost college friend as life hits another hard knock she is grateful for this bridge
September 3, 2013
Great Story! Loved Marshall. He was a strong man with a big heart. Tamara was a women with lots of baggage. She was trying to start over. In the end love prevailed.
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December 29, 2014Miniseries: Harts in Love
December 29, 2013
Great read a very happy ending. I don't like to tell the story but a life learning lesson, things in life happen for a reason,
January 31, 2014
Excellent read. Was hooked from page one! I love a good series and Ms. Kayla ended this one with a bang!!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews