KING OF THE SOUTHby CALIA READ
The year is 1919, and the Great War has ended. As everyone picks up the pieces of their lives, I have only copious amounts of alcohol and women keeping me together.
Most of the men I went to war with didn’t make it home, including my best friend, Miles. I thought I knew everything about him until I discovered he made me the executor to his little sister Rainey’s dowry.
Rainey Pleasonton is anything but pleasant. Most men in Charleston found her wild and carefree ways to be terrifying, which explained why she was twenty-eight and still unmarried.
I have sixty days to help her find a husband before she loses her inheritance, her family’s legacy, and I lose the last of my sanity.
The only problem is, I’ve watched her go from a little girl who chased us around with a bow and arrow to the only woman in the South immune to my charm. And the men who were once scared of Rainey? They now find my le savauge beguiling, and I do not care for it one bit …
"A kiss is a kiss, but a touch can break you."
I'm pretty certain, it's at this point in my "Calia Read Reading Career" that I can put her on my list of must read authors. I need to read her and cannot wait for more words to come from her. She's a special someone - I cannot deny that. I enjoy her group, her books, and she's got a comedic side to her as well. I feel like I got pretty lucky when I decided to jump into my first book of hers, The Surviving Trace. That book set my love in motion and it has kept pace with each book since. So now I have moved onto my fourth book of hers and my love affair is only growing. There's an authenticity to her stories that is unrivaled in many of the stories I'm reading or have read. She definitely dominates a corner of my kindle and I will keep feeding this need for her words.
My goal with my reviews is to always share what a book did to me or for me or with me. I want to show you how it made me feel. The emotions I waded through, and why it did that. I feel that my review for this book won't properly deliver the amount of love I have for Livingston and Rainey. This book spoke to me. It gave me all the feelings and emotions, it brought me back to a time that I have already fallen in love with and it put me right back in my favorite fictional world. I can't say it enough HOW MUCH I loved everything about this story and this family.
"Perhaps, when you dislike someone long enough, the animosity can burn bright enough to start a fire."
"Perhaps, when you dislike someone long enough, the animosity can burn bright enough to start a fire."
I love that the barrier of proper versus desire is the weighted gate between these two lovers. Protocol and responsibility; it’s all so intriguing. What a window into the past with restrictions and requirements. This was a best friends' younger sister/enemies to lovers style trope set in the early 1900's, so it hit the historical romance genre as well - one I don't read often, but I do know that Calia Read delivers it with precision. The fact that she was able to showcase not only the proper side of things, she also shared the very reality of a love that was undeniable - this really was the perfect example of an undeniable pull confronting circumstance. A magnetism that could not be fought.
It blew my mind that she was able to bring me back to a place I loved in another book and the storyline didn't suffer, and if anything, it kept the love alive. It kept the 'dream' alive. I was honestly concerned about this series having the same magic as her Surviving Time series did, but she put my fears to rest. Her delivery of this storyline was unmitigated - completely undiluted perfection. Oh my gosh, I loved this one so much!! I love this family, this era....this dynasty. Absolutely love it!!
It blew my mind that she was able to bring me back to a place I loved in another book and the storyline didn't suffer, and if anything, it kept the love alive. It kept the 'dream' alive. I was honestly concerned about this series having the same magic as her Surviving Time series did, but she put my fears to rest. Her delivery of this storyline was unmitigated - completely undiluted perfection. Oh my gosh, I loved this one so much!! I love this family, this era....this dynasty. Absolutely love it!!
"Everything I do seems wrong. But you? You are the only thing that feels right."
Read's words are so descriptive. The way she gives me the sights, the smells, the life of a long ago forgotten world. I smelled the scents, heard the southern drawl, felt the mugginess of the southern summers. It's always amazing to read her stories and be transported to another time and place, and yet, I always feel at home within her stories. She will easily give me story after story to dream upon, and I will happily get lost in them, each and every time.
And let's discuss all that French. It's not just the language of love, but it's clearly Livingston's preferred way to sneak his emotions out. He definitely made me swoon. Livingston has a tongue, and he puts it to good use. Oh my gosh, because wooh-wee. I swooned so hard. I used the translate option on my kindle often, and I just melted every single time he would say something. There was something so intimate about his deepest thoughts and desires being whispered and put out into the universe with his sexy tongue. Grrr, baby. Seriously.....{{drool}} and swoon. I am eagerly awaiting Nat's story, and while I know she is writing that one currently, I am very (im)patiently waiting to see where she takes it. HIGHLY anticipated next book....in one of my new favorite series.
"Je te veux plus que tout."
Our love is timeless.
Will is my fiancé. The shy man I met years ago in college. The person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with.
This is the life I’ve always wanted until finding a picture of four men changes everything…
Etienne says he’s my husband and the year is 1912. He can’t stand the sight of me, but I don’t know why.
Oh, and he’s one of the men from the picture.
I’ve done the impossible and have become trapped in time and I know Etienne is my key to going home.
The more time I spend with Etienne, the further I fall for him, until I’m questioning which time I belong in and if the life I left behind is the one I truly desire.
All I know for certain is I need to survive time.
I need to survive love.
And I need to make it out on the other side alive.
Étienne Lacroix and I had a fire I thought would never die.
Our love was timeless.
An irreversible decision sent me back to the present day with a family I barely recognize, but I am determined to find a way back to Étienne.
I can survive time. But I can’t survive life without him.
Time bends to no one’s demands, so I must fight with everything I have to return to the past. However, I am terrified that the past I once knew might not look the same, and the man who once called me his surviving trace will no longer be waiting for me.
Time bends to no one’s demands but sometimes love does…
My Review: http://bit.ly/2zrWCq8
For Etienne and me, our love has always left a trace.
It reigns over kingdoms, and rules over time.
With Etienne now in the present day, the echoes of time grow louder.
We must face the answers we seek to set things right.
However, we must be incredibly careful. One false move and everything we love will be destroyed.
And this time, could be the end of our surviving trace.
My review: http://bit.ly/2WrD5Tz
~MEET CALIA READ~
Calia Read is the author of the Sloan Brothers Series, The Fairfax Series, Figure Eight and The Surviving Trace. She lives in Ohio with her husband and their five kids. She is currently hard at work on the first book in the Belgrave Dynasty, a spinoff from The Surviving Time Series.
~CONNECT WITH CALIA~
Oh my gosh!!! I can't wait to read this!! Love, love Livingston.😍😍
ReplyDeleteLove your review! You made me smile.
Thank you, Bunny!!! I hope you LOVE it!! It was a great start to this next series.
DeleteYay I can't wait!
DeleteI have some of her books are reallllllly need to start them soon!! This sounds Amazing! Fantastic review my bee.
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait to hear from you!!! She has the most amazing storytelling "voice" and I love it!!
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