Purple-haired, sharp-tongued Reese MacKay knows all about making the wrong choice; she’s made plenty of them in her twenty-odd-years. So when her impulsive, short-lived marriage ends in heartbreak, she decides it’s time for a change. She moves to Miami with the intention of hitting reset on her irresponsible life, and she does quite well…aside from an epically humiliating one-night stand in Cancun with a hot blond bouncer named Ben. Thank God she can get on a plane and leave that mistake behind her.
Football scholarship and frat parties with hot chicks? Part of charmer Ben Morris’s plan. Blown knee that kills any hope of a professional football career? So not part of the plan. Luckily Ben has brains to go with his knockout looks and magnetism. After three long years of balancing law school with his job as a bouncer at Penny’s Palace, he’s ready to lead a more mature life—until his first day of work, when he finds himself in the office of that crazy, hot chick he met in Cancun. The one he hasn’t stopped thinking about.
If Ben truly were a smart guy, he’d stay clear of Reese. She’s the boss’s stepdaughter and it’s been made very clear that office romances are grounds for dismissal. Plus, rumor has it she’s trouble. The only problem is, he likes trouble, especially when it’s so good-looking…
Reese
“You’ve got
this all figured out, don’t you, Don Juan.” I half-fall, half-lean against the
wall to balance myself as I kick off my flip-flops. Once I got past the whole
red shirt issue—I hold a special kind of grudge against that color—I realized
that Nicki may have called forth the perfect exorcism candidate after all. As
if his dazzling blue eyes and deep dimples weren’t enough to win me over, the
second Ben pulled his shirt off in the middle of the lounge and stood there
like an arrogant bastard, that incredibly ripped body of his on proud display,
I knew there would be no pretenses with this guy. No confusion. No false
promises of a life together. Or even a phone call.
But what
makes Ben the most compelling candidate is the fact that he has effectively
distracted me from all thoughts Jared. I mean, he’s about as opposite as you
can get. Ben is rugged and blond, whereas Jared is “pretty” and dark. Jared’s
chest and arms are covered in tats, while Ben’s body boasts a naked—and
appealing—canvas. And where Jared is quiet and introverted, Ben is as outgoing
and obnoxious as you can get.
An
interesting bonus? He’s had me laughing all night long. Granted, I was usually
laughing at him, but still.
Thanks to
Ben, I’ve had several hours’ respite from excruciating thoughts of my
ex-husband and his elaborate wedding to her
in Savannah, Georgia, happening at this very moment. I only know about the
wedding because I stalk Jared’s Facebook profile daily. While he has never been
good at posting status updates, Caroline could join an Olympic Facebook team
the way she plasters pictures and wedding plans and “I love you’s” on his wall
like unsightly graffiti.
Unfortunately,
even a guy like Ben couldn’t cure me of all thoughts completely and the second
they crept out from the dark recesses—the moment I felt the drunk-girl tears
about to erupt—I told Ben that he was bringing me to his hotel room.
Wandering
farther in, I throw an arm toward the bed not covered in his clothing and
suitcase. “You sleep in this one?”
Heavy
footsteps approach behind me. “Yep.”
“Okay
then.” I lean forward to shove everything from the unused bed.
“What are
you doing?” Ben asks with a chuckle.
“I’m
assuming you’ve had your other conquests
over there,” I mutter, his suitcase making a loud thud as it hits the ground,
the contents spilling out. “I want an untainted bed.”
“Hey,
you’re the one who grabbed me by my belt and demanded that I bring you here. I
was just as happy hanging out by the bar.”
I snort.
“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as bad a case of eyeball static cling as
tonight.” If his eyes weren’t on my boobs or my legs, they were glued to my
face. I’ll admit, his undivided attention on me felt damn good. A real ego
booster when I needed it most.
**Warning:
This is the fourth book in the series. However, you do NOT have to read the
first three to understand this one since they are all standalones. It is HIGHLY
recommended though, purely because this is one of my favorite series ever**
I totally adore the Ten Tiny Breaths series and K.A. Tucker. I think out of all the
books this was the most fun to read. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t planning
on reading the rest of this series after I fell in love with Livie and Ashton
in One Tiny Lie, but I just. Can’t.
Stop. They’re too good. I was only a little intrigued by Ben when we met him in
Ten Tiny Breaths, so I NEVER thought
his book would captivate me like this. I decided to start it at one in the
morning. Finished with it by 3:30 am. I devoured it. It was impossible not to.
““I had hoped you were too smart to get into
this kind of trouble.”
“I guess even smart girls can make a
clusterfuck of their lives, can’t they?” I mutter eve though his words sting.
Because they’re true.”
Like the rest of the books in this series, Five Ways to Fall has a unique plot that
I will only briefly touch upon so as to not spoil the rest of the book. Reese
has had it rough for most of her life. She virtually has no parental figures
until she reunites with her step-dad in the beginning of this book. She also
unfortunately got married at 19 years old only to be cheated on a few months
later. So yeah, when we first meet Reese she’s not at her finest. But we get to
watch her grow into who she is supposed to be throughout the course of this
book. Then there’s Ben. He just passed the Bar exam and now he gets a job. At
the same law firm where Reese is working for her step-dad. And you know their
relationship just has to be forbidden…
“Word to the wise: if you have to fight over
a guy, he’s not worth it. Go for the one who’s waiting for you.”
I don’t know if I would have loved the book as
much as I did if it weren’t for how fantastically written the characters were. Reese
was so relatable and easy to fall for. She was smart, but she was just handed
the wrong cards. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her grow up in the book. She was
feisty and definitely not afraid to speak her mind. I loved how independent she
was and how she faces problems that almost every girl goes through. Watching
her and Ben fall for each other was such a swoon-worthy journey as they
transitioned from enemies to friends to lovers.
“This woman has turned me upside down. Ben
Morris does not concern himself with his kind of shit. Ben Morris goes with the
flow. Ben Morris is fucking Switzerland!”
Ben was basically a huge surprise for me. I didn’t
really think much of him besides some comic relief in the previous books, but
Ben has a past we don’t know about. He may be a womanizer, but it’s just
because he loves women. Plain and simple. He really is just a laid-back guy who
is doing the best with the hand he was dealt. I also love how laid-back he is.
Ben manages to weasel his way into Reese’s life because he makes it so easy for
her to let him in. He was even easier to fall in love with than Reese was. With
the alternating POVs, it’s impossible to not be entranced by this story as they
desperately fight their attraction for one another.
“I want her more. She’s everything I never
knew I wanted. She’s everything I never knew I could have. She just…fits with
me. So perfectly.”
And of course no Ten Tiny Breaths book would be complete without some appearances
from the rest of the gang. We see them all as this book overlaps a little with Four Seconds to Lose and there’s lots of
updates with them. I am still in awe of K.A. Tucker’s flawless writing. The
chemistry and vibe between Reese and Ben is nothing like the previous couples.
They touch upon some emotional, heavy subjects, but not once did Five Ways to Fall seem like a dark
romance. Their banter and easy connection make it easy for you to root for them
and believe in love all over again.
“Don’t you dare let me fall into this water!
It’s fucking freezing!”
“Let you fall? Reese, you should know by now
that I’d never let that happen.”
Don’t forget the rest of the Ten Tiny Breaths Series…
...and you can Preorder…
ABOUT K.A. TUCKER: Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.
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