Blog Tour: Until We Fly by Courtney Cole {Review+Giveaway}

Welcome to my stop on the Until We Fly blog tour hosted by InkSlingerPR!

Today I am excited to share my review as well as a giveaway with you all!

Until We Fly (Beautifully Broken #4)
    by: Courtney Cole

Publication Date: July 7, 2014
Publisher: Lakehouse Press Inc.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC provided via InkSlingerPR in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 227 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 4/5 stars

Ex-Army Ranger, Brand Killien, has always been good.

A good friend, a good soldier, a good everything. .
The problem is, good hasn’t gotten him anything but a crushed heart.

So after licking his wounds, he decides to move on. And moving on doesn’t include being good anymore.

Bad sounds so much better.

Jaded and detached, Brand is determined to never open himself up to anyone again. It’s not worth the pain. Instead, he becomes closed, hardened, aloof.

But then he’s called back home for a family emergency… a family that he is estranged from. A family that he put out of his mind a long time ago for very good reasons…reasons that involve secrets and pain. Reasons he tried hard to forget.

But home is where the heart is, and it just might be where Brand finds his again.

Why? Because home is where Nora Greene is. A fiery, red-headed spitfire, Nora is a thing from his past. A beautiful, feisty thing. When Brand left, she was away at boarding school.

But she’s back now.

And she wants Brand, scars and all.

 

 

 

Praise for the Beautifully Broken Series:

"I loved If You Stay. Like, really really loved it. The kind of love that kept me reading until 2:40 am and left me crying, smiling, devastated, and elated. The best kind of book love." - Andrea, The Bookish Babe

"Beautiful, raw, gritty, emotional and breath-taking are just a few of the words I can find to describe this book...reading this book was one of the best experiences I have had." -Amanda, Globug and Hootie Need a Book

"In If You Leave, we continue the wild ride Courtney Cole started us on in If You Stay. This raw story of heartbreak and hope solidifies Cole's standing as a rising star in hot contemporary romance." --- New York Times Bestselling author of Down to You, M. Leighton"Another raw, gritty masterpiece with a sexy-as-hell Army Ranger to swoon over." --- K.A. Tucker, author of Ten Tiny Breaths

 

 

 

Sigh. Brand. Brand. Brand. I've been waiting for his story ever since we met him in If You Leave. I was devastated that he was not the male lead in Before We Fall, but upon finishing, realized it was for the best. I am so happy we got to discover who the real Brand is as well as the hardships he's had to endure throughout his life.

 

Pacing: I am having some trouble pinpointing my feelings on the pacing. I can't decide if the book felt too rushed or if it just flew by because I was that engaged. Honestly? I think it's a bit of both. Cole has an incredibly engaging, fluid writing style and I devour her books. However, I do feel out of all of the relationships she's developed, this is the one I was the least emotionally invested in. I think a large part of that is due to the nature of how Brand and Nora came about and I just felt like I missed some critical development in their relationship.

 

Storyline: I have to give Cole mad props. I had NO idea this story would go in the direction that it did. We see early on that Nora has some issues and fears that stem from working for her father's company. However, Nora's fears run much deeper than she lets on and my stomach was a churning mess by the time we find out the true scope of the horrors she's endured.

 

Nora has had a crush on Brand for years. Being four years younger than him, he never really took notice of her. But she certainly did him. She almost has a case of hero worship when it comes to him. After Brand is forced to return home and an incident brings the two together, she can't help but still idolize the sweet, caring boy turned sexy, protective man. However, Brand is determined to get out of town as soon as he's able and knows it wouldn't be right to give Nora the no strings relationship she desperately wants. However, as the two spend time together and get to know one another, it's only a matter of time before his resolve comes crumbling down....

 

Characters: Nora, as I said, has some pretty heavy issues and fears to deal with. We get an idea of what happened, but do not truly find out the extent of it until much later. She knows that Brand embodies everything a GOOD man should be and her attraction to him only fuels her need to be with him. She shamelessly throws herself at him and he thinks she comes across as a bit desperate. He doesn't want a no strings relationship with her, as he feels she's worth more than that. Because of his protective nature, she believes he can make her good again and chase away the demons she's barely keeping at bay.

 

It has been ingrained in her to 'do what a Greene must' in order to uphold the family name. She feels bound to her obligations to her father and his company, sacrificing what SHE really wants in order to do this.

 

Brand's protective nature and need to save people is due in large part to his own past. After tragedy struck at a young age, he carries the weight of guilt no child ever should and has had to endure that from his parents all his life. He was especially protective of his best friend's younger sister, Jacey, and had come to think of her as more. However, Jacey was a very self-destructive individual and constantly kept running to Brand, as she knew he would always be there to save her. This is part of the reason he doesn't want to let Nora in. He knows their time is limited and doesn't want to end up hurt again, having felt like he just wasn't enough to 'save' or keep her.

 

Final Thoughts: I do feel the events following the big reveal with Nora towards the end wrapped up a bit too easily for me. Brand definitely empowers her and she knows she is safe with him, but I have a hard time believing that everything is right in her world now. I would have thought there would be more of an emotional struggle after finding out all she did. We readers didn't see that and instead are immediately fast forwarded to the epilogue.

 

I do think the epilogue was a beautiful one and very fitting for the storyline, however. It has come full circle from when we first met Brand, and I liked being able to see that for not just him and Nora, but also for Jacey and Gabe as well.

 

Cole has a knack for writing beautifully broken characters and I have loved seeing her dissect them and then put them back together. Each one has faced an emotional journey of their own and it is so fulfilling to watch them get from where they once were to the point they are now.

 

 

 

And don’t miss the other Beautifully Broken, now available:

 

IF YOU STAY

IF YOU LEAVE

BEFORE WE FALL

 

 

 

 

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.

 

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

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