My Thoughts
Against the Wall is a second chance love story of two people with pasts that invade their present. Eric is that bad boy who ends up in jail. When he is released Eric wants nothing more than to have a different life working as a tattoo artist. Years ago he left Meghan behind and now he wants her back in his life. Unfortunately she is off limits according to her brother that he is living with now. Meghan has had her own issues with an abusive man that she has finally left. This monster isn't going to let go of her easily though. Watching these two fight their feelings for each other was a little frustrating, but I enjoyed their story.
I give Against the Wall 4 hearts!
Against the Wall is a second chance love story of two people with pasts that invade their present. Eric is that bad boy who ends up in jail. When he is released Eric wants nothing more than to have a different life working as a tattoo artist. Years ago he left Meghan behind and now he wants her back in his life. Unfortunately she is off limits according to her brother that he is living with now. Meghan has had her own issues with an abusive man that she has finally left. This monster isn't going to let go of her easily though. Watching these two fight their feelings for each other was a little frustrating, but I enjoyed their story.
I give Against the Wall 4 hearts!
Fans of Katie McGarry, Simone Elkeles, and Tammara
Webber will love Against the Wall! As teenagers, they fell for each other
despite the odds. But now that Eric and Meghan are all grown up, they’re
reunited by fierce passion and dangerous secrets.
Eric Hernandez is the bad boy of every schoolgirl’s
fantasies—and every mother’s nightmares. But after serving time for manslaughter,
he’s ready to turn his life around. He just needs a chance to prove himself as
a professional tattoo artist. The one thing that keeps him going is the memory
of the innocent beauty he loved and left behind.
Meghan Young’s world isn’t as perfect as it looks. The
preacher’s daughter is living a lie, especially now that Eric is back. Tougher,
harder, and sexier than ever, he might be the only person she can trust. But
there’s no telling what he’ll do to protect her if he learns the truth, and that’s
a risk Meghan won’t let him take. And yet, back in the arms of the troubled boy
with the artist’s soul, Meghan can’t help surrendering to the man he’s become.
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Noah exchanges a glance with April and takes Jenny into the
kitchen. It’s awkward, being on his turf. I don’t belong here. I belong in
Castle Park, the down-and-out neighborhood where I used to live with my
grandma. Now she’s in Mexico with the rest of my family, and I have nowhere
else to go. Nowhere safe, that is. I’m supposed to stay in a stable
environment, and I can’t leave San Diego. It’s one of the conditions of my
parole.
“Let’s get you settled,” April says brightly.
I grab my backpack and follow her. On the phone she told me
I could sleep in the den. It looks sort of like an office with a small bed in
the corner. I spot a vintage desk and an old-school record player I recognize
as Meghan’s.
I’m struck by memories of the last day I spent with her. She
had a room upstairs back then. When we first met, it was just Meghan and Noah
living here. She put on some music and I laid her down on her bed. I took
everything she had to offer and then some. I can’t even bring myself to regret
it. That memory, more than any other, has sustained me on lonely nights in my
cell. I’ve jerked off to a thousand variations of it.
I know that Meghan moved out a few months ago, but I imagine
her lingering presence. The smell of her hair on the pillows.
“This was Meghan’s room?” I say, my voice hoarse.
April opens the closet, which is half-full of girl clothes.
“I can ask her to move her stuff.”
“No,” I say. I don’t need the space; everything I own fits
inside a backpack.
“Are you sure?”
I sit on the bed, nodding. This arrangement is temporary,
anyway. “Which room are you going to use for the nursery?”
April waves her hand in the air. “I want the crib in my
room. You can stay here as long as you like.”
I wonder if Noah is on board with this. He can’t be thrilled
about having an ex-con under the same roof with his pregnant wife and
stepdaughter. He got promoted to the homicide division, but money might be
tight. I should cut out as soon as possible. I’m not a charity case, and even
though Meghan’s not here, it doesn’t feel right to inhabit her space.
It feels . . . dangerous. Tempting.
I’ll never forget the look on her face when I told her I
didn’t want her. She stared at me with soft blue eyes and trembling lips, pale
from shock. Hardest fucking lie I ever told—and I’m an accomplished liar. But I
couldn’t let her waste three years on me. I couldn’t let myself wish for
something that far beyond my reach. I had to be cruel to be kind.
At least, that was how I justified my actions three years
ago. Looking back, maybe I just wanted to be a dick. Getting locked up has that
effect. It touches every raw nerve and stirs every violent tendency. It stokes
prejudices and festers resentments. The only acceptable outlet for male
prisoners is rage.
“When you’re ready, come out to the backyard. Noah’s
grilling some carne asada.”
My stomach rumbles loud enough for her to hear. Smiling, she
slips out the door and down the hall. She looks happy. That’s the difference in
her, along with her rounded belly and fuller curves. She’s not exhausted
anymore. Noah takes care of her. Or she takes care of him.
They take care of each other.
April hooked up with Noah around the same time I started
seeing Meghan. He interviewed her about the murder of one of her coworkers, a
waitress at Club Suave. Cops aren’t supposed to date anyone involved in their
investigations, but apparently he couldn’t resist. They fell in love before I
went to prison and got married shortly after.
Noah has been good to April and Jenny. Much better than Raul
was. Even so, my urge to leave grows stronger. I don’t want to cause problems
or be a burden to anyone. I’ve never been part of a nice family. I don’t know
how to act civilized anymore.
This isn’t my scene.
I glance around, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. There’s
a nightstand by the bed. I open the first drawer and peer inside. Unlike the
closet, it’s empty. I close it in mild disappointment. I’m not sure what I
expected to find in there. Some random girl stuff, like makeup and perfume.
I remove the clothes from my backpack and toss them into the
empty drawer. I have three shirts, an extra pair of pants, and some basketball
shorts. Then I bring out my prized possession: my portfolio.
I like art. I can draw almost anything from memory. My
favorite medium is spray paint on a fresh concrete wall, but in prison the
materials are limited. Most of my drawings are ink on lined paper.
I also do ink on skin. It’s how I survived in the joint.
I was only twenty when I went in. I’m about five foot ten,
not the biggest guy on the block. I’ve got muscles and I’m strong, but I’ll
never be huge. I have a lean build and features they call handsome. To say that
I needed protection is an understatement. Despite my unlucky size and face, I
had three things going for me when I went in. First, I was down for CVL, my
local clique. The Chula Vista Locos pay dues to the Mexican Mafia, also known
as La Eme. So I was already connected to a powerful prison gang.
The second advantage I had was my best friend, Junior. We
both got locked up at the same time and sent to the same prison. It’s not
unusual for San Diego criminals to do sentences in Chino or San Quentin—they’re
the two largest correctional facilities in the state. Junior wasn’t in my
cellblock, but we saw each other in the yard. He became a captain for La Eme.
If anyone fucked with me, Junior made them pay.
The third advantage was my talent for art. I can hold my own
in a fight, but I didn’t want to earn my keep that way. I didn’t want to be
anyone’s bitch, either. Instead of offering those services, I sold drawings and
tattoos. I was the best in my block.
Tattooing has been the only bright spot in my life. Without
my art, and my best friend, I’d probably be dead.
Jill Sorenson is the RITA-nominated author of
more than a dozen romantic-suspense novels. She has a degree in literature and
writing from California State University. Her books have been selected as
Red-Hot Reads by Cosmopolitan magazine, and have received starred reviews from
Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. Sorenson currently lives in
the San Diego area with her family. She’s a soccer mom who loves nature,
coffee, reading, Twitter, and reality TV.
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