From the TBR Pile: Review and Excerpt of Turned Up: Taking Chances Book 3 by Erin Nicholas

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Review and Excerpt of Turned Up: Taking Chances Book 3 by Erin Nicholas

Author: Erin Nicholas
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Date of publication: August 2017

Dillon Alexander has been Kit Derby’s nemesis since third grade, when he beat her in the school spelling bee. They’ve been competing ever since, driving each other to be the best at everything from science fairs to bake sales. While working together one night during their senior year, they stopped bickering long enough to share an emotionally charged kiss. But a tragedy that same night left them both racked with guilt, driving Dillon out of town and leaving Kit determined to keep her distance.

Now an emergency room physician, Dillon has returned to their hometown of Chance, Nebraska. Soon he and Kit fall back into old habits, sparring in public while trying to stay out of each other’s arms. But when a blizzard traps them overnight at Kit’s grandmother’s farmhouse, the real competition begins: Who will be the first to give in to the feelings they’ve denied for a decade?

Turned Up is the third book in the Taking Chances series. I have read the first two books and you can check out my thoughts on those later in the month in our September Mini Musings post. Having now read all three, I can say that you can read this one as a stand alone. It held up pretty well even though the couples from the first two books show up in this one.

The story picks up about seven months after the events of the second book, Tangled Up. This is Kit and Dillon's story. As with the first two, it's a friends to lovers troupe and I enjoyed it. This couple has been in competition since grade school. They have always tried to one up the other one. They have also secretly loved each other for years. I was rooting for them to make it. The story is a bit short, only taking place over a couple of weeks, but their history made it believable.

This is a fun series and one I highly recommend. I look forward to seeing what this author comes up with next.

Excerpt:

The air in the cab of the truck heated easily twenty degrees as Dillon sat staring at her. Kit bit back a smile. She felt rattled when she was around him on a regular basis. It was nice to know that she could make the superhero doctor speechless.

Finally he shook his head, then pulled off his hat and gloves and tossed them onto the seat between them. “Thank you for that. With those memories, I’m not going to need anything else keeping me warm for a while.”

He put the truck in drive, and Kit told herself she should feel smug for shocking him.

But, strangely, she felt like he’d turned the tables on her. Again.

***

Cute was not a word that Dillon would have typically assigned to Kit Derby.

Hot, sexy, snooty, sophisticated, and classy. Those were all spot-on. But right now, sitting on his passenger seat, wearing his stocking hat pulled down over her ears and his gloves, which were huge on her, with her expensive high-fashion coat and scarf, hospital scrubs, and white tennis shoes, she definitely looked cute.

And he wanted to scoop her up into his arms and replay every one of the memories she’d just put into his head.

Damn her. This woman knotted him up like no other. Ever.

It was bad enough that he’d found her in his office looking up information on episiotomy. She was always trying to get better and learn more, and he respected the hell out of that. Because he was the same way. Which was why he’d headed back to Sarah’s room to be sure she was doing okay emotionally after the delivery.

Kit got into his head; there was no denying it. For the most part, he thought that was a good thing. At least when it was professional. When it got personal—and it didn’t get much more personal than talking about hand jobs—then it was . . . not as good a thing.

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About the Author:

I've been reading romance since my mom first let me into her book cupboard when I was about fourteen. LaVyrle Spencer, Julie Garwood, Debbie Macomber... they took my 'happily ever after' ideas from animated princesses to real people in the real world.

I've been writing romance almost as long. Many a family car trip was spent with my head bent over a spiral notebook in the back seat. I'll confess that my very first attempts at fiction were fantasy and paranormals, influenced by my father's love of the Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the original Alice in Wonderland. If Harry Potter had been around, I'm sure he would have been on the bedtime story shelf as well.

But it wasn't long until I started writing about true love and that's where I've been ever since.

I'm so thrilled to be able to share these stories with you! I hope that they make you smile, sigh, maybe even choke up a little. Most of all, I hope that they help you believe in magical things like first kisses, the spark of passion, and the power of true love.

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