Title: Ten Below Zero
Author: Whitney Barbetti
Release Date: August 28, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Synopsis
“In here,” he said, pushing on the skin above my heart, “you're ten below zero. And you’re closer to death than I am.”
My name is Parker. My body is marked with scars from an attack I don’t remember. I don’t want to remember. I choose to live my life by observation, not through experience. While people are laughing and kissing and connecting, I’m in the corner. Watching them live. I’m indifferent to everything, everyone. The only emotion I feel with any kind of depth is annoyance, and I feel it often.
A text message sent to the wrong number proves to be my undoing.
His name is Everett, but I call him rude. He’s pushy, he’s arrogant, he crowds my personal space, and worst of all: he makes me feel.
He chooses to wear all black, all the time, as if he’s waiting to attend a funeral. Probably because he is.
Everett is dying. And he’s spending his final days living, truly living. In doing so, he’s forcing me to feel, to heal. To come face to face with the demons I suppressed in my memory.
He hurts me, he fulfills me, he completes me. And still, he's dying.
My name is Parker. My body is marked with scars from an attack I don’t remember. I don’t want to remember. I choose to live my life by observation, not through experience. While people are laughing and kissing and connecting, I’m in the corner. Watching them live. I’m indifferent to everything, everyone. The only emotion I feel with any kind of depth is annoyance, and I feel it often.
A text message sent to the wrong number proves to be my undoing.
His name is Everett, but I call him rude. He’s pushy, he’s arrogant, he crowds my personal space, and worst of all: he makes me feel.
He chooses to wear all black, all the time, as if he’s waiting to attend a funeral. Probably because he is.
Everett is dying. And he’s spending his final days living, truly living. In doing so, he’s forcing me to feel, to heal. To come face to face with the demons I suppressed in my memory.
He hurts me, he fulfills me, he completes me. And still, he's dying.
Review by Jahy
"4.5**squeeze. squeeze . squeeze** STARS"
.. and she provides her readers with something different, you may have heard of it---> Mature Adults Syndrome. I did not know of said syndrome prior to reading TBZ but something about the blurb caught my attention so I requested it.
Ten Below Zero starts off by introducing the reader to Parker.She's a 21 year old introvert by choice. The MC doesn't interact with people, she watches them. Parker has no recollection of the attack on her 3 years ago, but she has the physical scars to prove it. Now she did grate my nervous by harping on her damn scars at the start of the book, but my man Tristan calls her out on that shit (and there is a reason) so in the end, it didn't affect my rating.
One night while lounging around in her room, doing absolutely nothing, Parker receives a text message from a stranger asking if she'd met them at a local bar. This text message is not meant for her but instead of informing said messenger, Parker throws caution to the wind and agrees to meet…. Okay, if I'm being perfectly honest I thought it was a slightly farfetched that she would agree to meet a stranger when she doesn't talk to anyone BUT there wouldn't be a touching story to be read if she hadn't so..
The mystery text messenger is named Everett and I LOVED his characters . Some readers may find him bland, rude, maybe a little obnoxious….. I'm not one of them.. Everett is NOT a alpha male, he's an honest male. Yup, he has no filter and that is what I loved most about him. I never felt that forced macho side that I often do with a number of female authors . Everett is a 28 year old , middle class, recently unemployed male … who is dying of cancer. Everrett and Parker's first encounter is short lived as Parker runs away… WAIT!! I never said the book was perfect but Parker realized meeting a stranger was a crazy idea.
Anyway, back to the story. Parker learns via text message that she left her credit card at the bar and for reasons beyond her, she agrees to meet Everett again. There second meeting doesn't fare much better but they have a few more encounters anyway ...during one in which Everett ask Parker to go on a road trip with him.. Yeah, remember that cancer I told you about? Everett wants to spend his last days exploring new places, facing his fears , having as much fun as possible and mostly importantly he wants his " One sweet moment, one moment in his memory to hold on to when his soul leaves this earth. One moment to be remembered for." ***boom*** Mission completed. He owned me w/ this statement.
Everett and Preston journey extends well beyond the open rode. If you are looking for perfect characters-->Sorry they are both broken and scarred. If you are hoping to spend 200 pages reading about MC's salivating over each others bodily juices--> NOPE,there are a few sensual scenes( the mirror scene. YUM!), but the main focus of the story is about Parker and Everett breaking down personal barriers and living life to fullest.. For however long that might be.
" I want that moment to live for. "Don't we all?
**ARC was kindly provided on exchange for an honest review**
View all my reviews
Excerpt
“You would know,” I said, snatching a bra from his hands.
Everett shrugged. “It’s underwear. More specifically, it’s your underwear. I’m intrigued.”
“Yeah, well don’t get any ideas.”
Everett leaned back into the pillows, resting his hands behind his head again. “Oh, but I have a lot of ideas.” He winked at me.
I stalked away towards my dresser and began pulling things from drawers. When I turned back around, Everett was holding another bra.
“You don’t wear padding,” he commented, his fingers feeling along the lined cup.
“No.”
“I like that.”
My hands stilled. And then I moved them again. “Why?” I didn’t care. Really, I didn’t.
“Lies.”
I turned around. “Lies?”
“I like the truth. In every way.” He seemed lost in thought so I turned back around and packed my things.
“Am I really doing this?” I asked myself.
“Yes, you are.”
I turned around again. “Why?”
It wasn’t a question he should know the answer to. But he did. “Because you hate and you love the way I make you feel.”
I was naked under his gaze. Skin was just that: skin. But to see your soul stripped, laid bare for the eyes of someone you barely knew – that was terrifying. I’d walk down the street naked a hundred times before I would let someone see what lay underneath.
I’d spent my life alone. Bounced from foster home to foster home. When my tastes outgrew my age as a teenager, I traded boys for men and found myself still alone. I reveled in the loneliness. No one could hurt me but me, and did I really care if I hurt me? Did I care? If I found pleasure in anything, it was my lack of feeling.
And that’s how I knew, when Everett told me not to fall in love with him, that I wouldn’t. I didn’t love myself. And wasn’t loving someone also loving yourself, the parts that saw the beauty in other people? I didn’t have that part. And I didn’t want it.
“I don’t love anything,” I said.
“I know.” His eyes were unsmiling.
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00N272BRS
Amazon CA: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00N272BRS
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00N272BRS
About the Author
I am the author of new adult romance novels. He Found Me (May 2014) is the first in a two-part series. Ten Below Zero (August 2014) is a standalone.I am married with two boys. When I’m not changing diapers or cutting food into tiny bites, I escape to Starbucks for hours. I could drink my weight in their black iced tea.
I love music and have a playlist for everything.
I have about 20 bacon things in my fridge.
Connect with Whitney
Giveaway!
Signed copy of TEN BELOW ZERO and a $10 amazon gift card.
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