Reality Bites! Let's Get Lost!: Blog Tour: Always You by Stephanie Rose

Title: Always You

Author: Stephanie Rose

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: March 26, 2015

To Samantha Christensen, Lucas Hunter was always the guy—the sexy, smart and unattainable man she pined for throughout college. To Lucas, she was a treasured friend, a younger sister he felt the need to protect. She had a choice—to wait and hope, or to settle.

When they meet again years later, Lucas looks at Samantha and sees a woman he wants—even though she’s not free to take. As they renew their friendship he finds he’s falling hard, and can’t accept any less than all of her.

Samantha realizes there’s hope with Lucas. Will she finally have a chance to be happy with the man she’s always loved, or will obligations and insecurities stand in their way?

Can Samantha and Lucas convince each other that they belong together? That it was Always You?

As soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I knew it was right up my alley. A possible love triangle and second chance romance all rolled up into one? Sign this girl up!

Sam has spent her college years crushing on Lucas. Everyone saw it, except the one person she wanted to, him. On the night before he is to move away she is hoping to finally clue him into her feelings. But things just don't pan out and her chance is lost.

Fast forward years later and she is married with a child. Lucas was just a distant memory. But through the powers of facebook, they reconnect.

I had a hard time with this book. We were thrown into Sam and Lucas' relationship with no real build up. While the author did incorporate some flashbacks into the chapters, it just didn't flow for me.

But I could have lived with that, it's the lack of their current relationship that was tough for me to get past. There were several large jumps in time that left me feeling disconnected. While I don't need a day by day play of their relationship, I need to feel and see the build up of their connection.

I also didn't ever truly understand how they were supposed to have been friends in college yet he never bothered to contact her once he moved or vice versa.

Overall, the writing was good and the storyline had great potential. I just had a problem connecting with the characters due to the jumps in time and no real back story.

“Shit, Sam! Baby Girl, are you okay?”

God, please no. Calling me Baby Girl now was like sticking a knife directly into my already broken heart. Lucas lifted me off the ground to help me stand. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. I always loved when he did that, but now it hurt like hell. It was torturous, but I let myself feel him one last time. I wanted to remember the way he smelled, how his arms felt like home—but he wasn’t my home anymore, and it killed me to know that.

I pushed out of his hold and looked at his face. His beautiful face. His blue eyes were still glassy, but they were red now. I didn’t want to believe what I saw. I wanted to look at the unshed tears growing in Lucas’s eyes and think it meant he really loved me, and he would never ever hurt me.

I saw an empty cab coming up the block and raised my arm to hail it. I must’ve fallen hard as blood trickled down my wrist when I held my hand up. The cab slowed to a stop and I headed to the curb where it waited. I willed myself to stop crying at least until I got inside.

Lucas grabbed my arm again, shaking his head. “You can’t leave like this.” His voice was cracking. “I need you, I love you. You know me, Sam.”

I shook my head sadly. “No. No, I don’t.”