Books that are a must read: It's Live Rough & Tumble by Frankie Love

RELEASE BLITZ

Title: Rough & Tumble

Series: Coming Home to the Mountain #1

Author: Frankie Love

Genre: Small Town Romance

Release Date: January 18, 2022

BLURB

When you grow up in Home, WA, the road always leads you to… well, home.

I’m Bartlett Rough, and I’ve never left the mountain where I was raised with my six brothers and sisters. Cheesy as it may sound, Home really is where the heart is.

But we’re all growing up, building cabins of our own, taking claim of our land. Things are changing.

I feel that more than ever, when the winter winds sweep Abby into town.

This wild, fierce beauty is everything I’m not.

I own the hardware store, know everyone in this town by name, and am expected to settle down with someone local.

Abby tumbled into town on a train, with nothing to her name, clutching her dog Hijinx, and holding onto her memory of Home from when she came through here years ago.

I’ve played it safe my whole damn life.

After one night with Abby, I have someone to fight for.

A reason to risk it all.

But falling for her has no guarantees -- she could leave as fast as she came, taking my heart along with her.

Coming Home to the Mountain is a new filthy-sweet, high heat series by Frankie Love featuring rugged mountain men who fall hard, fast and forever. And with the women they love at their side, they choose to put family first.

In this series, Dad shows up, sister’s remember to call, big brother’s always look out for you, and Mom knows to keep an extra seat at the table for Sunday dinner. Not every family is perfect -- and the Rough family has its own set of problems -- but at the end of the day, they know what matters: Coming Home.

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59685099-rough-and-tumble

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EXCERPTS

Now it’s my turn to smile. I want to reach for her hand. I want to hold it. I want to do more than hold it. I want to hold her. Hug her, take care of her. She seems lost, but not in a fragile, breakable way. She seems lost in a way that says she really does need to come home, here.

“Rye is certainly the oldest. You'll know that when you meet him, but he is different than me. He's an ass, if I'm going to say it bluntly. Me? I'm the nice guy. The guy who plays it safe. Who always does what he's told and who makes his mama happy.”

“Ah, I see. You're a mama's boy,” Abby teases.

“Hey,” I say, pulling up to the big old house where I was raised. Abby's eyes widen as she takes it in. The house is huge. “My parents own a construction company called Rough House,” I clarify. “My hardware store, Hammer Home, was my dad's shop for years, and their office is above my store. They build custom homes all over the mountainside. My dad built this home with his own two hands.”

“It's incredible,” Abby says.

The headlights on my truck show off every big bay window of the two-story house, with attic rooms. There's a big barn and a garage with a rec room over the three bays.

I open my car door and jog around to open hers. “I'd say, for being the Rough family, we're pretty gentle, but I wouldn’t want that rumor to spread.”

“Says the mama’s boy,” Abby teases.

I take Hijinx from her and hold him in my arms, not wanting her bandages to tear. “You okay?” I ask.

She nods. “Yeah. I mean, I have no idea what I’m in for, but I appreciate the invitation.”

“It would have been terrible for you to go eat by yourself at the diner tonight.”

“I’ve eaten plenty of meals alone.”

“I thought you did a bunch of things with your family?” I ask, looking for clarification, trying to understand what Abby’s life is really like.

“Yeah, I did. But you know how you can be with people and still feel really alone?”

I shake my head. “Actually, no, I’ve never feel like that.”

Abby's lips twist into something wistful. “You're lucky, Bartlett,” she says. “And right now, I feel pretty lucky to be here with you.”

Walking inside the house, I’m suddenly nervous. I’ve never brought a woman home – and I have this deep need for my family to like Abby. To love her. She looks over at me as I close the heavy front door, and we stand in the big foyer, alone for a moment. A rare quiet moment in this loud, rambunctious house. There is a big staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms, a hall leading to the kitchen and my dad’s den. To the left are the big family and dining rooms.

But the foyer is filled with shoes and coats, a closet overflowing with decades of hunting jackets and rain boots, clogs and sweaters. I watch as Abby takes it all in.

“This feels like a real home,” she whispers as we both slide off our shoes, adding them to the pile by the door.

I take her hand protectively. “You okay?”

She nods, but I know there is a well of emotion in her eyes as we walk into the family room, together, where my entire family is gathered.

Watching through her eyes, as she takes in the family photos hanging on every square inch of the walls, I see the house in a new light. The warm wood finishes my father added, the wicker baskets filled with the books my mom is reading next to her favorite chair. The basket of yarn and knitting needles for when Grandma Rosie comes over, the blazing fire warming the room, the chess match on the coffee table between Graham and Mac. Fig braiding Plum’s hair. My mom calling for Rye to grab some cans of chicken stock from the pantry. Lemon showing Dad how to download some app on his phone.

No one notices us for a moment, and time seems to still. My hand in Abby’s, hers squeezing mine right back, and suddenly I don’t feel like I’m bringing home a stranger for dinner. I feel like I am bringing home Abby. My Abby..

Her lips are soft, willing. Smooth. And damn, I don’t want this kiss to end. Her eyes flutter open, and her fingers run through my hair. She smiles in my arms and I know I’m holding her tight.

I don’t wanna let her go. She’s someone I’ve just met and I’m probably breaking 1000 rules.

It’s reckless and it’s ridiculous. It’s also fucking happening. This woman and me, tonight? It’s fucking on. There’s a hunger in her eyes, and there’s a need in my cock, and there’s more than that. There was a connection in the car that whole drive up to my cabin.

“What are you thinking?” she asks me.

“I’m thinking I want you in that bed. Now.”

“I’ve never done this,” she says, her eyes exploring mine.

“Never ever?”

“Never ever. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” she says softly. She licks her lips. Her tongue is pink.

Her innocence may not be on the surface, but I can see it now; it’s a hidden layer she wasn’t showing right away, but now that it’s come out, I understand. She is tough on the outside. Soft in the center. And fuck, she’s a virgin.

“I don’t want to press you to do anything you’re not ready to do. We just met. We don’t need to have sex the first night.”

Her hands press to my chest, fingering the buttons of my flannel shirt. She’s licking her lips again. My cock is hard as a rock.

I want her in ways she doesn’t even understand. “What if we just start something and see where it takes us?” she asks, her voice lifting at the end, trying to see where I might go with this.

She has no fucking clue that I will go wherever she wants to take me. Including to the ends of the goddamn earth, because I like her. I like her one hell of a lot. Abby is the kind of girl you fall for. Hard.

This girl with a blind dog who’s come in on a fucking train, rolling into my life in a way I was not at all prepared for.

But I’ve been playing it safe for years, doing what everyone expects – running the family store, showing up for Sunday dinner. When’s the last time I had real fun? When’s the last time I went for it? I’ve been waiting for perfection but what if the present really is perfect?