RELEASE BOOST & GIVEAWAY + REVIEW: WORTH THE WAIT (McKinney/Walker # 1) by Claudia Connor

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WORTH THE WAIT

Series: McKinney/Walker #1

Author: Claudia Connor

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: January 10, 2017

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Synopsis
 

The first in a spin off series of the New York Times Bestselling McKinney Brothers, WORTH THE WAIT takes readers on a journey through young love into adulthood in a heartwrenching, second chance love story.

Nick Walker thought nothing could destroy what he had with Mia. He certainly never thought he would be the one to destroy it.

Now ten years later, Mia James is in Special Agent Nick Walker’s path once again and this time he’s determined to shed the weight of regret and finally claim the future that was always meant to be theirs.

It won’t be easy. Mia’s heart was shattered by Nick and now, just when she’d pieced it back together, it’s been broken again, bringing their past to the surface, including her own secret about that day everything went wrong.

***Every title by Claudia Connor is a Contemporary Romance and a full stand alone novel. No cheating, no love triangle, no cliff hanger.

Buy Links

Amazon | Amazon CA | Amazon UK Amazon AU 

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Excerpt

~twenty-four years ago

 

Nick pressed two fingers into the sleep deprived headache pounding in his temple and tried to concentrate on professor Jenkins’s explanation of ideal gas law. He circled a line of notes, ignored the knock on the auditorium door until he heard the familiar cry. Hannah, who he’d left in the university daycare two hours ago.

The high pitched wail wasn’t his two year old sister’s hurt cry. It was her scared cry with a touch of pissed off. In the six months since their parents’ death, he’d learned to tell the difference. He’d learned a lot of things. Like if he didn’t take her to the bathroom, she’d likely wait too long and have an accident. Like green beans made her throw up, but she’d eat them if he told her to. And she would never, ever go to sleep without Mr. Bunny.

He was up, out of his seat, and halfway down the auditorium stairs before his professor laid his pen down.

Nick’s eyes narrowed on the young blonde in an oversized sweatshirt with silk greek letters sewn on the front. She held a sobbing Hannah dressed in the sunny yellow sundress he’d picked out that morning. She hadn’t been crying when he left her. Now her eyes were red and snot mixed with tears dripped into her mouth. Hannah lunged for him. His arms engulfed her small body and his heart squeezed like it always did when she held onto him.

“I stay you,” Hannah said. Each word tumbled out of her with a jerk of her tiny shoulders.

“What happened to her?”

“Nothing happened to her. She hasn’t stopped screaming for the past hour and she bit three people. We can’t keep her like that.”

Several responses came to mind.

She’s just a baby.

She missed her nap.

And the loudest of all, it was my fault for leaving her.

Hannah raised her head to look at him, giant tears hanging from golden lashes. “I bite.”

“Well. At least she’s honest.” Professor Jenkins turned his questioning eyes to Nick. “She yours?” 

He hesitated, but only a second. “My sister. But yes, she’s mine.” And at that moment she became even more his, which seemed to be the case every day. Every day, a little more his.

 
 
 

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Everybody who follows my reading/reviewer journey knows how much I adore ( or better yet, worship) Claudia Connor and her unmeasurable writing gift and this book was no exception, because WORTH THE WAIT gave me ALL the feels!!! 

I laughed, I cried – a LOT – , got mad and smiled with Nick and Mia’s story, and was so very happy to revisit some of my favorite characters from the previous books of the The McKinney Brothers series and for all these reasons Claudia Connor is still one of my all time favorite authors.

I adore Claudia Connor’s writing and her incredible talent portraying feelings and emotions that touch us deeply in a way that very few author’s are able to, and if you haven’t yet read any of her books, you HAVE to!!! That being said, even though I enjoyed this book, in all the ways I’ve already mentioned, there were some elements that being my personal pet peeves (mainly on Nick’s part) discredited their relationship for me, and stole from my enjoyment of the story. Yes, this is a second chance story – and an amazing one at that – , and their relationship is a complex and hurt-filled one, but his reactions and specially the fact that he *SPOILER ALERT* wasn’t celibate during the ten year separation, even though he said he never stopped loving her, while she remained true to their love and wasn’t able to be with anyone else, *END OF SPOILER* really seated badly with me, and from that point on, couple with his attitude and disregard of her feelings, I really didn’t feel his love for Mia, like he professed so many times.

Like I said the storyline and character development is beyond realistic, sadly his feelings  for her weren’t really proven by his actions in my view, therefore detracting from the veracity of their relationship, which was the main focus of the book, hence the unusually and slighty lower rating for Nick and Mia’s story when I normally rate Claudia Connor’s books much higher (because hello, she’s brilliant!)!

So please consider that this is my very subjective take on the story, and don’t let that stop you in any way of reading this book, because the emotional journey and creative storyline are more than worth it on its own!!! I can’t wait to for the next McKinney/Walker sibling’s story!!!!

ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

 

 

Giveaway

 

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About the Author

claudia-connor

Claudia Connor is the author of the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling series, The McKinney Brothers. Her debut novel, WORTH THE FALL, hit the New York Times Bestsellers list in 2014 and received numerous Best Contemporary Romance of 2014 accolades.

Claudia attended Auburn University, where she received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in early childhood education. After teaching kindergarten and first grade for ten years, she retired to be a full-time mom to her three daughters. Always a lover of books, and always one to have stories playing in her mind, she decided to try her hand at writing. It took seven years to finish her first novel and a new love was born.

Claudia lives near Memphis, Tennessee with her husband, three daughters, two cats, and a singer-songwriter Siberian Husky. She continues to write warm, heartfelt, and emotional romances with a bit of steam, a lot of family and always a happily ever after.

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