Book 9 of the Montgomery Brothers Series
Review:
I have read all of the previous Montgomery Brothers novels, Christian was mentioned in his cousin’s book. I wondered then if there was a third brother with Robert and William. I mean, there had to be right if Christian took over and was cousins to the other Montgomery boys, right? I didn’t realize that I missed a book in this series until a few days ago when the book promoter sent me promo info. I was excited to read Christian’s story and have a brief glimpse back into the previous boys with snippets of updates of the Montgomery family. This is one of my favorite series! I have re-read it numerous times!! I do have a favorite out of them all. Have you read any of the books in this series?
Christian is a workaholic much like his father and the oldest of three children. His father always pushed him to do more and be better without ever telling him “good job” or “I’m proud of you.” In his mid-thirties, he has hit a wall with his career. He doesn’t feel the rush. He’s a robot. He keeps going until…a health scare changes everything.
Sophia Bennington is running away from her small town Kansas life after learning that her family and the entire town has lied to her about her parents. She feels that everyone is watching her and talking about her. She goes somewhere that is the complete opposite–California. She learns to surf, relaxes on the beach–everything that a small town girl from Kansas has never done before. She needs a job too. She doesn’t want the same job she had before. The small doctor’s office wasn’t stressful like it would be if she worked in a hospital. She wants certain freedoms in her job than neither of those workplaces give her. She meets these two little old ladies who tell her about corporate nursing or wellness centers in the workplace. That’s what she’s focusing on except the day of her interview her car breaks down missing the thing entirely. The person interviewing her is there for one day only. If she doesn’t land this job, she might have to pack it up for Kansas.
Christian has been watching the red head surfing every morning from his back deck while sipping his morning coffee. The day she finds trouble from the surfing bully, Christian is there. Sorda. He knows that there is something special about her. If only he had the nerve to ask her out. Fate steps in and brings them together when Christian’s health issues arise while Sofia is in his office suite.
But can Sofia help Christian overcome his health issues and win him over or will mental barriers prevent them from being together?
Goodreads: http://geni.us/SuddenlyMineGoodreads
Amazon: http://geni.us/SuddenlyMineAmazon
Apple Books: http://geni.us/SuddenlyMineApple
Barnes & Noble: http://geni.us/SuddenlyMineBN
Kobo: http://geni.us/SuddenlyMineKobo
Don’t miss the other books in the Montgomery Brothers series
Wait for Me – https://www.chasing-romance.com/wait-for-me
Trust in Me – https://www.chasing-romance.com/trust-in-me
Stay with Me – https://www.chasing-romance.com/stay-with-me
More of Me – https://www.chasing-romance.com/more-of-me
Return to You – https://www.chasing-romance.com/return-to-you
Meant for You – https://www.chasing-romance.com/meant-for-you
I’ll Be There – https://www.chasing-romance.com/ill-be-there
Until There Was Us – https://www.chasing-romance.com/until-there-was-us
Suddenly Mine – https://www.chasing-romance.com/suddenly-mine
About the Author
Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than forty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.
Website: https://www.chasing-romance.com/
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BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/samantha-chase
EXCERPT
“I hate jogging.”
Christian came to a halt on the sand and turned to see Sophie bent at the waist, breathing hard. She waved him on as she shook her head, her long ponytail swinging from side to side. “Um…what?”
Angling her head, she glared at him. “I hate this. The jogging. It’s totally not my thing.” Then she let out a loud breath. “There. I said it.”
When he was beside her, he crouched to get eye-level with her. “If you wanted to stop, you just had to say so. I know I picked up the pace there, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to keep up.”
She shoved him and he fell back on his ass, and couldn’t help but laugh. When she went to straighten, he grabbed her hand and tugged her on the sand beside him. “Christian!” she cried. “Dammit, now there’s going to be sand everywhere.”
“It’s a beach. Of course there’s sand everywhere.”
“Seriously?” she deadpanned. “I meant on my clothes.”
“Ah. Gotcha,” he said. “So what’s going on?”
She grimaced as she tried to get comfortable. “I’m not a runner. I thought I could be, but I can’t.”
“Oh. Okay.” He paused. “Then why did you keep agreeing to come with me?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought I wasn’t giving it a fair shot. My surfing isn’t improving, so I thought maybe this would be something different to try. Turns out, I hate it.”
“Hate’s a bit of a strong word,” he countered. “I mean maybe—”
“No. Trust me. I hate it.”
Message received. If her words weren’t strong enough, the vehemence behind them and the scowl on her face were.
“O-kay,” he responded slowly. “So do you want to head back to the house?”
“Only if we can walk,” she said, coming to her feet. Without looking at him, Sophie began walking away. Christian quickly scrambled to his feet and went after her, grasping her shoulder and forcing her to face him.
“Hey. What’s going on? Are you mad at me?”
Her shoulders sagged and her brows furrowed. “No. Why would you even ask that?”
“Soph, you got up and started walking away, what was I supposed to think?”
“Maybe that I was heading back to your house?”
As much as he wanted to take her at her word, something was up. Her tone and her stance were both defensive, and if there was one thing he was learning about Sophie, it was that she rarely acted this way. She was always smiling and encouraging. When she went to move out of his grasp, Christian held firm. When she tugged a second time, she growled with frustration.
“What?” she cried. “What is your problem?”
“My problem?” he parroted, loudly. “Sweetheart, that’s a question for you. You can’t possibly be this upset over jogging.”
“Who says I’m upset?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Christian leaned in until they were almost nose-to-nose. “You’re acting awful dodgy, Soph.”
“Dodgy? You’re calling me dodgy?” she asked incredulously and then pulled back. “Wait. What’s dodgy?”
He laughed. “Sorry, love. Every once in a while, some lingo I picked up while I lived in London slips out. I have no idea why.”
“Are you insulting me?”
His eyes went wide. “You know what, you are acting dodgy. Which—for the record—means you’re acting suspiciously. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can stand out here all night and wait you out. I’ve got nothing else to do, since we’re not jogging. So you can either spill it and tell me what’s got you all twisted up or we can stand here until the tide comes in. Your choice.”
And for a minute, he thought she was going to opt to wait for the tide to come in.
Thankfully, she started to speak.
“Fine. I—” She stopped and sighed. “I hated having to confess about jogging.”
Seriously? That was it?
“Back home, I never would have said anything. I would have just kept doing it and hating every second of it. Since I moved, I made the decision not to do that anymore. After all, there’s no reason for me to do things I don’t like, right?”
“Well, no but—”
“I believe in honesty,” she went on, as if Christian hadn’t said a word. “And I expect it in return.”
“O-kay.”
When she looked up at him, her green eyes were wide and sad. “Why are you here, Christian?”
Not sure where this was going, he replied, “Because we said we were going jogging.”
Shaking her head, Sophie reworded her question. “I mean, why are you here with me?”
Now he was confused. “Same answer. I don’t understand where—”
“Gah!” she cried and pulled out of his grasp. She paced a few feet away and returned. “You’re out here jogging because your doctor encouraged you to get out and get some exercise, right?”
He nodded.
“And you’re out here because you left work at a reasonable hour and this was a way to pass the time, right?”
He nodded again.
If anything, her expression grew even sadder. “You don’t need me to jog with you, Christian. I’m sure you have other friends you could have called to do this with you if you really didn’t want to run alone.”
His mouth opened and closed, because he didn’t have a clue how to respond to it. He did have friends—not a lot, but there were certainly guys he could call to go for a run with him. But if truth be told, he didn’t want to run with them. He enjoyed the time he and Sophie spent together, and he’d been hoping that the more time they spent around each other, the more she’d see that they could be more than friends.
So far, that hadn’t happened.
Now it sounded as if she wasn’t even interested in being his friend.
So he had to speak up, and hopefully wipe that sad look off her face.
“Look, I could call a buddy or two to jog with me, but I’ve enjoyed spending time with you. I thought you felt the same way. But if I read something that wasn’t there—if you were only being nice because of the whole anxiety attack thing—then…you should know that you’re not obligated to be here. And there’s certainly no pressure for us to be friends.”
“Christian…”
“I’m sorry if I’m monopolizing your time,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like turning down my offer of friendship wasn’t an option. That was never my intention.”
“Now I’m confused,” she said.
Sinking both of his hands into his hair and tugging with frustration, he went on. “I don’t want to be a charity case, Sophie. Clearly, it’s been far too long since I’ve tried to be friends with a woman and I suck at it. I thought it was what you wanted and—”
“It is!”
He shook his head. “No. It’s really not. The look on your face says otherwise.” With a weary sigh, Christian turned and started toward his house. “I should’ve just kept my damn distance. This is why I work so much—because dealing with relationships on any level is awkward as hell.”
Sophie fell in step beside him—almost jogging to keep up with his much longer stride. “Okay, I think we’re having two different conversations, because I never said I didn’t want to be friends. I just don’t want to jog.”
Snorting with disbelief, he kept walking.
“For the love of it,” she snapped, grabbing his arm. “Will you slow down? I already told you I hate jogging and you’re making me jog to keep up!”
When he stopped abruptly, they collided. Christian reached out to steady her before she fell over and then instantly released her. Touching Sophie was so not what he needed right now. He looked at her expectantly, although the last thing he wanted was to hear her make excuses for why he’d misread the situation.
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