I'm so glad Ransom is fictional, otherwise I'd be in trouble for falling in love with a much younger guy! I dare you not to read this excerpt and fall a little for him as well! 
Title: Thick Love (Thin Love, #2)
Author: Eden Butler
Genre: NA | Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 31, 2015
He doesn’t ask their names.
He doesn’t deserve to know them.
Ransom Riley Hale’s friends think his life is charmed: first string as a freshman on a championship-winning college football team. A father with two Super Bowl rings. A mother with platinum albums and multiple Grammies under her belt. But that brilliant shine on the surface hides the darkness beneath; it’s all Ransom has ever known.
Despite the shadows he walked in, once there was a blinding light fracturing the darkness. It brought the promise of hope and happiness. He’d been careless, filled with pride and stupidity and lost that light. Ripped it from the world.
Now, the shadows are dimming again. Aly King surges into his life threatening to pull him from the darkness. She is everything Ransom can never be again. Her light feels too warm, promises him that there is more waiting for him beyond the shadows.
But the shadows are relentless, resurfacing when he thinks he is safe, and Ransom knows he must keep Aly from them too before he pulls her down into the darkness with him.
“Dance with me,” I said. He only stared up at me blankly.
“I don’t feel like practicing.”
“I’m not asking you to practice. I’m asking you to dance.”
Ransom’s body stiffened when I picked up his hand, but he didn’t fight me. “Just be here with me. Me and you and the music.”
We came together in the center of my living room with that slow, soothing music wrapping around us. There was no Kizomba, no prequel to a seduction we both wanted to avoid. There was just Ransom bending low, arms around me, hand taking mine to hold against his chest. After a few seconds, the tension lessened, and his body did not feel as rigid. It felt peaceful, and safe, and simple—just two people, holding each other, swaying to the music.
His mouth hovered near my forehead and as we moved together with no form or practiced steps, Ransom’s grip on my waist got tighter. “I wish I could breathe again. I want that so bad.” The words were whispered, low.
I closed my eyes, reminding myself that I couldn’t touch him.
“Ransom. You can.”
He looked down at me and right then I saw just how lost he was. This realization didn’t come from flippant comments he made to me or desperate excuses I overheard him make. It was all there right in his eyes—the loneliness, the pain, as though each mistake he’d made was etched into the rise of his cheekbones and the worried, faint lines on his forehead. He was still drifting; he had been drifting for so damn long.
The pain in his eyes drew me in. There was nothing I could say that would make his hurt lessen. There was nothing that would take him from the lingering sorrow he’d created for himself. So I didn’t speak, didn’t give him advice I knew he’d never take. I just watched Ransom’s eyes, and felt the slow way he moved. And then with my hand on the back of his neck, I pulled his face towards me, I took his lips, kissing him, pouring into that kiss everything I’d held back from him since we first met.
This is who I am. This is what I want. That voice came from someplace hidden and secret inside me.
It was minutes, minutes of nothing but my mouth on his, nothing but two people finding solace in each other, before
I realized I’d messed up.
He didn’t seem to want me to pull away, but didn’t stop me when I did. Shaking my head, I smoothed the collar on his shirt, unable to look at him. “I’m…modi, Ransom, I’m sorry.”
Ransom pulled my chin up and smoothed his thumb over my cheek, down the slope of my chin before he returned his attention to my eyes. “I don’t think I am.”
It was a moment I thought I’d always wanted. Him looking at me like I was real, like he saw me, finally saw me. I’d seen that look once before, just as Ransom whispered my name and kissed me over and over the first time. It wasn’t the look of someone hopeless. It was open and raw and I realized right then that I’d give anything for Ransom to never stop looking at me.
But this was against our rules. This wasn’t how we were supposed to be. I took his hand, thought of pulling it away from my face but didn’t have the strength, liked how it felt on my face too much. “Friends don’t kiss, Ransom.”
A small nod, and his eyes narrowed. His grip around me tightened. The music around us swelled. “No, they don’t,” he said, still touching my face, inching closer and I knew, right then, he was definitely not my friend.
Review
★★★★★ stars
I first fell in love with Luka Ransom Riley-Hale in Thin Love, when his parents found and fought for their epic love. Thick Love, made me fall in love with him all over again. My concerns for the long wait reading his story were unfounded. I found Thick Love to surpass any expectation I had.
This is the first Eden Butler book I haven't devoured, but savored. I had to slow down and absorb each word, nuance, and action. The book also showcases so many emotions and there was no way I could've done them justice if I read at my normal rapid pace. Instead of three hours, I took five to read this beauty.Don't get me wrong, I may have read at a slower pace, but I was entranced by the story and couldn't put it down.
I loved how the book went back and forth between both the present and the past and from Ransom and Aly's points of view. It really helped give me a complete picture at what was going on in their lives that led to them being the people they were. I also loved seeing Keira and Kona again, a few years down the line from when they got their happy ever after. It was great to see how much they had and hadn't changed. I loved the way they loved and cared for Ransom. They worried about him, and didn't hesitate to meddle in his business or let him be when they knew he needed it.
Ransom is a tortured person. It actually hurt me to read and see what he was going through and putting himself and others through. I wanted so badly for him to realize by doing what he was doing to himself, he wasn't living the life he should be. I understood his need and desire for penance, but it felt like he'd done enough. I mean he went through the steps, especially at home and at socially at school, but it wasn't enough. That's where Aly came in.
I loved Aly. I mean she's strong and willing to do what it takes to achieve her goals. No one is going to tell her she can't accomplish something. She's also kind, loving, brave, and perceptive. Aly might be short and diminutive when it comes to stature, but she's got a core of steel and a temper too, that makes her seem much larger than she is. Aly and Ransom together are a thing of beauty. Aly is alone, and in a way so is Ransom. They have such wonderful chemistry. I felt like I was intruding on something special and sacred.
One of the best things about them is the delicious slow burn. I loved how most if not all of the heavy emotional stuff was dealt with first. There was no way Aly and Ransom could've made it if they'd jumped into bed first. The emotional connection between them made the physical so much sweeter when it happened. And it was hot too, don't doubt me. I was pretty worked up.
Eden Butler really delivered with Thick Love. This book is heavy on the feelings and emotions and the themes of forgiveness and love. I'm extremely happy to know there will be more Ransom and Aly in the future. I'm not quite ready to be done with these two, or Keira, Kona, and their other adorable children. I have no doubt that story will be as epic as this one. Ransom doesn't need to worry about the shadows his accomplished father and mother cause, or the shadow caused by their love. The shadow he casts with Aly is equally as epic.
*Thank you to the publicist for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for them in any manner.*
Books in the Thin Love Series
About Eden Butler
Eden Butler is an editor and writer of New Adult Romance and SciFi and Fantasy novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum. Her debut novel, a New Adult, Contemporary (no cliffie) Romance, “Chasing Serenity” launched in October 2013 and quickly became an Amazon bestseller.
When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden edits, reads and spends way too much time watching rugby, Doctor Who and New Orleans Saints football.
She is currently imprisoned under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.
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