Blog Tour: Excerpt, Review, and Giveaway for Dirty English by Ilsa Madden-Mills

Meet Declan and Elizabeth in Ilsa Madden-Mills

new fighter romance!

Synopsis

A scarred fighter.

A girl with rules.

One night of unbridled passion.

There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Bennett: she’s smart as a whip, always in control, and lives by a set of carefully crafted rules. She’s learned the hard way that people you love the most always hurt you in the end.

But then she meets Declan Blay, the new neighbor at her apartment complex.

A tattooed British street fighter, he’s the campus bad boy she’s supposed to avoid, but when he saves her from a frat party gone bad, all her rules about sex and love fly out the window.

She gives him one night of unbridled passion, but he longs for more.

With only a cardboard-thin wall separating their bedrooms, he dreams of possessing the vulnerable girl next door forever.

One night. Two damaged hearts. The passion of a lifetime.

Excerpt

“Come to my apartment and spend the night with me.” I touched his face, my fingers stroking the softness of his sensuous lips. “Just one night and we can make this shitty world disappear.”

He exhaled. “A one-night stand?”

“Yeah.”

He cupped my chin. “Someone hurt you, didn’t they?”

My lips tightened. No one at Whitman knew about Colby except for Shelley and Blake, and I sure as hell wasn’t telling him. He’d judge me like everyone else had in Petal, North Carolina. “That’s none of your business.”

“I see.” His eyes searched mine until I felt like a bug under a microscope. “What if I wanted more than just one night?”

“Then your hands can let go of my hips now.”

He removed his hands slowly, the tips of his fingers grazing mine. “This may surprise you, but I don’t sleep with every girl I kiss.”

I’d been rejected. Again. “Blake said you got around, that you used—”

“And you believed him?” His voice was incredulous. “Dude is in love with you and he saw exactly how we looked at each other tonight—”

“Looked at each other? What are you talking about? You refused to dance with me and then you ran off with your girlfriend. Not to mention I just kissed you and you didn’t even care.” I threw my hands up.

“I wanted to fuck you the minute you walked in that party,” he snapped.

“Then why don’t you,” I bit out, tossing back my shoulders.

“You think you want me?” he said tightly. “You can’t handle me, Elizabeth. I can see it in your eyes. You’re scared of something, maybe not me, but something.”

My eyes went to his black eye.

He let out a harsh laugh. “Ah, that’s what you’re afraid of. You want the real truth? You told me tonight you didn’t like violence, but I’m an arsehole who uses his fists. That’s who I am.”

“What do you mean?”

His gaze was intense, dark and low, his face struggling as he fought to find the right words. “I’m in a fight club for money. I show up at warehouses and fight other blokes. Sometimes I beat them so bad they need medical attention. A few times, I’ve been beat to unconsciousness. I’m everything you need to stay away from.”

I inhaled, anger and lust and excitement all riding me. Anger that he was pushing me away, lust for the alpha male in him, and God help me, the fighting thing repelled me and excited me at the same time. “I don’t want to stay away from you. I want you to fuck me and stop making excuses for why you can’t.”

My words seemed to snap his taut restraint.

He pulled me back in his arms, his lips fusing with mine unerringly. His tongue plundered me in a sensual way my body had craved for years. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my anger morphing into all-out desire as he turned us and pressed me against the wall.

Yes, yes, this is what I craved.

A passion to remind me that I was real, not just some sad excuse of a girl who chose to exist on scraps of love.

Before I knew it, he’d shoved my robe off, his hands sculpting my shoulders, massaging them as he ravaged my mouth. I reveled in the warmth of his hand on my neck as his mouth skated down, kissing the hollows of my throat, sucking on my collarbone.

“Like this?” he asked, his voice dark and gravelly. “You want me to take you up against this wall?”

“Yes,” I moaned. Gone. Past caring as long as he kept his hands on me.

Out of control, my brain whispered, but I beat back the dark warnings as his warm hand found my breast and squeezed, his fingers rolling my nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

I gasped in pleasure and arched my back to get closer to his body, ignoring the fear that pricked at the surface.

The rules girl in my head stamped her foot and yelled at me. I ignored her.

But even if I wanted to stop right now, I couldn’t. My tongue tangled wildly with his, my hands pulled at his hair, spurring him on, his hand palming my breast and then tugging. Sharp sensations of need went straight to my core.

“Is this what you want? Something quick where we just take what we want and forget each other the next day?”

No. Not that. Not like the way he said it, like it was something dirty.

“Yes, like that,” I whispered against his shoulder, my mouth on his skin, tasting him as my teeth bit down.

Review

★★★★ 1/2 stars

I've read many a Pride and Prejudice retelling, but none like Dirty English. I knew from the gut wrenching prologue this book was going to be different and nothing like the others I'd read before, and I was right. Dirty English was hotter and more angsty. Declan Blay stole my heart much faster then Mr. Darcy had and he left me swooning.

Elizabeth Bennett is one tough cookie. She's been through something that broke her into a million pieces yet she's cobbled herself back together and is moving on with her life. The lessons she's learned are painful but they've also helped keep her safe. Until she meets Declan and finds her fears may be unsubstantiated when they come to him. I loved Elizabeth and I fully understood her fears. I even understood why she preferred one night stands as opposed to anything lasting and meaningful; It was her way of taking control.

Declan is British, which means he has an accent alone that will attract women like flies. To make him even more attractive, he's intelligent and a successful underground fighter, which means he's physically fit and drool worthy. Besides finding out his bad boy persona wasn't exactly who he was, I absolutely loved the fact he could quote Pride and Prejudice from memory. That more than anything was the biggest turn on about him. I also loved how he was with Elizabeth. He may not have known the reasons behind why she was so skittish around him, but he was careful around her. I also enjoyed seeing Declan with his twin brother. My heart broke for Declan and his experiences as a child and I liked seeing him chase down his dream of owing his own gym.

Elizabeth and Declan together were unbelievably hot. I loved the way Ilsa Madden-Mills slowly fanned the flames between them. It was like the closer they came to each other emotionally, the higher and hotter the tension between them rose. When they finally reached breaking point, I was fanning myself and drinking cold water. The dual point of view also really allowed me to get into their heads and get to know them. When the past came into their present, I was worried it might be the straw that broke them. I underestimated both Elizabeth and Declan.

This book is fast paced. I read it in a couple of hours when I should've been sleeping, but I just knew this book was going to be wonderful. Once I started it, I knew sleep was going to be elusive because I had to finish the book and find out what was going on with Elizabeth and Declan. Ilsa Madden-Mills really did a great job with this book. While it may have been inspired by Pride & Prejudice, this story is all hers. I do hope she'll write more books featuring more Elizabeth and Declan, I'm not ready to say goodbye to them yet.

*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.*

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**Dirty English is a modern love story inspired by Pride and Prejudice**

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Ilsa Madden-Mills writes about strong heroines and sexy alpha males that sometimes you just want to slap.

She's addicted to all things fantasy, including unicorns and sword-wielding heroes in books. Other fascinations include frothy coffee beverages, dark chocolate, Instagram, Ian Somerhalder (seriously hot), astronomy (she's a Gemini), Sephora make-up, and tattoos.

She has a degree in English and a Master's in Education.

When she's not pecking away on her computer, she shops for cool magnets, paints old furniture, and eats her weight in sushi.

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Ilsa Madden-Mills’ other books:

VERY BAD THINGS

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