Blog Tour: Excerpt, Review, and Giveaway for He Will Be My Ruin by K.A. Tucker

I am absolutely thrilled to be part of the Review & Excerpt Tour for K.A. Tucker’s HE WILL BE MY RUIN! HE WILL BE MY RUIN is an Adult Suspense novel, published by Atria books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, and is set to be released February 2, 2016! You're going to want to read this book!

About HE WILL BE MY RUIN:

The USA TODAY bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series makes her suspense debut with this sexy, heartpounding story of a young woman determined to find justice after her best friend’s death, a story pulsing with the “intense, hot, emotional” (Colleen Hoover) writing that exhilarates her legions of fans.

A woman who almost had it all . . .

On the surface, Celine Gonzalez had everything a twenty-eight-year-old woman could want: a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a job that (mostly) paid the bills, and an acceptance letter to the prestigious Hollingsworth Institute of Art, where she would finally live out her dream of becoming an antiques appraiser for a major auction house. All she had worked so hard to achieve was finally within her reach. So why would she kill herself?

A man who was supposed to be her salvation . . .

Maggie Sparkes arrives in New York City to pack up what’s left of her best friend’s belongings after a suicide that has left everyone stunned. The police have deemed the evidence conclusive: Celine got into bed, downed a lethal cocktail of pills and vodka, and never woke up. But when Maggie discovers a scandalous photograph in a lock box hidden in Celine’s apartment, she begins asking questions. Questions about the man Celine fell in love with. The man she never told anyone about, not even Maggie. The man Celine believed would change her life.

Until he became her ruin.

On the hunt for evidence that will force the police to reopen the case, Maggie uncovers more than she bargained for about Celine’s private life—and inadvertently puts herself on the radar of a killer. A killer who will stop at nothing to keep his crimes undiscovered.

Excerpt

“Can tenants come up here?” 

He eases himself upright until he’s sitting within the hammock, his brown suede slippers planted firmly on the cedar platform below. The blanket falls to reveal the long-sleeved cotton shirt that clings to his body. It’s nowhere near warm enough for twenty-degree weather. “They can come to the room, sure.” 

I survey the arbor gate behind me again, and the wooden lattice fence that stretches all the way around, framing this little garden. “But not into here.” 

He kicks off, somehow managing to balance himself while the hammock sways. “It’s one of the few perks that comes with my job. 

“And the building owner really doesn’t care? Because I feel like this would be a code infraction or something. What if there’s a fire and the tenants have to come up to get to the fire escape?” I’m rambling, but if I keep talking then it can’t get awkward and I won’t be forced back inside.  

“My experience is people travel down when there’s a fire.” He chuckles as if that’s the silliest idea, his English accent making me smile. “But if they come up here, then I guess they’ll have a nice place to sit while the building burns.” 

“Fair enough.” I pause. “Did Celine ever come up here?” 

A shadow flickers over his face. “No. I didn’t see much of her at all, really.” 

I’m not surprised. She was afraid of heights.  

Silence hangs between us and I figure I have nothing to lose. I edge toward him with the tin. “Trade you…One of these for a hit of what you’re smoking.” 

At first Grady meets my question with a blank stare, and I think I’ve overstepped my bounds. But then he grins, a handsome boyish grin that I never noticed before. One that makes him all the more attractive. “How do I say no to that?” He accepts the tin of cookies and then eases back into his hammock, stretching a long, toned arm out to fetch the hidden joint from a planter. “It’s big enough for two,” he offers, gesturing beside him. 

Normally, I would never think of climbing into a hammock with a guy I barely know, but there’s something oddly familiar about Grady and the way he offers it. No leery glances, no winks. Nothing overtly sexual beyond his natural presence.  

And I’m too drained to care about any of that right now anyway. 

“This could go disastrously wrong,” I warn, stepping onto the wooden platform. 

Review

★★★★★ stars

He Will Be My Ruin, K.A. Tucker's first adult novel, has left me speechless. I am no stranger to K.A. Tucker's books. I've read her romance and her romantic suspense. I know the caliber and quality of her writing. There hasn't been one yet that I've read that hasn't resonated with me or impacted me profoundly.I always feel like my horizons have been broadened after reading one of her books, and I truly feel like my reading horizons have expanded greatly with this book.

It's heartbreaking to lose a best friend. Maggie has come to New York at the news she's lost her best friend Celine, only to find out the circumstances and evidence doesn't seem to match the description given to Celine's death. The more Maggie finds out, the more she learns how little she knew the closest people in her life and the more determined she becomes to find out the whole truth. I loved Maggie's determination to find out if Celine really killed herself and if so why. Another quality of Maggie's I loved was how kind and caring she was. For someone without the need to work to survive, she wasn't a lazy spoiled rich person, but someone striving to use the resources she had to make a difference in the world.

The setup in this book is amazing. The prologue alone had me sitting up straight and scooting to the edge of my seat to help me ground myself. I could feel my heart rate speeding up. From there I loved how the book went between the present and the past. While the present was told exclusively from Maggie's point of view, the past was in Celine's and really allowed the story to become three dimensional. Celine's chapters really showed her evolution from the art struck and inspired child to the adult she became and what led to her demise, while Maggie's chapters showed how complicated and complex Celine was and how even though she knew her best, she really didn't know her at all.

From beginning to end this book held me in its spell, I know that sounds trite and can be said of many a book, but this book never let me find my bearings. Every time I thought I had the story figured out, more information was revealed leaving me once again scrambling to sort through the evidence and try and choose a new culprit. It's a testament to K.A. Tucker's writing skills that even with a limited cast of suspects I was never able to fully pinpoint who had the best motive or even who the most likely suspect was.

As someone who loves to read romance, and loves both happily ever afters and even happy for nows, I had high hopes for the men in this book. Maggie had wonderful chemistry with all of the men, both those who she was interested in romantically and those who there to help her find the truth. I couldn't decide who I'd like to see her more with, and the end result was surprising but not at all unpleasant. Even though adult suspense is not something I've read regularly or even recently, I can definitely see myself reading more in the future. Bravo to K.A. Tucker for taking a risk and writing something new, and for doing it so well.

*Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for them in any manner.*

About K.A. Tucker:

Born in small-town Ontario, K.A. Tucker published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She currently resides in a quaint town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

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Giveaway

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K.A. Tucker’s HE WILL BE MY RUIN – Review & Excerpt Tour Schedule:

January 25^th

Wrapped Up In Reading – Review & Excerpt

Bookaholics Reading Haven – Review & Excerpt

For The Love of Fictional Worlds – Review & Excerpt

Krista's Dust Jacket – Review & Excerpt

Lost in Literature – Review & Excerpt

Myriad Inklings – Review & Excerpt

TSK TSK What to Read – Review & Excerpt