Title: Unraveled (The Woodlands, #3)
Author: Jen Frederick
Series: The Woodlands
Release Date: January 20, 2014
Twenty-five-year-old Sgt. Gray Phillips is at a crossroads in his life: stay in the Marine Corps or get out and learn to be a civilian? He’s got forty-five days of leave to make up his mind but the people in his life aren’t making the decision any easier. His dad wants him to get out; his grandfather wants him to stay in. And his growing feelings for Sam Anderson are wreaking havoc with his heart…and his mind. He believes relationships get ruined when a Marine goes on deployment. So now he’s got an even harder decision to make: take a chance on Sam or leave love behind and give his all to the Marines.
Twenty-two year old Samantha Anderson lost her husband to an IED in Afghanistan just two months after their vows. Two years later, Sam is full of regrets—that she didn't move with her husband to Alaska; that she allowed her friends to drift away; that she hasn't taken many chances in life. Now, she's met Gray and taking a risk on this Marine could be her one opportunity to feel alive and in love again. But how can she risk her heart on another military man who could share the same tragic fate as her husband?
Note: Although these books are part of a series, they do not need to be read in order.
********
“I’ve been watching you
all night.” His mouth was right above the tip of my ear and I felt something
crack inside me, a fissure was forming in the mask I’d donned earlier today or
perhaps his breath, his touch, his words were simply hastening the demise of
the barriers I’d held between myself and everyone else for two years. Because
inside my body, it felt like there was an awakening and every fiber of my being
reached toward him, upward and outward as if I was a flower on the first day of
a spring rain. I lifted my head to gaze up, wide-eyed and anxious with
anticipation.
Some part of my brain was
telling me that the storage closet was just two steps to my right at the end of
the hallway and the exit door was just beyond that. My Rover was outside and
all three were safer than standing here almost in his embrace but I couldn’t
hear the warning over the pounding of my heartbeat. He bent toward me, his face
serious and even in the low light of the corner I could see the gold flecks
feathering out from the center of his eyes.
“I'm going to kiss you
now.” His voice was deep, rough and matched the rest of his thoroughly
masculine body.
“I know,” I whispered
back. And I wanted that kiss from Gray who ordinarily wouldn't be my type at
all. I wanted it more than I wanted to breath. When his mouth molded against
mine, it felt like bliss as if my whole cold body had been submerged into a
warm bath. If I thought I was engulfed before it was nothing like I felt at
that moment. My entire world—my thoughts, my feelings, my senses—were full of
him. I tasted the mint and hops on his tongue. I inhaled the cinnamon,
bergamot, ocean of his faint cologne into my airways. I felt the calloused palm
on my waist and then lower against the exposed skin of my thigh. His dense
muscles were drawn tight under his skin and the fabric of his t-shirt and he
felt as strong as a citadel. The moan that had been building since he first
backed me into the wall escaped. It had been so long since I’d had the touch of
a man’s hand on any part of me and I nearly wept at the pleasure of it.
THIS is why Jen
Frederick is a USA Today Bestselling Author!!!!
Are you in a book
depression???? This is the book that
will pull you out of it. Unraveled literally has everything you
could want in a book – sweet, hot, funny, sexy, emotional.
This is seriously Jen’s
best work to date. She’s a master at
pulling every kind of emotion out of you.
I went from laughing to crying to horny to giddy and circled back around
the block numerous times. Usually I LOVE
parts of a book, this time I LOVED THE WHOLE DAMN THING!! I am blown away by how much I love this
book!!!!
The Woodlands Series is
one of my favorites. I swear the series
just gets better and better. I was
loving Bo Randolph hard in Unspoken,
but I have to say that Gray just may have unseated Bo as my favorite
Marine.
“Life was too short to
live the life other people wanted for you.”
Sam and Gray are both at
a crossroads in life. Gray can’t decide whether
to re-up or get out of the Corps….. what happens if he stays in, but what is
there to do if he gets out? Sam’s been
floating for the last 2 years since Will’s death. It’s time to decide what’s next. But, what IS next???? Sam and Gray meet, and as they spend time
together they realize that one is just as lost as the other. And, Gray’s not without hurt and loss either. Scared of making the wrong decision and being
hurt, Sam and Gray must sort out the growing feelings they have for one another
and live the life they choose for
themselves.
“The answer you have to
provide for yourself is whether you’re willing to open yourself up to the
possibility of loving again. You, of all
people, know how short life can be. What
do you want to fit in before life is over?”
Sam and Gray are absolutely
freaking fantastic together!
 |
Sgt. Gray Phillips (Kellan Lutz)
|
“She could see inside of
me and that both scared the shit out of me and excited me in a way that made me
worried for my own sanity.” – Gray
 |
Samantha Anderson (Shailene Woodley)
|
“But I recognized grief
and loss and sorrow and pain. I lived
with it for years. Those feelings were
intimate friends of mine and they dogged Gray too.” – Sam
Unraveled isn’t a simple boy meets girl
story. It’s much more. It’s a story about loss, hurt, and living
again. People make mistakes and rash
decisions so I love there are ups and downs, bumps in the road, and that it’s
not perfect. It just makes the story
that much more real.
Jen perfectly captures
the military and does a fabulous job showing us exactly what it is like – the
sacrifice, commitment, trust, camaraderie, and loyalty. If you haven’t experienced it or know someone
that has, you really don’t appreciate what it’s like.
The great writing and
flow will have you plowing through this book in no time. Not once did anything feel rushed. The character and backstory development is
impressive. It wasn’t thrown in your
face all at once, it was done well and unfolded at the right pace. The dialogue overall is
fantastic. And, I love the insightful
and profound things the guys had to say.
It’s absolutely hilarious and laugh out loud funny, literally. It’s a good thing I live in Boston and crazy
people riding the train are not an uncommon occurrence, otherwise my outbursts
would not have been ignored as they were.
“It’s not that hookups
aren’t good, but it’s like the difference between a nice song and an awesome
concert. One is a three-minute interlude. The other is an event. The better you know your partner, the better
the sex is.” – Gray
And the sex scenes? Ooorah!!
Smokin’! Gray Phillps you are one
creative and sexy Devil Dog between the sheets!!!
I can’t say enough about
Unraveled and the entire Woodlands
Series. FABULOUS FABULOUS FABULOUS!!! Just as Unspoken
did, Unraveled will definitely be
on my Top 10 list for the year (after all it IS a Jen Frederick book).
Whore. Slut. Typhoid Mary.
Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog. She's been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at jen@jenfrederick.com.
Other Books in the Woodlands Series:
For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a
Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did
the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and
emotionally. The one thing she’s decided? No way is Noah Jackson — or any man —
ever going to break her heart again.
For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a
Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did
the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and
emotionally. The one thing she’s decided? No way is Noah Jackson — or any man —
ever going to break her heart again.
Noah has always known exactly what he wants out
of life. Success. Stability. Control. That’s why he joined the Marines and
that’s why he’s fighting his way — literally — through college. Now that he’s
got the rest of his life on track, he has one last conquest: Grace Sullivan.
But since he was the one who stopped writing, he knows that winning her back will
be his biggest battle yet.
Whore. Slut. Typhoid Mary.
I've been called all these at Central College. One drunken night, one act of irresponsible behavior, and my reputation was ruined. Guys labeled me as easy and girls shied away. To cope, I stayed away from Central social life and away from Central men, so why is it that my new biology lab partner is so irresistible to me?
He's everything I shouldn't want. A former Marine involved in illegal fighting with a quick trigger temper and an easy smile for all the women. His fists aren't the danger to me, though, it's his charm. He's sliding his way into my heart and I'm afraid that he's going to be the one to break me.
Impulsive. Unthinking. Hot tempered.
I allow instinct to rule my behavior. If it feels good, do it, has been my motto because if I spend too much time thinking, I'll begin to remember exactly where I came from. At Central College, I've got fighting and I've got women and I thought I was satisfied until I met her.
She's everything I didn't realize I wanted and the more time I spend with her, the more I want her. But she's been hurt too much in the past and I don't want to be the one to break her. I know I should walk away, but I just can't.
Bonus Content: Upon reaching the USA Today Bestselling milestone, I wrote a 10,000 word epilogue as a thank you to the readers who loved and supported Unspoken. I posted it for free on my blog but at the urging of readers, I have added it to the original version.
Note: This is a New Adult Contemporary Romance with mature content and sexually explicit scenes. 91,000+ words. Standalone novel.
Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog. She's been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at jen@jenfrederick.com.
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