Title: Sweet Fall (Sweet Home #3)
Author: Tillie Cole
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Publication Date: 26th August 2014

ABOUT SWEET FALL ~ LINKS
Goodreads

Amazon UK – http://amzn.to/1pBlocQ

BLURB
From the USA Today Best Selling Sweet Home Series, comes Sweet Fall;
a tale of heartache, beating the odds and finding strength in the most unlikeliest of places.

We all have secrets.

Secrets well buried.

Until we find the one soul who makes the burden of such secrets just that little bit easier to bear.

Lexington “Lexi” Hart is a senior at the University of Alabama. Surrounded by her best friends, her loving family and having fulfilled her life-long dream of making the Crimson Tide cheer squad, everything is going exactly as she always dreamed it would. But beneath her happy exterior, demons lurk, threatening to jeopardize everything Lexi has worked to achieve.

When events in her life become too much to cope with, Lexi finds herself spiraling down into the realm of her biggest fear. Lexi falls hard, victim once again to the only thing that can destroy her and, on the way, finds herself falling straight into the dangerous tattooed arms of a guy from the wrong side of the tracks.

Austin Carillo, starting Wide Receiver for the Alabama Crimson Tide, must get picked in this year’s NFL draft. He needs it. His brothers need it. Most importantly, his mother desperately needs it. Brought up in a world where the poor are forgotten, the sick are left to fend for themselves and no hero miraculously appears to pull you out of hell, Austin had no other choice but to make a living on the wrong side of the law—until football offered Austin the break to get his life back on track.

But when a family tragedy drags him back into the clutches of the gang he believed he had left far behind, Austin finds himself falling. Falling back into criminal ways and falling deep into a suffocating darkness. Until a troubled yet kindred spirit stumbles across his path, where Austin quickly finds he is falling for a young woman—a young woman who might just have the power to save him from his worst enemy: himself.

Can two troubled souls find a lasting peace together? Or will they finally succumb to the demons threatening to destroy them?

 

New Adult/Contemporary Romance novel—contains adult content, sexual situations and mature topics. Suited for ages 17 and up.

*CAN BE READ AS A STAND-ALONE NOVEL*

EXCERPT

Crickets chirped outside, and every fifteen minutes, the sound of the campus cops’ radios filled the house. They were doing their rounds—just like good little bitches of the dean—the light from their flashlights illuminating the room, except here behind the couch, where we had our own little pocket of protection.

Hours and hours passed in silence, and I lay on my back just staring once more at the stars through the skylight, the sky brightening with the rising dawn, the dark room now lightened by a hazy orange glow.
I heard Lexi sigh beside me, and I asked, “What do think of when you look up at the stars?”
I caught Lexi’s head tilt to the side and her eyes narrowed in scrutiny.

Minutes passed as she stared silently at the night sky. “Sometimes I wonder what they must make of our world,” she whispered quietly. I didn’t think she’d respond. “Do we fascinate them or disgust them? Do they look down on us the same way we look up at them and wonder what we’re thinking too? Do they see all our problems? Watch our sorrowful excuses for lives with a growing sense of pity? Or do they envy us for just having a life, good or bad?”

Her response surprised me. Sorrowful excuses for lives?
“Ever look at them and feel inferior, feel small?” I added, really wanting to hear her answer.
Lexi fidgeted beside me, lifting her hands to create a frame with her fingers, her left eye closed as she studied Orion’s Belt like she was looking through a telescope. But her hands abruptly lowered and laid flat to her stomach, a guttering expression on her face. “I don’t need to look up at the stars to feel inferior, Austin. All I have to do is open my eyes and look at myself in the mirror.”

My attention snapped to her and a strange feeling rolled my stomach—sympathy?
Lexi yawned beside me and her eyelids began to droop, but she fought to stay awake, never taking her eyes off the stars. I couldn’t stop watching her. Something about her intrigued me. Or maybe it was the fact that she knew about me, about who I was, that drew me to her. I didn’t have to pretend just for right here, right now.

“Go to sleep,” I said after her third consecutive yawn, and she focused on me once more. She was making me fuckin’ tired, and I needed to stay alert.
Lexi simply shook her head and wrapped her arms around her chest, fighting off another yawn.
Damn stubborn chick.
“Lexi, go to fuckin’ sleep. We’re gonna be here all night anyway,” I ordered, and I watched her tired eyes widen.

“Are you gonna sleep?” she asked, and I frowned. Why the fuck did that matter?

“Probably, at some point,” I replied and shrugged my shoulders.

“Okay, then. But…” Her lips pursed in tension. “But please don’t touch me. I… can’t be touched… I’ll stay here hidden, just… don’t touch me.”

“I won’t,” I said vehemently through gritted teeth. Did she think I was gonna grope her in her sleep or some shit? What the hell did she think of me?

Lexi’s eyes closed and, within seconds, she was out, all curled up in the fetal position on the hardwood floor. She looked like a fallen, broken pixie.

I don’t know why I said it, but I leaned down and whispered, “This isn’t who I am, Lexi. I’m not the cold, unfeeling dick you think I am. I just wanted you to know that about me.”

MY THOUGHTS ~ REBECCA 

I read ‘It Ain’t me Babe’ earlier this year and loved it. In a severely over-populated genre, Tillie Cole had a different story to tell that was incredibly thought provoking. I moved on to ‘Eternally North’ which I giggled through and declared I needed a BFF Tink and a boyfriend North! This bought me to ‘Sweet Home’ and ‘Sweet Rome’ which, while I enjoyed, I did not love – that`s on me not Tillie – I am of an age where I have college kids and so find those age group stories do nothing for me. So why is that relevant I hear you ask? ~ because Tillie Cole has written a college aged book that I really, really liked, those who know me would say the impossible has been done…………..

Dedication

To the many around the world who feel lost, insecure or inferior.
Breathe deep. Be strong. Be brave.
And if you fall, look up to the stars and reach for their glittering lights.
You are meant to stand tall with the rest of the world.
You are not damaged…
You are beautiful.

This was the first thing I read when starting ‘Sweet Fall’ and I returned to it at the end with a huge admiration for Tillie Cole.
She has shared a piece of her, heart and soul, scars and sorrows, highs and lows in this book and it makes for a remarkably special read.
“We all have secrets. Secrets well buried. Until we find the one soul who makes the burden of such secrets just that little bit easier to bear”
Austin, the tattooed bad boy and Lexi, the goth cheerleader, two troubled souls struggling to survive each in their own way.

“She concealed her tears but shared her smiles”

There was so much here that touched me, especially as I have a daughter. Make no mistake this is a far grittier read than the previous two (it can be read as a standalone) and there are so many lines in this book that were poignant, sad, and lonely. This is two people who hide their true selves away but collide and prove that for some there can be a HEA, even though the road can be harsh and painful, full of potholes waiting to trip you up. That there can be beauty and light and all deserve it.

“Why the war paint Pix”

“Why the tattoos Austin”

As I read the foreword for ‘Sweet Fall’ I was amazed that the beautiful Tillie Cole, who I met briefly at a book signing earlier this year, had gone through this and come out the other side. This disease is a battle you never stop fighting and to bare herself like this shows she is as strong as she is beautiful, inside and out. And my sad thought at the back of my mind as I write this is that when you are in the clutches of the dark illnesses like this you never believe or see the beauty others do in you, so I would say in answer to that last sentence of the foreword that yes, ‘Sweet Fall’ sheds light on the issue, and yes, you should be very very proud.

If you love New Adult/College books then this is an absolute must read.
If you normally give these a miss or aren’t sure then one click, it will surprise you!!

ABOUT TILLIE COLE

Tillie Cole is a Northern girl through and through. She originates from a place called Teesside on that little but awesomely sunny (okay I exaggerate) Isle called Great Britain. She was brought up surrounded by her English rose mother — a farmer’s daughter, her crazy Scottish father, a savagely sarcastic sister and a multitude of rescue animals and horses.

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