Title: Of Smoke & Cinnamon:
A Christmas Story
Author: Ace Gray
Genre: Holiday Second Chance Romance
Release Date: December 13, 2017
Blurb
Camilla Collins hasn’t gone home in thirteen years. As much as she loves her family, their tiny hometown in the folds of the Colorado mountains holds too many memories. Memories of a life barely lived and a love barely realized. No matter how she thrives, AJ Jenkins is the man she compares all others too. He just so happens to be the one that broke her heart. Seeing him, seeing the life she might have had with him, has been a very convincing reason to celebrate the holidays in the Pacific Northwest, happy in the rain instead of the snow.
AJ Jenkins isn’t exactly bitter and frigid. It’s the below freezing temperatures, the knee deep snow, and the death of his chronically ill father dragging him down. That is until Cam Collins finally comes home for Christmas.
After thirteen years, he’d almost given up on seeing her. And was incredibly happy about it. But thirteen is unlucky for a reason, and apparently that reason is still a klutzy, gorgeous, living memory determined to poke holes in his barely hanging on heart with death defying stilettos.
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Excerpt
Barely behind me, Cam is bent over the pool table, angling at a difficult shot. Those painted on jeans accentuate curves I don’t remember her having. Curves I want to paw. Then there’s the mysterious tattoo. It cuts across cream colored skin and I want to lick it—lick her—despite everything between us.
To make matters worse, she makes the near-impossible shot. The Cam Collins I know is three things: uncoordinated, callous and the world’s worst pool player. I’d had to help her with every shot she ever took, my body wrapped completely around hers, my hands guiding her every movement. Almost every time she’d look over at me rather than the ball.
But she’s well on her way to running the table.
How long has she had these skills? Did she develop them because I wasn’t there? My heart twists at the thought.
Or, worse, could she always do this, her mind so accustomed to angles and trajectories, but wanted my hands on her?
Fuck.
I don’t know why I’ve thought of the possibility, but it’s the most dangerous one yet because it sucks me back to that warm summer night when we’d played the best game of pool of my life. I’d helped her with each shot. She’d wiggled her ass up against my crotch too many times to count. Just when I thought I was going to have to take her home then jerk off, she’d grabbed my hand and pulled me out to the 13th green behind Molly Merithew’s house.
Crickets chirped, punctuating her labored breathing. There was the slightest warm breeze tickling my skin. I never asked if it was the breeze or me that peaked her nipples when she shimmied out of her white eyelet linen top. I couldn’t really ask anything as Cam stripped naked behind the willow trees and let me have her for the first time, bathed in moonlight. When we snuggled under the stars she wore nothing but my flannel.
I never got that shirt back. I’d sworn off anything remotely related to vanilla, too—that’s what Cam tasted like.
Shit.
That’s what the hidden taste in the bourbon was.
Fuck pool. Fuck this delicious bourbon. And fuck Cam Collins.
BLP REVIEW ~ Tracy
I love a great second chance story, add in a Christmas theme and I’m a very happy gal!! Of Cinnamon and Smoke was the first book by Ace Gray that I’ve read but after this fabulous story, I’m sure it won’t be the last.
AJ and Camilla hadn’t seen each other for thirteen years following heartache and mis-understanding. They had fallen into the trap that we can be guilty of when we’re young…. we don’t communicate properly, fully listen to what’s being said or tell those that are most important to us how we feel about them.
Told in dual POV, we get the thoughts and memories of the pair both past and present which gives us an understanding of where things went wrong. AJ never left the town and became a local hero while Cam moved away and became a success in her own right. Neither one ever tried to reach out to bridge the gap or work out how things could have been different over the years.
When Camilla finally returns home to Willow Creek after all these year away, neither is ready for how seeing the other will affect them, especially as they both still held deep seated resentments from their past.
The spark, attraction, love and affection is still there. They had so much in common, even though their chosen careers seemed very different, and I loved that scents and flavours were important to both of them and reminders that they couldn’t shake.
The chemistry and heat this pair had was red hot and they definitely seemed like soulmates. All through the read I was hoping that they’d get their HEA; as they spent time together it was obvious that they were still meant to be but as they now had lives in different places it started to look as if they were only gonna have this last Christmas together.
There was an interesting supporting cast of characters and I loved Trigg. She was the one person who could see what was happening again and wasn’t afraid to speak up and try to save history from repeating itself! A playlist that doubled as chapter titles worked well with the events as they unfolded.
This book has without doubt made it’s way onto my favourites list and will be a definite reread in the future. A solid 4.5* read – I only didn’t give it 5* as I could have shaken both AJ and Camilla when it looked like they were gonna fall into old ways again – and it seemed crazy that Cam insisted in teetering around in high heels in the snow and ice!
Author Bio
Ace Gray is a self-proclaimed troublemaker and connoisseur of both the good life and fairy tales. After a life-long love affair with books, she undertook writing the novel she wanted to read, which culminated in her first release STRICTLY BUSINESS and followed with, well, quite a few more.
When she’s not writing, she works in craft beer. Originally a small town, Colorado girl, she now loves rainy days, shellac manicures, coffee shops and bourbon—all of which are bountiful in her adopted home of Portland, OR where she runs amok with her chef husband and husky pup.
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