Worn Me Down by Tara Sivec ~ Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ Sarah's Review

“Worn me down like a road. I did everything you told. Worn me down to my knees.
I did everything to please.”

Austin Conrad has never taken his personal life seriously. As a Navy SEAL, he spends all of his time in dangerous, life-threatening situations. The only way to leave behind the horrors he’s seen throughout his career, is to turn it all off when he gets home. He’s too much of a playboy to settle down; even if he did find a woman he could stand to be around for more than one night, he would never taint her life with the demons of his past.

When his best friend and SEAL team member, Brady Marshall asks him to keep an eye on his baby sister, Gwen, Austin figures it will be a walk in the park. The only thing Austin likes more than flirting his way under a beautiful woman’s skin, is walking away with a smile on his face. Austin never expects that the single mom and her little girl will be the ones getting under his skin.

Gwen Stratford knows all too well about living in a nightmare. After taking her daughter and fleeing from her abusive husband in the middle of the night several months ago, she’s worked hard to get her life back on track and forget about the man who tried to break her. Growing up under the iron thumb of her parents and then moving right on with a man who ruled their marriage with his fists, Gwen is finally able to breathe and live her life the way she wants.

When scary, mysterious things begin to happen to Gwen and her daughter, she realizes you can never outrun your past; it always has a way of catching up with you. As she struggles with the desire to keep her newfound independence, she knows she won’t be able to protect herself and her child alone. She’ll need to lean on the one man who drives her crazy.

Can Gwen really put her trust in a man who thinks life is one big joke, or will he be just another man in her life who tries to wear her down?

I loved Gwen in Brady's story so I was quite anxious to get to Worn Me Down.  She just got more awesome, and I think that Austin was the perfect match for her.  They were both do freaking hard headed and hilarious.  I loved the push and pull of their relationship.

I knew from the first moment that she called me an ass that kissing her would be like a fiery explosion, neither one of us surviving without getting burned.

Gwen first appeared in Because of You and is Brady's sister.  She had fled to his house in the middle of the night, with her daughter, after a pretty horrific beating from her husband, which had resulted in a hospital stay.  That part of her story was bad enough, but we find out in Worn Me Down that it her story is even more tragic than that.

For the first time in years, I don't feel the need to cover myself, hide my scars or look away in embarrassment - I feel beautiful with Austin.

We don't know a lot about Austin going into this book, he was always a side character a fellow Navy Seal and a smartass womanizer.  His story is really quite sad.  My heart broke a little bit for him and all of the shit that he had to go through before he joined the Navy.

I might not me the type of guy to settle down with a wife & kid, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let anything happen to Gwen or her daughter.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Emma and Austin. They were adorable together.  As much as Austin may have wanted to deny that he had any paternal abilities he was a great dad.  Some of my very favorite moments of the book were the ones that revolved around just the two of them.

"Being a parent isn't about keeping them in a bubble so nothing bad ever happens to them.  Accidents happen; you can't prevent all of them.  All you can do is be there for them when they do happen, which is exactly what you did.  You may think you aren't father material, but I'm pretty sure most parents in the world would disagree with you right now, and I'm right there with them."

Tara really kept me on my toes in this book.  She put in little things here and there to make you think that the book was definitely headed in one direction and then BAM! totally not what's going to happen.  I loved the ride.  Even into the epilogue, where we know what is happening I found myself going back a few pages and checking to make sure I hadn't read anything wrong.  It is rare that a book is able to keep me on my toes for the entirety but this entire series has done just that.

I love that they both accept me in their life and saw something in me that I never saw in myself.  I don't know how to be a husband or a father, but I can learn if Gwen and Emma will teach me.  If anyone has the strength to be with a man who has a job like I do, it would be Gwen. 

            

Amazon US:  http://amzn.to/1biueRR

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/LUDV3F
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1f6YwvN
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1dV0q2b
iTunes: http://bit.ly/1mGIVX2
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1jnTVbP
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1g0CnCl




Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1ee1zyd
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1jnRt5l
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1aJrUGP
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1aLAbqu
iTunes: http://bit.ly/KHuR0q
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1dV3D1N
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1hLX5TY

Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.

After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. She is the author of the Playing with Fire series and the Chocolate Lovers series. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book.

In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she’ll do and naps she’ll take when she ever gets spare time.

Tara also writes under the pen name T.E. Sivec.

                

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