Red Hot + Blue Reads: Blog Tour Review & Excerpt: Fight for Me (Arrowood Brothers #2) by Corinne Michaels

New York Times Bestselling author Corinne Michaels brings a new breathtaking and emotional love story to life in the second STANDALONE in the Arrowood Brothers series.

Fight for Me is LIVE!

I fell in love with Sydney Hastings when I was ten years old.

At sixteen, we whispered promises of forever.

When I was twenty-two I broke them all. I left her and promised never to return.

After my father's death, I’m forced to go home to Sugarloaf for six months.

She'll be everywhere, no longer just in my memories and regrets.

When we’re together, it’s as though time never stopped. She’s still the one I want, but I don’t deserve her. Instead of apologizing, I take that beautiful, broken woman in my arms. But after that, it’s her turn to leave me.

Now I have to fight. For her. For us. For the life we both want …

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Excerpt:

"Do you want to dance?"

She nods.

I hear my brother make a noise and pretend I didn't. She said yes, and I'm going to cling to that.

Here might be the last time I ever get to hold her in my arms, and I'm going to take it.

"I love this song."

I love you.

"Why is that?" I ask.

Her arms move to my chest, and I wonder if she can feel the pounding of my heart. My nerves are bowstrings, being pulled taut before the arrow is ready to fly. Everything inside of me is strained, but I keep it together.

Sydney and I move, the world falling away as it always does when I am with her. Gone is the hurt of my past, the uncertainty of my present, and the regret of the future ahead. Right now, I have her.

She's here, in my arms, where she's meant to be.

I don't care if the sky lights on fire because she's all I see.

"Listen to her." Sydney's voice is quiet and pensive. "Listen to her talk about him giving up and her asking him to stay."

And I do. I hear the words, and I swear that she's singing to us.

"Don't tell me it's too late," Emily croons.

"I won't give up that easy.

Don't call me darlin' and tell me that you're leavin'.

Don't walk away.

Stop pushing me when you know you want to hold on.

It could be so easy for us, baby.

I've been here, but you don't see me.

Don't let go if you're not ready for me to walk away." The acoustic guitar takes over as her voice drifts off.

"Syd," I say her name as both a plea to let go and hold on.

Her hands grip my shirt tighter. "Don't. Don't let go. Don't push me away."

I see the tears in her eyes. I don't want to push her away. I want to hold her close, kiss her senseless, and love her until she knows it in every fiber of her being that she's everything I want.

I see her. I feel her. I know her in my bones, but I won't be able to be who she needs.

No matter how much I wish it weren't the case, I can't give her the life she wants with a husband and babies. All I can offer her is a friendship that has an expiration date because once my six-months is up and she has moved, I know I won't allow myself to see her again.

The song ends, and the two of us stop moving, just watching the other.

The spell that was surrounding us seems to break and awareness fills her gaze. Her fingers loosen and drop from where they had been clutching my shirt and she takes a step back.

The loss of her is felt everywhere. My heart doesn't seem to beat as strongly, the cold hits my chest, making it hard to breathe, and the emptiness from her loss leaves me weak.

For those minutes I held her, the world made sense. And now ... I need to leave.

What I thought about Fight For Me

Sydney Hastings had her heart broken by Declan Arrowood eight years ago. Her dreams of getting married and having his babies died when he breaks up with her to leave town unexpectedly. He thinks he's protecting her -- all she knows is that her heart is broken and Declan has vowed never to return to Sugarloaf where Sydney is in charge of the family farm, among other things.

Declan does come back, and their first time alone, old feelings get the best of them and then bam! Everything gets more complicated, and Sydney ends up nursing a broken heart a second time.

If you've ever read this author before, you know she puts some very emotional moments on the page. While I found this to be only a one tissue story, there are certainly some heart-wrenching moments in the second half of the book.

Fight for Me is a second chance romance that has a few twists and turns for the characters, and I have to say that I did like Sydney. I hadn't read the first book in this series, and I will admit that this story made me want to read more. It's mostly predictable, and a very quick, emotionally charged story about love, trust and going back home that kept me reading until the end.

An ARC was provided. This is my honest review.