I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Racing the Sun by Karina HallePublished by Atria Books, Simon & Schuster on July 28, 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Contemporary, Dating & Sex, Death & Dying, Emotions & Feelings, Family, Love & Romance, Motorcycles, New Experience, Romance
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
On Sale July 28th!
From the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky comes a new adult novel about a young woman who becomes a nanny in Capri and falls for her charges’ bad-boy brother.
When I’m traveling, I feel like the secret to my life, to myself, to reallybecoming, is one step ahead. It’s in the next destination, the next town I get lost in, the next stranger I talk to. It’s always next but never here . . .
After six months of backpacking and soul-searching across the world, Amber MacLean is flat broke. There are worse places for a twentysomething to be stuck than the Amalfi Coast, but the only way she can earn enough money for a plane ticket home to California is to teach English to two of the brattiest children she has ever met.
It doesn’t help that the children are under the care of their brooding older brother, ex-motorcycle racer Desiderio Larosa. Darkly handsome and oh-so-mysterious, the young master of the crumbling villa tests Amber’s patience and will at every turn—not to mention her hormones.
When her position turns into a full-time nanny gig, Amber grows dangerously closer to the enigmatic recluse. But can she give up the certainty of home for someone whose closely guarded heart feels a world apart from her own?
A sexy, sultry, and smart summer read was something that I’d been missing so far this season, and I certainly found a book that fit the bill in Karina Halle’s latest standalone romance release, Racing the Sun. Amber and Derio have wound their way into my heart, and I’m glad that I got to spend the time that I did in their beautiful world on the isle of Capri.
Flat broke and stuck abroad with no way home…
Amber has been backpacking abroad for several months when her money finally runs out in Italy. Her parents won’t bail her out any more–even after they’ve sold her car to both teach her a lesson and give her more money to hopefully return home soon. But Amber doesn’t have much to return home to since she’d been fired from an entry-level, dead-end job that had nothing to do with her college degree, or the fact that she lives with her smothering, overbearing, and judgmental parents at the age of twenty-four.
So Amber scans the jobs bulletin board and answers an ad for a private English teacher for a few children, which she’s whisked away to Capri the next day and given the job much to her surprise. Amber is now charged with teaching English to two exceptionally bratty siblings who are in the care of their much older brother after their parents died in a boating accident two years earlier.
Teaching isn’t easy at first, but neither is dealing with the sexy older brother…
Once Amber moves into the house and starts teaching the seven-year-old twin brother and sister, she finds that she enjoys using her English degree and spending time with the children around the beautiful island. But the mysterious and brooding hot-and-cold older brother Desiderio is another story altogether. Amber knows that she only has two months left before her travel visa runs out and she must return home to California, but can she fight her growing attraction to Derio or her need to help heal this broken family?
Amber flourishes in Capri…
Amber is such a rich, lively, and vivacious main character. She comes to life in Capri and starts to stand up for herself as she awakens to the world around her. When she unexpectedly becomes the nanny to the twins, not just the English teacher, she steps up her game instead of completely freaking out like an immature person would do. Amber realizes that her life might just be right–right there on Capri.
Dark, mysterious, Derio…
Older brother Derio has definitely dealt with his share of personal tragedies in the past two years. Losing his parents in a deadly boating accident has scared him deeply, but he also suffered the loss of his motorcycle racing career after a crash last year took away his confidence in the seat. This caused his wife to flee their marriage for a more successful racer, leaving Derio all alone and even more closed off than ever. When Amber comes into his life, he’s practically a zombie–letting the nanny take care of the twins and the household–and hiring Amber is one of the first signs of life that he’d shown in recent times. He’s a man who’s lost his confidence, his parents, his wife in the span of a few years, all while having to take on a crumbling villa and the care of two young siblings. No wonder he isn’t doing so well.
I give Racing the Sun a five out of five. This contemporary romance hit all of the right notes for me with a heroine who realized that she was strong enough to pull the angsty hero out of his funk, all while set on the stunning backdrop of the isle of Capri. The writing was so vivid and descriptive that I felt like I was walking along side Amber, Derio, and the twins when they went on their adventures. Karina Halle’s writing has grown so much over these last few years, and she’s so great at writing scenes that are full of emotion and meaning. This book is certainly my favorite of Karina’s so far, hands down.
Get Your Copy of Racing the Sun
Amazon’s Kindle Store | Barnes & Noble| Blio | Books-a-Million | Google ebookstore | iBooks |Kobo
About Karina Halle
Karina Halle is the New York Times bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky, The Pact, Love in English, and other wild and romantic reads. A former travel writer and music journalist, she lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails, and devours a lot of books.
Find Karina Halle
Twitter: @MetalBlonde / Instagram: @AuthorHalle / Facebook: Karina Halle Facebook
Enter to Win!
Atria Indie Authors and Karina Halle are giving away: (1) grand prize of a $50 AMEX Gift Card + 1 signed copy of RACING THE SUN and 1 copy of WHERE SEA MEETS SKY….PLUS: (6) Runner Up Prizes of 1 signed copy of RACING THE SUN. Enter to win at http://gvwy.io/ok5i5nc
Do you love books that feature travel abroad? I fell in love with Capri while reading Racing the Sun, where would you like to travel to if nothing were in the way?
Latest posts by Heather (see all)
- The Midnight Club by Margot Harrison - September 28, 2024
- In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King - September 27, 2024
- The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak - September 21, 2024
Leave a Reply