In Patti's Imagination: RELEASE AND REVIEW BLITZ -- Michelle Irwin's PHASE!!!

Phase (Phoebe Reede: The Untold Story)

Following on from the Declan Reede: The Untold Story series, comes this standalone spin-off series following Phoebe, who is all grown up.

TITLE: Phase

SERIES: Phoebe Reede: The Untold Series

AUTHOR: Michelle Irwin

GENRE: New Adult; Coming of Age; Romance

PUBLICATION DATE: August 30 2016

SYNOPSIS

Living in the shadow of a legend has its drawbacks.

Every aspect of Phoebe Reede’s life has been defined by her father. Caught halfway between being a teen and an adult, she yearns to break free from the weight of expectations surrounding the Reede name.

Her desire for freedom sends her overseas on her first solo journey. There, she finds herself having an unexpected adventure with an unlikely person.

How can she learn who she wants to be and what is nothing more than a phase?

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REVIEW

[JANET]

AMAZON/GOODREADS RATING: 5/5

IN PATTI'S IMAGINATION RATING: 10/10

Phoebe is not the little girl that we first fell in love with in Michelle Irwin’s series Declan Reede: The Untold Story and if you have not read Declan’s series this review may contain a spoiler or two as Phase is the start of a new series that has spun off of Declan.

Phoebe is grown up, or as grown up as you can be at eighteen years old. Most of her life she has lived in the shadow of her dad and around cars. Wanting a chance to just be Phoebe and not the daughter of Declan Reede, she convinces her parents to allow her to travel the United States in an effort to find herself. This journey turns out to be more than what she expected and was she able to find herself before it was time to return home.

Michelle Irwin has done it once again with the start of this series. I love how part of the story we are still in Australia and yet other parts we are traveling in the United States. The author has done her research on places that Phoebe visits and at times I felt like I was the one traveling right along with Phoebe. Again we find that every detail has a reason in this book. I loved being able to catch up with the characters from the other series but meeting new characters such as Angel and Beau.

Angel is a trip and brings some great laughs and is a great friend to support Phoebe in her quest to find herself. You can really feel the love between these two friends. They are there for each other as well as partners in crime. The fact that Angel will travel with Phoebe so that her parents will allow her to travel overseas speaks volumes to this strong bond they share as friends.

Beau is a mystery but doesn’t want to let go of what he finds. I was back and forth on who Beau really was which added some great mystery to the story. Beau is most definitely your Southern Boy that will have ya’ll swooning. When we first are introduced to Beau, it is so unexpected and not at all what is expected. I love how he finds ways to keep in touch with her on her journey. But what will happen if he learns her secrets, will he still want to be around her?

Phoebe had to learn how to grow up being tough with being a female in a man’s world of race car driving hasn’t been easy even if her daddy is Declan Reede. Letting down that tough exterior is not a simple task even when you meet someone you want to get to know better yet knowing it can’t lead to anything when she is only visiting. Phase will take you on a non-stop ride that you will not be able to put down as you will be cheering for some events and ready to toss your kindle at others. I can’t wait to see where the road takes us as we continue the next in the series as this one will leave us on a cliff needing more.

TEASERS

EXCERPT

AFTER I’D TURNED off to follow the route Beau had indicated, I found myself on a road that twisted and bent to the curves of the hill we were climbing. When I hit the corners, I couldn’t help myself, I leant into them and upped the throttle. Beau’s bodyweight was a little bit of an adjustment, but I could easily correct for it—especially when he seemed to understand the physics and leant into the corners with me.

We practically floated up the mountain, springing nimbly from one corner to the next with barely any time upright in between. I pushed the bike faster and faster, without ever letting myself forget that it was a second-hand beast, and I was still testing its boundaries. I may have been an adrenaline junkie, but I wasn’t stupid and wouldn’t do anything too reckless. The engine and suspension were in fine form though, if I did say so myself.

I’d slowed down considerably by the time we reached the top of the hill then pulled over to the side of the road and took my helmet off.

Beau followed suit and tugged his helmet off too.

“So where to?”

Beau grabbed both our helmets and twisted to secure them to the sissy bars. The movement caused his thighs to brush along my arse. Once he had the helmets secured, he leant around me to grab the handlebars. Normally, I would have lost my shit at someone else taking over control, but he was the one who knew where to go. Plus the feel of his chest pressed against my back, and his chin resting on my shoulder stole my breath. It may have been my imagination, but his arms seemed to squeeze a little tighter than necessary as he guided the bike around.

Before long, he’d brought us to a stop near a grassy area that overlooked the city of Sacramento.

For a moment, I rested my feet on the ground and just stared at the view, unwilling to get off the bike just yet. The lights stained the night sky with reds and whites. The moment was so magical—so surreal.

“Wow,” I murmured. “Spectacular.”

“Yeah, ya are.” Beau’s voice murmured near my ear.

My stomach clenched at his words, tightening into a ball that sent spikes of desire shooting downward. I wasn’t sure whether he intended me to hear them though. In fact, he’d uttered them so quietly that I doubted he had, so I chose to ignore them.

He cleared his throat and spoke a little louder as he climbed off the bike. “I gotta admit, I ain’t met many people can handle a bike like you. ’Specially with the extra weight; but you, darlin’, you were flawless.”

Climbing off the bike and following him toward the end of the car park, I blushed at his words. I’d heard similar things before, but they were usually followed by, “but I guess that’s to be expected, with who your father is,” as if my every achievement had been manufactured by him.

When I glanced back up at him, he was staring at me as if he didn’t believe I could be real. Our gazes locked, and time froze. It was like my mind had taken a snapshot of the moment and continued to play it long after reality had passed.

After a moment, we both looked away.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michelle Irwin has been many things in her life: a hobbit taking a precious item to a fiery mountain; a young child stepping through the back of a wardrobe into another land; the last human stranded not-quite-alone in space three million years in the future; a young girl willing to fight for the love of a vampire; and a time-travelling madman in a box. She achieved all of these feats and many more through her voracious reading habit. Eventually, so much reading had to have an effect and the cast of characters inside her mind took over and spilled out onto the page.

Michelle lives in sunny Queensland in the land down under with her surprisingly patient husband and ever-intriguing daughter, carving out precious moments of writing and reading time around her accounts-based day job. A lover of love and overcoming the odds, she primarily writes paranormal and fantasy romance.