Wild and Free by Kristen Ashley blog tour!

Your eyes do not deceive you, you read that correctly! We're part of the Wild and Free Blog Tour!!!!

 

If you know anything about us, you know that we're big fans of Kristen Ashley. Particularly Nikki. Swear to god, she reads KA's whole back list once a month. So when we received one of the coveted KA invites, it was pretty much a million times better than this: 

It was like being in the presence of greatness....like being at a New Kids concert. 

*snickers* Only YOU would equate the New Kids to KA.  When I got the news it was a go, I was pretty much all 

 

We pretty much dropped everything we were doing to start this book ASAP. And honestly, can you blame us?! Not only was it an ARC, a KA ARC, but it's the last book in The Three series! This was big! We're talking HUGE!

So, before we get to the good stuff (aka the review), here are the pertinent deets about the book! 

LOL. Why do I feel like you're ready to announce the nominees at the Grammys or Oscars? 

LOL. Because I'm awesome that way!? 

Abel Jin and Delilah Johnson have lived their lives with a hole in their soul, yearning for something they don’t understand. 

Until one night Delilah is in mortal danger and a man who’s otherworldly strong and supernaturally fast saves her. Delilah is then cast into a world where fiction comes to life in the form of Abel, her destined mate, a vampire/werewolf hybrid who claims her at first breath as his. 

But Abel knows the danger isn’t done. He’s dreamed for centuries that his mate will perish and he will stop at nothing to keep her safe. 

For Delilah, she’s not only coping with fantasy come to life, but a mingling of very different families. Not to mention, she has on her hands a man who doesn’t understand his true nature and has lived his long life thinking he’s a monster. 

Abel and Delilah together fills the hole that has been clawing at them for decades. But finally finding each other, it also tips their destinies as the last of The Three. They must unite with the other destined lovers, who with Abel and Delilah, are fated to save the world. 

Or die trying.

         

“I’m a monster, Lilah.”

“What?” I whispered.

“I’m a werewolf vampire. I exist on human blood. I can tear a man’s head off and I have. I’m a monster.”

“You—”

“I am,” he stated flatly. “And the first chance I’ve had in all my years to understand why I am as I am is to go to that fuckin’ hotel.”

I stared at him, then straightened my body so I was fully facing him. This caused his jaw to get hard again, but I ignored that and stated, “Okay, let’s break this down.”

“Nothin’ to break down.”

“Humor me,” I snapped, his head jerked, and his lips curved up.

“Carry on,” he muttered.

“Thanks,” I bit out. “First, how many men’s heads have you torn off?”

“Four, and two wolves.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“These being the night we met,” I stated.

“Yeah,” he repeated.

“The night some of them were trying to kill me and the others were trying to kill you.”

To that he said nothing.

I kept going, “So you haven’t torn off unsuspecting citizens’ heads willy-nilly, for the fuck of it, or on a psychotic rampage?”

He pressed his lips together and I knew it was to hide his humor because his eyes lit with it before he unpressed them to say, “No.”

“Right,” I said sharply. “Have you ever had a psychotic rampage?”

He shook his head.

“So let’s get to the human blood part,” I suggested. “When you were,” I paused, “drawing from one of your ex-bitches, did you ever kill one of them?”

“Fuck no.”

“Take too much and make them sick?”

“No.”

“Do it against anyone’s will?”

His eyes went guarded, but he said, “No.”

I threw up a hand. “Okay, so what’s the problem?”

He blinked, straightening in his chair, but again said nothing.

“I mean, seriously,” I went on, “I’ve seen lots of vampire movies and TV shows and even the good vamps screw up and overindulge. Hell, Jessica killed three fairies in a ravenous attack. She might have had her issues as a young vampire, but by that time, she was full-on good.”

His brows shot together. “Fairies?”

“Fairies.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

I threw up both hands and cried in exasperation, “True Blood!”

“Jesus, Lilah,” he muttered.

“No, seriously, Jessica is very sweet.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he growled, sounding like he was losing patience, which I didn’t figure was a good thing.

“Okay, back on track,” I began. “Tell me. Tell me one instance in your life where you actually behaved like a monster.”

“I wanna fuck you,” he snarled.

I stared.

“Yeah,” he ground out. “I wanna fuck you, Delilah. Consumed with the need and I have no idea why, but I can guess, seein’ as it’s like you’re a bitch in heat, I’m a dog that catches the scent and his mind is wiped…wiped of anything…but the need to mount you and”—he leaned forward—“rut.”

“Holy fuck,” I breathed.

“Yeah,” he said again. “That make you feel safe?”

“Abel—”

“I can smell your fear.”

I swallowed.

“It turns me on,” he kept going. “Makes me wanna tear into your throat and fuck you and feed from you. Now, does that make you feel safe?”

“No,” I whispered, because it really fucking didn’t.

“Right. No,” he bit off. “So I’m not a monster?”

So...wow. That happened. 

LMAO! You have a gift for the understatement! THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!

I don't disagree with you. I have to say, that I had no idea what to expect from this book. I freely admit that I had issues with a few things Lucien did in the first book, but overall, I liked him. He was a good alpha vampire. And Callum...Lol. Well...I loved him even more than Lucien and he was such an idiot sometimes! But I was dying to know what guy was going to live up to those two! Especially after the end of With Everything I Am!

Let me just start by saying that Kristen Ashely is one of my all time favorite authors. I truly believe she can do no wrong. With that said, I will freely admit I was nervous about reading The Three series since it was paranormal. Lucien was a total ass, no sugar coating it here, but aside from the fact that he seriously aggravated my inner feminist, I loved the first book. Then Callum came along and blew Lucien away! (I have a thing for the wolfy types  ) So when it was time to read about Abel and Delilah, I was the most impatient I think I've ever been for a book. And you know how impatient I can be!

LOL. Oh, I know. Every time a blog gets an ARC of one of her books, you stalk their status updates and I never hear the end of how much you want the book until release day when you can finally get it! Swear to god, you couldn't open your kindle fast enough to start once we got the book.  

 You know me too well  And I can't help it. I just love her style and the stories she creates. And even though I initially had slight reservations about how she would do a paranormal, this series turned out to be fantastic. Wild and Free is by far my favorite of the Three though. 

I totally get your hesitancy over her paranormal series though. It's been my experience that there aren't many authors that can do contemporary AND paranormal well. They typically excel at one but not both. It was the reason I was hesitant to try her Fantasyland series but that turned out to be my favorite series of her's so I had no doubts that she could pull off vampires and werewolves. 

I concur! (And I loved the Fantasyland series too!) And KA definitely pulled off vampires, werewolves AND hybrids!  I absolutely loved her world building in this series! I thought it was original and creative. Again, my inner feminist had a freaking field day with the vampire "caste system" (for lack of a better term) but I still thought it was pretty cool how she created this whole new dynamic on the secret world of immortal beings living side by side with humans.

Our Abel

Again, I would have to agree. She did a great job of world building. The vampire and wolf culture were so detailed and different that they felt like different cultures, not just differentiating them from the human world they co-existed with, but from each other. I was also impressed with her hybrid. He was the perfect combo of vampire and werewolf. But I'll also admit that I had hoped the vampire qualities would be more present in him...you know, since I'm such a blood thirsty reader and all that.  

Lol. I love how you're more on the vampire side and I'm more on the wolf side  I also thought Abel was a great combination of the two and I was so excited to see if one or the other would be more prevelant or if he'd have an equal mix of traits. I gotta say, the part in the excerpt, Holy Smokes! This was one hot book and the steamy scenes were some of the best I've ever read!

LMAO. It was a hot book. It's weird, Abel and Delilah got together really quick. And she was accepting of the weirdness. I'm not complaining, but I was surprised by that. In the first book, Leah knew of vampires so she knew the deal. In the second book, Sonia had no knowledge of werewolves or vampires. Part of what I loved was that she didn't immediately go with the flow of what Callum said. She reacted the way any normal person would and tried to get away. So I was a little surprised that Delilah fell in line so quickly. That's not to say she didn't initially put up a fight, because she did. But I was still surprised she gave it to Abel so quickly. 

I know what you mean. After Leah and Sonia's reactions, Delilah's took me by total surprise. I liked it though. She was on board basically from day 1 (1/2) and went with the flow. In a way, it was nice that she didn't put up a fight, and the way KA made it so there wasn't a reason to put up a fight. With Leah, I was wanting her top throw down like Mike Tyson [or some other famous boxer?] with Lucien. And Sonia's reaction was on par with her situation. I also liked how even though Delilah and Abel had a somewhat insta-love connection, they understood that it was due to fate but they also knew they still needed to get to know each other.


I completely agree. And the way KA handled the insta-love was in such a way that it was believable. Even though I was surprised by it, I didn't feel like it was too soon, even though it was early in the relationship. You know one thing I did love....

What's that? 

I loved seeing more of Leah & Lucien and Callum & Sonia in this book. Since the prophecy was explained in book 1, I had expected to see more interaction between Callum and Lucien in the books. There wasn't much so I was really curious to see how that would all play out in the third book. And I loved the friendships that developed between the three couples. 

Our Delilah

I loved the dynamic between the three couples as well. In the beginning, when we just had Dalilah and Abel and his family, that was great. But I thought the story really startes to pick up when everybody got together. I also really enjoyed the side stories and alternate pov's.

Again, I completely agree. As much as I liked the parts with just Dalilah, Abel and his family, I kept wondering how the prophecy would come into play, how it would play out and if the other couples, or the guys would play a part in this book. So once everyone showed up, the book went from being a good book and a great romance to being a kick-ass awesomesauce book that I couldn't put down. We always joke about a KA book taking a week to read but I swear to god, we blew threw this so fast that we were reading at warp speed! 

LOL! Warp speed... Like how I read all her books?!   And yes, this book was seriously kick ass! And the ass kicking scenes were awesome! I really loved everything about it! I'm trying to decide if there was one scene that stands out as a favorite, but they all do! 

LOL. You're right, I can't think of one specific scene that I loved more than the others. Wait, yes I can...when they killed bad guys! Muahahahahaha! 

Smh of course 

So....There's is something else we need to talk about. We don't want to give spoilers but we need to address it.

That is??? 

The worst part of the book. 

Oh. That. 

Yeah, THAT. I have to say that I'm seriously holding a grudge after THAT happened. 

 I know. It was awful and I  forever afterwards. 


Me too. It was totally unexpected and horrible and (to me) unnecessary and JUST PLAIN WRONG! 

I didn't like that particular scene either. I also thought it was unexpected and was hoping it would be undone somehow, but alas it was not.

Same here. I actually had to go back and reread that part because I was SURE I had read it wrong! 

I know what you mean! *sniff* Can we move on now? 

Lol. Yes, we can. So...what's your final verdict (as if I really need to ask  )

Really?!?! 5 yo!!!! DUH!

Hey! I had to ask. For all I know you were going to try and give it a bajillion stars! We don't count that high! But, I concur, 5 stars!

Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA. She nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorise and she hadn't taken her first breath!). 

Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.

Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).

Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up. 

And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.

          

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We want to thank you for joining us today. We had a lot of fun buddy reading Wild and Free and even more fun writing our review. We'll also be posting individual reviews on Goodreads so feel free to check us out there. :) To quote the literary goddess that is KA, Rock on!