Blog Tour! A New York Love Story by Cassie Rocca (@cassierocca)@Aria_Fiction #Review #Extract

Brand new week and a brand new blog tour! What a way to kick off the week with a trip to New York and one or two Christmas Tree. After all, it’s only -calculates- 90 days until Christmas, surely a nod to Christmas is allowed, now? (TWG may or may not have had several nods to the festive season already. Cough.)

Blurb.

Giving a present is not always easy. Clover O’Brian knows that only too well: her job consists of helping people in the arduous task of choosing unusual gifts. Christmas is coming, New York is buzzing, and Clover, who has always loved the festive period, savours the atmosphere.

Cade Harrison already has everything in life. A Hollywood actor, he is handsome, rich, famous and popular. Success, however, has its downsides; having just emerged from a disastrous relationship with an actress, he feels a need to hide away in an area unfrequented by stars, in an apartment lent him by a friend, far from prying eyes – especially those of tabloid reporters. But as chance will have it, the apartment in question is right opposite the one occupied by Clover, who until now has seen Hollywood actors only on the big screen. Two quite different lives meet by chance, at the most exhilarating time of year…

What does TWG think?

What a job! Can you imagine being a personal shopper for people, helping them find gifts for their loved ones? Having to find out loads of information about the people the client wishes to buy for, finding unusual gifts, what’s not to like? I mean, you’re being paid to shop, win win really! It’s lucky that Clover O’Brian enjoys her job really,  considering that she gets all walks of life expecting her to find the right gifts for people she doesn’t know. Actually, come to think of it, it sounds like quite a difficult job! It’s hard enough buying things for people you do know, let alone for complete strangers! Add a top Hollywood actor to the mix and you have eye-candy with an unlimited budget. Simple really..if the press don’t see.

I didn’t know what to make of ‘A New York Love Story’ to begin with, it took me a couple of chapters to gel with the storyline and the characters. I found Clover, at first, a bit like marmite. She came across as a lost soul with a sharp tongue and extremely defensive, I tried to work out why she was like that. Although, as soon as her family popped up in the story, it soon became clear why defense seemed her go to mechanism.

Once I was able to sink my teeth into the storyline and more characters popped up in different ways, I found myself loving being in New York, especially seeing as I have never been there! The way that Cassie Rocca described the city made me feel as though I was sitting on the street kerb, watching everything unfold. I have no idea how close her descriptions were to the real city, but as far as I’m concerned, Cassie’s description is what New York looks like!

Even though the title of the book has ‘love story’ in it, I wasn’t expecting the book to have the true love story element. Part of me thought that it would be lightly touched upon, so I was pleasantly surprised when the topic of love took over the book. I tried to remain impartial to the characters and not choose a side, but I did, I admit it. I seem to get even more involved in storylines lately, and a love story is no different!

There was a lot of drama in ‘A New York Love Story’ which always kept my interest and allowed the love element to be an addition to the story, rather than the main focus. I liked that, very cleverly done.

‘A New York Love Story’ kept my interest all the way though (after I gelled with it), reached my emotions and made me want to curl up with a hot cuppa and watch someone put up my Christmas tree. Thanks to Cassie Rocca and ‘A New York Love Story’, I will make sure I have lights everywhere this Christmas as you need to light up your life somehow.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a complimentary copy in return for my honest views.

A New York Love Story by Cassie Rocca, published by Aria Fiction, will be released on the 1st October 2016 and is available to pre-order now from Amazon UK.

Extract.

“Then, next time you’re looking for peace and privacy go to a desert or wear a mask! You can’t force people not to notice you…” Clover sighed. “However, if it helps, this neighborhood is inhabited mostly by kids and middle aged people. It’s unlikely that you’ll find a hysterical woman at your door asking you to autograph her butt!” She noticed he was deeply embarrassed by her reference to the episode that all the tabloids had gleefully reported, and her animosity somehow weakened. 
“I’ve always wondered how you can keep an autograph on your skin intact. I guess you must avoid washing that part of the body: a kind of disturbing idea, don’t you think?”
“In that specific case, the autograph was immediately transformed into a tattoo.” He was trying to restrain an ironic smile, while turning towards home.

“Oh god! Are people really willing to go that far?” Clover laughed with incredulity. She was following him and was satisfied to have found something to embarrass the Prince of Hollywood with. This was the nickname that the gossip magazines had given him. “Now I understand your desire to stay away from people. It can’t be easy to have to sign a bottom every time you go out for groceries!”

“It’s not something that happens to me every day,” Cade replied and kept walking. “And anyway, these are displays of affection from my fans. I can’t complain: I owe my success to them.” Clover had doubts about the sincerity of this. It seemed as if he were acting in a screenplay, as though he’d been instructed to answer these kinds of questions in a diplomatic way.

“If this is how you feel, then you would enjoy meeting a client of mine, she’s really sweet. She has the biggest butt you can imagine! I think she would probably like to have her right butt cheek autographed by you, if you would sacrifice yourself in the name of love for a great fan of yours…”
“Very funny.”
“It could become a new trend, actually a full time job for you: the buttocks autograph artist. I’m sure it would be a big success in Hollywood.” When they reached the gate of his villa, Cade Harrison looked at her, said: “If you have finished with your bullshit, I will say goodbye…”
“Oh! Already? Don’t you want to sign my butt too? Maybe you would like to make a dedication on my back… if I remember correctly, I read somewhere that you did that too.”
“If you have an ice pick, I can start right now.”