Spotlight & Giveaway: The Player Next Door by K.A. Tucker

Posted June 18th, 2020 by in Blog, Spotlight / 52 comments

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you K.A. Tucker’s new release: The Player Next Door

 

Spotlight&Giveaway

 

From the international bestselling author of The Simple Wild and Ten Tiny Breaths comes a new second-chance, hate-to-love romance.

Scarlet Reed has returned to Polson Falls, convinced that twelve years away is long enough to shed her humiliating childhood identity as the town harlot’s daughter. With a teaching job secured and an adorable fixer-upper to call home, things in her life are finally looking up.

That is, until she finds out that Shane Beckett lives next door.

Shane Beckett, the handsome and charismatic high school star quarterback who smashed her heart. The lying, cheating player who was supposed to be long gone, living the pro football dream and fooling women into thinking he’s Prince Charming. Shane Beckett, who is as attractive as ever and flashing his dimples at her as if he has done no wrong.

Scarlet makes it abundantly clear that old wounds have not been forgotten. Neighbors they may be, but friends they most certainly are not. She won’t allow herself to fall for the single father and firefighter again, no matter how many apologies he offers, how many times he rushes to her aid, or how hard he makes her heart pound.

But as she spends more time with him, she begins to fear that maybe she’s wrong. Maybe Shane has changed.
And maybe this time she’s the one playing herself—out of a chance at true happiness.

 

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Player Next Door 

What is Shane even doing back in Polson Falls?
The last I heard, he was flying high on a full-ride football scholarship, somewhere in California. Mind you, I heard that way back in senior year, when people were strolling through the halls, bragging about the college offers they’d opened after school the day before. Back when all I could think about was getting out of this town and all the assholes in it—him being the king of them.
Shane Beckett cannot be back in Polson Falls and living next to me.
He just can’t.
But, oh my God, he is heading this way, stalking smoothly across his lawn to mine, his long legs easily maneuvering over my picket fence. He strolls along my driveway toward me, eyeing my dented Honda Civic on his way past.
He must not realize who I am. There’s no way he’d be so casual in approaching if he did. I look a lot different from the girl he slummed it with for a summer, back before our senior year. The boring, mousy-brown bob I used to sport in high school is gone, replaced by sleek, tawny hair that stretches halfway down my back. My once-average figure has been honed by years of running and yoga. And while I still sometimes shop at thrift stores for my clothing, I’ve acquired a discernible palate for higher-end consignment purchases. Even now, on “moving day,” my worn Guns N’ Roses T-shirt looks trendy paired with black leggings and jeweled sandals.
Shane has changed too, but not by much. Being the star quarterback, he was always lean, but fit. He’s much bigger now, his neck thicker, his shoulders broader, his top clinging to a solid, curvy chest, his jaw more sculpted and angular. And the hair he always kept cropped is longer, gelled in a tousled, messy style.
He’s still gorgeous. In fact, he’s more gorgeous than he ever was. I’d recognize him from a mile away, even all these years later.
I’d recognize him as the guy with the deceptively sweet dimples who smashed my seventeen-year-old heart into a thousand pieces.
I sit up straighter and pull my shoulders back to meet him head-on, readying myself mentally as my gut churns with nerves and my pulse races. Thank God I slipped on my sunglasses when I sat down. At least I can hide the panic from my eyes as he comes to a stop three feet from me.
Those full, soft lips that I remember kissing for hours—so long that my own were left chapped and sore some nights—stretch with a wide smile. “Scarlet Reed.”
His voice is deeper and sexier than I remember, and my stupid, traitorous heart jumps at the sound of my name on his quicksilver tongue. The first time he said my name, the night he asked me out, it took me forever to pick my jaw up off the drive-in concession counter. I was so shocked he knew who I was.
Obviously, he knows who has moved in here.
I clear my throat, trying to maintain calm. “Shane Beckett.” Shane Fucking Beckett.
Sliding his hands into his pockets, he climbs the first step and leans against the railing. It creaks under his weight. “Your dream came true.” His warm eyes drift over the face of the house. They’re as stunning as I remember them, speckled with gold flakes and rimmed with dark brown. “You bought the old Rutshack house.”
“You … you remembered?” I sputter, unable to mask my surprise. I mentioned my secret wish to own this place on our first official date—a balmy night in early July, the humidity making my hair frizz and my skin slick. I was so nervous, I babbled the entire time. I was sure he regretted asking me out.
Shane’s gaze drops from its inspection of the porch ceiling to settle on me. His eyelashes are still impossibly thick and long, his nose still slender and perfect. “I remember a lot about that summer.”
My chest tightens, and pain I’d long since thought faded flares with renewed vigor. “So do I.” The sweet words, the longing looks, the gentlest touches. He told me I was one of the coolest girls he’d ever met, and it didn’t matter that my few misfit friends would never gel with his many popular friends, or that I wasn’t a cheerleader or an athlete.
He said he didn’t care that my mom and I lived in an apartment on the shady side of town, or that she was caught in a compromising position with our married town mayor the night of our school’s Christmas pageant when I was twelve.
He swore he wasn’t the player everyone said he was, and he was okay with taking things slow, that he wouldn’t push me to give him my virginity.
He told me that he thought he might be falling in love with me.
I remember it all because it was in stark contrast with the personality one-eighty he pulled in the last week before school, when he started avoiding my calls and breaking plans. He dumped me the night before classes began, claiming he wasn’t looking for a serious relationship through senior year.
What he meant was, he wasn’t looking for a serious relationship with me.

Excerpt. ©K.A. Tucker. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: A paperback copy of The Player Next Door by K.A. Tucker

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
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Meet the Author:

K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge. She is the bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series and the novels He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, and The Simple Wild. She currently resides in a quaint town outside Toronto with her husband and two beautiful girls.
 
 
 

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52 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: The Player Next Door by K.A. Tucker”

  8. laurieg72

    Second chance romances always have so many feelings and emotions to work through. Scarlett and Shane appear to have a lot of past to resolve before they can move forward. I’d like to be along for their journey. The excerpt was engaging!

  14. peggy clayton

    I thought that the excerpt was great but wanted more! Thank you for giving away a print copy battling RSD and can only read and review print

  17. Kathleen Bylsma

    Hard to imagine he remembers all this when he allows himself to be pressured…

  19. Tina R

    Thanks for sharing the excerpt. I haven’t read any of K.A. Tucker’s books yet, but this definitely sounds like a good one to start with.

  24. joab4424

    My heart broke for Scarlet when Shane ending things with her in school. He can’t still be such a jerk. Can he? I hope she gives him a taste of his own medicine.

  26. courtney kinder

    Great excerpt! Can’t wait to read more and find out what happens next.

  34. Karina Angeles

    Wow! What an excerpt. Can’t wait to read how Shane makes up for being a big jerk in high school.

  36. Shannon Capelle

    I really enjoyed the excerpt its fantastic. Cant wait to read the rest.

  41. Anita H.

    This sounds really great, love a second chance romance! Now I’m wondering why he broke up with her!

  43. Diana Hardt

    Nice cover. I liked the excerpt. It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing.

  51. Patricia B.

    Thank you for the excerpt. Things are not always what they seem and this excerpt hints that maybe more could have been going on their senior year than she knew. It sounds like they are both going to learn a lot through this story.