Once Upon a Twilight!: Blog Tour: Amber To Ashes by Gail McHugh + Giveaway

Welcome to our stop on the Amber To Ashes tour for Gail McHugh. This tour is hosted by Atria Books.

Amber To Ashes
Author: Gail McHugh
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: June 9 2015
Review Source: Atria Books

They were a storm I never saw coming, an unforeseen heartbreak on the edge of a dangerous cliff.

In AMBER TO ASHES (Atria Paperback; June 9th, 2015), Amber Moretti’s life changes in the span of minutes. An orphaned outsider, she is desperate to start fresh the moment she walks onto campus. In the time it takes to cross the university’s dining hall, she meets two men who bring color, air, and light to her darkened world.

They became my addiction, each a needle to my next hit, my high.

Brock Cunningham’s appeal is dizzying, a potent force Amber can’t deny. A green-eyed smooth talker, he instantly attracts Amber. It doesn’t take long for him to consume her every thought, her every breath.

Ryder Ashcroft, a blue-eyed, tattooed, and pierced bad boy, turns Amber off immediately—that is, until he kisses her, stealing a piece of her heart, her soul.

They were as opposite as fire and ice, yet I ached for them equally.

Never knowing she could be broken down in so many unexpectedly beautiful yet petrifying ways, Amber finds herself falling for both men.

Immoral? Maybe. I say undeniable. Uncontained.

But one devastating event changes everything, shattering each of their lives...and Amber isn’t sure she can recover from it.

Amber is a girl with her own past - one that is dark and twisty, and that has made her incapable of love. Until she meets Brock and Ryder. Two best friends who have both made their imprint on the girl who has captured their interest. Two boys who have their own dark pasts, and when they're with Amber all of their pasts are forgotten and there is hope for their future. When things get complicated it all but breaks them with the decisions that they all must face.

First off McHugh does a great job at making each boy likable. Halfway through the book is when I felt more strongly about Ryder, although I loved Ryder from the start and was not fond of Brock in the beginning. He has his moments when he first starts hanging out with Amber. But Ryder always had my heart - which then had me worried for what this means. In the film world that I'm use to when you are made to like a certain character more than others it's because their ending will not be a pretty one - whether it comes in heartbreak, death or an evil twist - it's coming. Although this has yet to happen...which has me worried for the next book in the series.

I will be reading the next book, the ending is such a cliff hanger that it drives me insane. I couldn't believe that McHugh would end the book in the way that she did. I must know who will get the letter and who will get the notebook! Even though I kind of have a feeling I know what will happen.

There's something that throws me off with this book though, I'm not sure what it is. There were some times when things that Brock and Ryder did just threw me off. Mainly with their dealing drugs. When they went to the pick-ups I felt weird about it, I think it's because I haven't been around that lifestyle, and so I felt like it wasn't really how it would happen. It felt very 'Hollywood' and more like something I would see in a movie than in real life. And that took me out of the book for a little bit. Especially with their reactions to what happens at one of the pick-ups. I feel like they might've acted out more than they did. But like I said, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just naive about that lifestyle, either way that part of the story didn't sit right with me.

Gail McHugh is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Collide and Pulse. She is the mother of three beautiful children and has been married to her husband for fifteen years.