I’ve been reading Tessa Bailey’s books for so many years and this is the book that I always felt like she was destined to write.
I fell in love with her dirty talking, alpha heroes and I’ve watched those kinds of characters evolve and I’ve wanted that. I’ve also wanted her to write books with a larger word count so she would have more room to stretch her “writing wings”. I wished for this years ago and here we are, with Belmont, one of Bailey’s most (if not the most so far) complex characters that she has ever created.
There is a danger in saving a character like Belmont for last. Will he live up to the build-up? The short answer for me is YES. Is it an easy journey? No, not at all. There are so many layers to Belmont and why he is the way he is and the reader needs to be patient with him.
As for Sage, she has her own journey to take and I wasn’t exactly prepared for the depth of that journey either and how it influences her relationship with Belmont.
The relationship between Sage and Belmont has also been built up. Readers always knew that their relationship was super intense and their connection runs deep. But how would that relationship be impacted when it finally reached a physical connection? Personally, I enjoyed the exploration into the physical part of their relationship and how it created another level of connection and depth. It was extremely intense and SEXY. Good lord.
Too Beautiful to Break is the bookend to the Clarkson’s New Year’s Day journey to the Polar Plunge that was laid at their feet by their mother, Miriam. While it was hard for her children to understand on a deeper level why she sent them on this pilgrimage, at first, when you look at it as a whole and with Belmont’s role in it, it makes sense.
TBtB highlights just how much Bailey’s writing has developed and how far she has come since those first Line of Duty books.
Tessa stopped by and shared a Clarkson centric playlist. Check it out!
Hello! Thank you so much for having me! There are so many songs that remind me of the Clarksons—I’m excited to share some of them with you!
- Marathon by the Heartless Bastards. This song and its slow buildup just capture the feeling of this dysfunctional family road trip. It’s about all of us running and running, trying to keep up—and sometimes we need help to make it to the finish line.
- Too Hot to Handle by Michael Shea. My brother actually wrote a song for the first book in the series! I cried when he played it for me, because it was Rita and Jasper to a T.
- Colours by Skinny Lister. There were some scenes in the series where everyone was just quiet in the rumbling Suburban and this song reminds me of those times. Just everyone lost in their thoughts, eating up road under the massive American sky.
- Sometime Around Midnight by Airborne Toxic Event. This song reminds me of Peggy and Elliott. It’s about a man in a bar who sees a woman he used to love …and everything comes rushing back. How she smelled, dresses she wore when they were together. And he’s suddenly going out of his mind to see her, to touch her. It’s a glorious song.
- Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky. Whenever I needed to get in the mood to write this series, I put on this song and I would see the final scene in my head. I would see the ending and it would motivate me to write the story. There are no words, just this beautiful buildup and it’s so happy, it leaves you hopeful.
