Jennifer Echols - Love Story

Praise for these incredible novels by
JENNIFER ECHOLS

Forget You

The romance in this book is outstanding, the story is superb, and its a story you cant put down. Forget You is a must read!

Chick Loves Lit

Certainly a book to be read again and placed at the top of the favorites shelf.

A Good Addiction

Sexy and full of surprises an enchanting tale of searching and finding. Each of their shared moments are addictive and special, and oh-my-God, so searingly sexy, unmasking qualities they would not have otherwise discovered in each other.

Girls Without a Bookshelf

Lets just put it this way, Jennifer Echols has a way with words beautiful, intelligent, and downright sexy!

Princess Bookie

Going Too Far

A brave and powerful story, searingly romantic and daring, yet also full of hilarious moments. Megs voice will stay in your head long after the intense conclusion.

R. A. Nelson, author of Teach Me and Breathe My Name

Naughty in all the best ways the perfect blend of romance, wit, and rebelliousness. I loved it!

Niki Burnham, author of Royally Jacked and Sticky Fingers

Powerful a thoroughly engrossing look into two peoples personal stories of loss and strength. The two characters grow and change together. Mesmerizing to read, whether youre a teenager or adult.

Parkersburg News and Sentinel

None of us in the office could put the advance copy down.

Lipstick

A tremendously talented writer with a real gift for developing relationships between her characters.

Romantic Times

Powerful without being over-the-top, and reveals universal truths while still being a very personal story.

Teen Book Review

Edgy, tense, and seductive, with a very tough-tender, wounded heroine who is trying to figure out who she is, and an intelligent, thoughtful hero who thought he had that all figured out. Humor and sarcastic wit alternating with terribly tender and sneakily seductive scenes.

Smart Bitches Trashy Books

An amazing book you will still be thinking about days after you have read it.

Flamingnet

What a powerful read.

Coffee Time Romance

A big roller-coaster ride a torrent of different emotions.

YA Book Realm

Fast paced, detailed, and addicting.

Laurens Crammed Bookshelf

Going Too Far has everything a teen love story should have.

Book Loons

An amazing writer. I cant wait to read more of her books!

The Book Girl

An absolute pleasure to read. I couldnt get enough of it.

Pop Culture Junkie

A compelling novel about the choices teens make, the consequences, and uncontrollable things that happen.

Ms. Yingling Reads

I stayed up late and most likely failed two tests simply because I could not physically put this book down. It was way worth it though.

Addicted to Books

Deeply rich characters with many layers that need to be peeled back before the reader is exposed to the real Meg, the real John After.

YA Reads

These MTV books by Jennifer Echols are all also available as eBooks

Other romantic dramas by Jennifer Echols

Forget You

Going Too Far

Available from MTV Books

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2011 by Jennifer Echols

MTV Music Television and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First MTV Books/Gallery Books trade paperback edition July 2011

GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-4391-7832-4

ISBN 978-1-4391-8048-8 (ebook)

Thanks to my brilliant editor, Jennifer Heddle; Nicole James; Catherine Burns; NYPD Lieutenant Steve Osborne; Laura Bradford; my dad; and as always, my critique partners, Catherine Chant and Victoria Dahl.

Love Story

by Erin Blackwell

Captain Vanderslice was something of an ass. He took Rebeccas gloved hand and kissed it at the lowest point of a deep bow. Miss OCarey, you are blooming into quite the young lady.

And you, sir, look as fine as always, Rebecca lied, watching him straighten before her. Tall and dark, he might have been handsome but for a stray bullet that had caught his cheek during the War Between the States ten years before, burrowing a thick scar from nose to eye.

Rumor had it that the visible wound wasnt the only one hed suffered during the warand that despite his status as a bachelor in a border state deprived of many of its young men by the ravages of war, this disappointment with regard to offspring was the main factor that had kept several ladies from accepting his hand in marriage. However, the prospect of the bloodline ending mattered not to Rebeccas self-centered and business-minded grandmother, who thought the match advantageous, for someday it would merge Captain Vanderslices vast horse farm with her own.

It mattered to Rebecca. She racked her brain for something to say to the captain that would be neither rude nor an encouragement of his amours. Wasnt Colonel Clarks derby a delight! He talks of making it an annual event.

It will never catch on, said the captain with hauteur, swirling the mint julep in a tumbler in his gloved hand.

Oh! Id consider the races a success, with ten thousand in attendance, Rebecca maintained. She continued to exchange unpleasant pleasantries with the captain while her eye roved about the rich ballroom, searching for an escape before the captains small talk turned to courtship, as it had at every social gathering of late.

Luck was not on her side. At a typical country dance, one of her friends from the neighborhood would have strategically interrupted the exchange, drawing a grateful Rebecca away from the gentlemans attentions. This was no country dance. Colonel Clark had organized a race of the areas finest three-year-old colts on the outskirts of Louisville, and this exclusive ball in his mansion included only the richest families. In a gathering of perhaps a hundred, Rebecca was alone.

Almost. She spied movement out of the corner of her eye. Framed by the arched window that let in the cool May night, beyond the patio, Davids dark jacket blended with the shadows, but his golden hair and crisp white shirt glowed in the soft candlelight reflected from mirrors in the ballroom.

She had asked him to meet her. She had retreated to this corner of the ballroom with a view of the garden early in the evening, and had glanced casually through the archway in search of him after every dance for four quadrilles, three reels, and a round dance. As she spied him at last, she felt as if her heart with its insistent throbbing were actually moving the lace of her bosom.