Roxy's Reviews: Blog Tour: Excerpt + Review: Stripped Bare by Heidi McLaughlin

Author: Heidi McLaughlin

Title: Stripped Bare

Release Date: March 28th 2017

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Number of Pages: eBook

Publisher: Love Swept

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What readers are saying about STRIPPED BARE:

Stripped Bare is one of those stories that you know is going to be great from the first page. It's funny, extremely sexy, emotional and heartbreaking which all combine for a sensational second-chance romance read.

This is a modern day Pretty Woman but so much better! Richard Gere has nothing on Finn McCormick!!

Oh wow. I have been in love with McLaughlin's writing since the start but this one could very much be my favorite book now by her.

They don’t call it the Strip for nothing. . . .

In this sinfully sexy Las Vegas romance from bestselling author Heidi McLaughlin, a man who has it all reunites with a woman who takes it all off.

Living in Sin City, Finn McCormick is no stranger to one-night stands, but the last person he expects to find losing big on the casino floor is a former high school fling. Even though Macey Webster’s clearly down on her luck, she’s still a knockout, and she’s dressed like a stripper—because she is one. Drunk off an unfamiliar cocktail of lust, pity,

and compassion, Finn offers to pay Macey’s debts if she cuddles up to him around town . . . and does whatever he wants between the sheets.

Macey came to Vegas for one reason only: money. She’s got a young daughter to support, and the tips really are bigger in Vegas. But when she blows her earnings on blackjack, her guardian angel is the rich boy who once stole her heart and never called her back. Although Macey would love to turn the tables on Finn, she can’t afford to refuse his proposition—and soon she’s enjoying herself much more than she cares to admit. Macey’s used to baring her flesh, but baring her soul will take far more courage.

Stripped Bare

Chapter 1

Macey

The stench of deep fry emanates from my clothes. I hate the smell and I know the other girls can smell it, but I ignore the looks they’re giving me and hustle through the dressing room to my locker. The older women and the ones that have been stripping here longer always look down on the younger girls and the newbies. I’m somewhere in the middle. I stripped here when I was younger, during my first trimester with my daughter, and then again after she was born when I had my figure back. Actually, stripping helped me tone as a result of all the pole work that I had to do. I took some time off after that, but I always come back because the money is fast and somewhat decent. Each time I leave, though, I say that it’s for good and that was the last time and yet a few months later, I always find myself back again, knocking on Lew’s door, and asking for my spot in the rotation back. Girls come and go around here and in this business you can’t expect to make a lasting connection with anyone.

I strip down and throw my dress, apron and nylons into my bag as quickly as possible before the stench of grease becomes any more noticeable. I change into a thong and bootie shorts, add tassels to my nipples and cover them with a bra before slipping a tank top over my head and stepping into an old pair of cowboy boots that I picked up

at the secondhand store. I have an array of costumes meant to hit the mark on every fantasy a man can have. Cowboys, librarian, naughty schoolgirl . . . you name it I’m doing it. I need the money. More so now than ever. My kid is getting older and she’s seeing things she shouldn’t, like her grandmother being so drunk that she can’t get up to answer the door, or strange men in the house. She’s ten and shouldn’t have to babysit an adult. Nor should she

have to live in the slums, but that’s on me.

Seventeen and pregnant isn’t how I saw my life. I had had enough of living with barely any food, no new clothes and the strange looks, so I swore that I was getting out. I was smart, got good grades in high school, but none of that mattered once I found out I was knocked up and the baby daddy had already left town. I tried to tell his mother, but she took one look at me and shut the door. Back then I didn’t, but I do now. I’d take that money and run right across the tracks, under the bridge and through the fucking blueberry bushes if it meant my kid wasn’t going to be a victim of a drug deal gone wrong or end up with a drinking problem by the time she’s a teen.

Morgan though, she’s a good kid who loves to read and is a whiz at math. She’s all I have in this world and I’ll do anything I have to, to make sure she has food and clothes.

So I strip at night and wait tables during the day. Depending on the day or night, one pays better than the other, but they’re jobs that I need. I have a goal. I want to move Morgan and I into a better neighborhood. One where kids want to play and not sell drugs. I want her to live in a place where she feels safe and doesn’t need to hide in the closet of our bedroom because my mother invited one of her friends over.

My dreams for Morgan are unreachable, I know this, but I try every day to make them happen. I want such a different life for her that sometimes when I look out the window of the city bus I’m on and I see other kids her age walking along the street without a care in the world, I imagine her being one of those kids. If only . . .

Stripped Bare is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Review

From the very first page, this book had a 'Pretty Woman' feel to it, and because that is one of my fave movies, I couldn't wait to see where this Cinderella story would lead.

I enjoyed getting to know Macey. She was a sweet, heard-working woman who would do just about anything for her daughter; stripping was a means to an end, agreeing to Finn's proposition was a way to get there faster. It was obvious that Macey didn't enjoy what she did for a living, the thought of taking it a step further was even more unappealing, but Macey's fairy godmother was looking out for her and gave her the opportunity in the form of Finn. He may be a player with commitment issues, but he was the boy who first stole her heart, which kinda made it okay.

I'm still on the fence about Finn. He is definitely all alpha male with plenty of charm and cockiness, and at times that rubbed me the wrong way. He seemed to think that sex was the answer for everything and it felt like he was using Macey, even after their week together was done. I looked for every redeeming quality I could find so that I could overlook the things that I disliked about him, and thankfully I found them during the "Morgan revelation". Perhaps Sin City had hardened him; made him cold and calculating, but there was warmth below the surface and it just needed to be unearthed.

This story was a fairytale romance filled with sensuality and heartache. I could only hope that the characters would find their HEA, but for a while there I thought it wasn't meant to be. I'm glad I was wrong.

Heidi is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author.

Originally from Portland, Oregon and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in picturesque Vermont, with

her husband and two daughters. Also renting space in their home is an over-hyper Beagle/Jack Russell, Buttercup and a Highland Westie/Mini Schnauzer, JiLL and her brother, Racicot.

When she isn’t writing one of the many stories planned for release, you’ll find her sitting courtside during either daughter’s basketball games.

Heidi’s first novel, Forever My Girl, is currently in production for a major motion picture.