THE MUSE by L M HALLORAN

“This feeling, right here and now, has brought gods from their heavenly thrones, started and ended wars, and shifted the borders of nations. Nothing in my life has prepared me for how you make me feel, Iris.”

We sampled her writing in the rockstar romance, Breaking Giants, and now, with The Muse, LM Halloran has cemented herself as a TBB 1Click author. We were completely sold on her talent, the story and her characters in this standalone student/teacher forbidden romance that eclipsed anything we had anticipated, taking us in directions we didn’t expect and forever keeping us on our toes, finding ourselves totally enraptured by James and Iris’s complicated and emotional love story.

“Do you want me or not?” he takes a step toward me, fingers sliding under my jaw to lift to my face. “More than anything in memory, yes.”

We’ll admit that, initially James and Iris’s fascination and desire for one another moved at breakneck speed, which gave us pause for thought, however, what developed was anything but an insta love story. What began as a sizzling sexual chemistry, soon receded and was replaced by an attraction that went beyond the physical. This was a meeting of intellect, mutual respect, emotional intensity and understanding, oh and yes, desire!  But as James and Iris begin to explore their feelings, we learn more about the fate and destiny of these two characters with explosive consequences. This is a love story that spans time, growth, healing and self-discovery and it was intense.

“You were born with eyes that hold worlds. Lifetimes of love and loss and pain. I’m only sorry I added to your pain. I truly never mean to hurt you.”

They say timing is everything and that couldn’t be more true for James (Beck) and Iris. Hired as a TA for the brilliant, handsome, cantankerous 33 year old British Professor James S Beckett, the newly appointed Director of Creative Writing, Iris would meet a man who is a contradiction to say the least. An academic, a NYT BS fiction author with a brilliant mind, he could render us breathless with his exquisite eloquence one minute, whilst sending us into giggles over his snarky dry, caustic mirth, then have us fanning ourselves when he unleashed his very sexy dirty talk! Oh James could be a right cock at times, but bloody hell did we love him! We loved every complicated thing about him!

“…There’s a chance your talents are being wasted on crime fiction.”
He hums in humor, hands skating under my shirt to find skin. Then he says, “The only erotica I’ll write will be for you. Tomes and tomes of it, my little muse.”

Twenty seven year old Iris Eliot didn’t stand a chance against his charms….albeit it, she had to dig deep to find them beneath the Beck’s obnoxious exterior! But this resilient young lady, has a sad and painful past, consisting of a loss that haunts her and a guilt she carries from the repercussions. However, as the full impact of Iris’s past is explored throughout the story, she broke our hearts.

“Iris,” he whispers. “So aptly named. Complex and radiant, deceptively delicate.”

As the story progresses, we open up to Iris’s past and we learn why Beckett became so enamoured with the 27 year old Iris, and why his attraction was so ‘sudden‘ – and it was tormenting,  heartbreaking and beautiful, and so cleverly devised and written by LM Halloran. What a way to throw a spanner in the works, LM! There’s a burning lust between the two that crackles yet this never once overruled the development of their relationship or the emotional impact of the story as LM Halloran delivered an intense, sexy, painful, thought provoking, stunningly written story of a love that refused to yield, a story that captivated us from start to finish from an author who has amazed us and seized our hearts once again.