![\"Heat-Header\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Heat-Header.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1\")
\nHonestly?
\nI thought this would be yet another Summer Romance.
\nIn front of my inner eye I was already seeing Olivia Newton-John’s performance of “Summer Nights” in Grease.
\nAt the end of the book I myself was blearing “tell me more, tell me more!” but only because I really wanted Lis Lucassen to tell me more…about anything! Not only about Dan and Lynn. About whatever she wants, because she really has a strong, clear voice I feel drawn to.<\/p>\n
In my reader’s heart there are particular spots reserved to authors and books\u00a0that marked me – some are milestones of literature, others are highly acclaimed contemporary writers, others are books by authors that are amazing yet very few have heard about them. I am immensely glad that I did get the chance to read this. I always am, because I feel every book deserves to be read, but I’ve found a new book-highlight in Heat<\/em>, so I am doubly grateful, because I don’t think I would have read it otherwise – in a sea of books, I am not sure I would have stumbled upon it at all.<\/p>\n Heat<\/em> is a tale of tragedy and vulnerability, of rage and fear. This isn’t your typical Summer Romance. Dan and Lynn are troubled by circumstances and choices, trying to find themselves and get their life back on track; they struggle against each other (he more than her), trying not to sink further into their own little world of self-pity and fear and rage, yet not really wanting to abandon it completely. Walls are really hard to tear down, especially if they are fortified.They both are very real, very communicative characters.<\/p>\n I felt Lynn’s frustration, her indecisions. Heat is a story about life having shown it’s worst. Yet there’s hope shining through a darkness you thought would swallow you whole. How does the saying go?”What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Heat is a reading experience you really don’t want to forego. Heat Synopsis:<\/span> Under a burning sun more than a thousand miles from home, Lynn Stevens is trying to get her life back on track and leave memories of that one fateful night behind. She meets Dan, a young man with strangely erratic behavior and smoldering brown eyes, who is on an involuntary vacation with his parents. In him, she sees her own struggle reflected every time she is starting to get too close. \u2018Heat\u2019 is Lis Lucassen\u2019s New Adult debut novel. This book puts her on the map in the Netherlands as the first-ever NA author from her own country. Purchase Heat:<\/strong><\/p>\n Amazon<\/a>\u00a0| Amazon-UK<\/a>\u00a0| B&N<\/a> | iTunes<\/a> | Kobo<\/a> | Google Play<\/a> |<\/p>\n Heat Excerpt:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Dan. The heat overpowered him. In his memory, it had never been this sickeningly hot. The fabric of his shirt stuck to his back and Dan fought the impulse to roll up his sleeves. Or to pull the shirt over his head and get rid of it. Not an option.<\/p>\n The skin on his right shoulder felt itchy. If this damn bus trip was going to take much longer, he swore he was going to pull the handbrake, stop the bus himself, and get off this vehicle. Getting off in the middle of nowhere had to be a thousand times better than sitting in this sweat lodge on wheels for one second longer.<\/p>\n “Is the AC dead? You been messing with it again, huh? Dan reached out to adjust the controls above his seat, only causing the vent hole to cough up a sputtering wave of lukewarm air.<\/p>\n His little brother sitting next to him looked sideways. “I didn’t touch anything. You were the one fussing with it.” He extended his hand to adjust the air vent above his own head. He extended his hand to adjust the air vent above his own head. \u201cMine isn’t working either.\u201d He shrugged. \u201cWell, we can’t be far off. Are we there yet?<\/p>\n Dan groaned at the expression. If Jason went all Donkey-in-Shrek-movie on him, he’d personally grab the wheel and … He looked aside, straight into his mother’s disapproving eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease, Daniel.\u201d The exhaustion in her voice was evident in the way she used his full name. It was visible in the lines on her face, in the way her green eyes lucky Dad hadn\u2019t heard him. From the looks of it, his father was fast asleep, his head resting against the bus window and his ears oblivious to the continuous twang of the music that the bus driver had picked to play over the sound system. The bus made a sharp turn and he could only barely stop himself from shifting sideways against Jason. Dan cast a look outside and saw they\u2019d entered the circular driveway of the hotel. The driver hit the brakes abruptly and Jason slammed into the seat in front of him, still clutching his tablet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here,\u201d Dan remarked dryly.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t say,\u201d Jason grinned.<\/p>\n The driver was blessed with the most monstrously big mustache that Dan had ever seen. The thing seemed to have a life of its own and it was the first thing he\u2019d noticed when the man had been there to pick them up from the airport. Jason seemed to nurture the same fascination with the man\u2019s hairy mass. Dan mockingly put one finger under his nose, imitating a certain German World War Two leader with a similar mustache. Jason responded in like, pressing two fingers against his upper lip and saluting his brother with the tablet against his temple. \u201cKnock it off! You\u2019re both behaving like three-year-olds,\u201d their mother hissed in dismay. Dan dropped his arm and put his hands in his pockets. He quickly followed Jason to the hotel lobby, where he dutifully lined up next to his younger brother to listen to a male hotel employee welcoming them with a fake smile plastered on his face. The guy bore a striking resemblance to a Ken doll. The way he was standing just a bit too close to the girl accompanying him made Dan suspect this life-size Ken had a lot more going on between his legs than Barbie\u2019s plastic, male companion, though. The girl shot him a look, a frown burrowing between her eyebrows when her eyes traveled down his long sleeves. Her blue irises were clearly asking him something. He averted his gaze, because the familiar sense of embarrassment made him feel even hotter than he already was. Lynn. He heard her when she said her name. She had a beautiful voice, an edge of vulnerability coloring her words as she wished the guests, him included, a pleasant stay.<\/p>\n Dan sighed and walked over to get his backpack, which the driver had put in the lobby together with the other suitcases. The sooner he could get to his hotel room, the faster he could rinse off the sweat and his mounting irritation under a nice, cold shower.<\/p>\n Lis Lucassen writes dark romance and new adult. In daily life, she works as a journalist and communications specialist. Her story \u2018Tree of Kings\u2019 won first prize in the Dark Romance writing contest organised by Storm Publishers in 2014. Her dystopian novella \u2018The Tribunal\u2019 came in third in Storm Publishers\u2019 Dystopia writing contest and is included\u00a0in the\u00a0novella collection named \u2018Defiant\u2019, published by Storm Publishers in 2015.<\/p>\n Lis is a dreamer and a romantic soul. As long as she can remember she has been fantasising about True\u00a0Love and quiet heartbreak. Her own True Love\u00a0crossed her path during her time at\u00a0university, and he swept her off her feet and gave Lis her very own \u2018happily ever after\u2019.<\/p>\n Whenever Lis isn\u2019t writing her own stories, she reads other people\u2019s books. She feels inspired by authors such as J Lynn, Jessica Sorensen, and Lisette Jonkman (a\u00a0Dutch author of romance books). Lis lives close to the German border with her fiance, two beautiful daughters, and two evil cats.<\/p>\n Lis Lucassen’s Web Tracks:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Website<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Goodreads<\/a> | Publisher\u2019s Profile<\/a><\/p>\n Follow all the updates for this blog by visiting and liking The All The Things Inbetween Facebook page. Click the button to enter the ring!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n I’m looking for authors and victims willing to write guest blogs, reviews and interviews for All The Things Inbetween. If you would be interested in taking part please drop me an email and I will send you a thank you picture of a kitten!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Honestly? I thought this would be yet another Summer Romance. In front of my inner eye I was already seeing Olivia Newton-John’s performance of “Summer Nights” in Grease. At the end of the book I myself was blearing “tell me more, tell me more!” but only because I really wanted Lis Lucassen to tell me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[372,834,1140,1144,1192,1459,1725,1989],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Heat-Header.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6033,"url":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/27\/hashtag-love-letters-to-steve-bennett-from-lis-lucassen\/","url_meta":{"origin":5479,"position":0},"title":"Hashtag: Love Letters - To Steve Bennett, from Lis Lucassen","date":"2016-02-27","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Steve, I can't believe it; how you wormed your way into my heart, the few moments we spend\u00a0together last summer on the island. We met there, this beautiful place, surrounded by the\u00a0bluest of seas, where the palm trees whisper of love and forever, of happily ever after. You don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Quote-Steve.jpg?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1285,"url":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/22\/tongue-wagger-unintentional-virgin-by-a-j-bennett\/","url_meta":{"origin":5479,"position":1},"title":"Tongue Wagger - Unintentional Virgin by A.J. Bennett","date":"2014-01-22","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a book that I purchased a few months ago and began reading and then set aside because I felt it was very silly initially. For the month of January I put all of the books I had began reading and stopped for whatever assorted reasons, into my January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A.J. Bennett\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1200,"url":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/07\/tongue-wagger-almost-real-by-charlotte-stein\/","url_meta":{"origin":5479,"position":2},"title":"Tongue Wagger - Almost Real by Charlotte Stein","date":"2014-01-07","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another gift from my glorious benefactor at Ellora's Cave the kind and generous Laura Garcia, who I scolded during the holidays when I received this book on Christmas Eve. For a good long time I carried the belief that I did not like books about Christmas, aliens or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Almost Real\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3680,"url":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/06\/tongue-wagger-one-night-of-sin-by-elle-kennedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5479,"position":3},"title":"Tongue Wagger - One Night of Sin by Elle Kennedy","date":"2014-08-06","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a thing about censoring myself--I don't do it. I feel like it's a self shaming and I should allow my inner dork out and allow it to go crazy. I made the \"frame\" for this yesterday and\u00a0The first thing that came to when I sat down to write\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/One-Night-of-Sin-Stroke.jpg?fit=255%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4685,"url":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/02\/tongue-wagger-adrian-lessons-by-l-a-rose\/","url_meta":{"origin":5479,"position":4},"title":"Tongue Wagger: Adrian Lessons by L.A. Rose","date":"2015-01-02","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a soft spot for college romances... most of mine weren't worthy of putting crayon to\u00a0paper but I love hearing people tell me of their cray-cray years in college when they sowed their oats, hops, and every other agricultural metaphor in use to say they\u00a0ran wild in the sheets!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Adrian-Lessons.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2989,"url":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/05\/tongue-wagger-undaunted-by-charity-parkerson\/","url_meta":{"origin":5479,"position":5},"title":"Tongue Wagger - Undaunted by Charity Parkerson","date":"2014-06-05","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a weakness. Eye candy. I'm not ashamed and if you want I will sing it from the rooftops. Ali loves lickable, lovely, sexified, manly, yum yum bits! I had posted that I was looking for authors who had novels coming out in July or August who would allow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/image001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI’d like to assign a spot to Heat, because it weaseled it’s way among the best books I’ve read so far and I am pretty sure I will dive into it time and time again. Because, you know, “a good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader<\/span>” (Vladimir Nabokov).
\nHeat <\/em>is amazing.<\/p>\n
\nIt is nothing like I had expected .
\nIt isn’t easy, it isn’t pretty…
\nIt is realistic.
\nHeat<\/em> depicts life, if only in the perspective of two young people – Dan and Lynn – drawn to each other by the pain they have in common and by the need to break down the walls surrounding them.<\/p>\n
\nThese aren’t your usual boy and girl falling in love and living happily ever after.<\/p>\n
\nI felt Dan’s wrath towards the world, the fear of rejection nagging at his soul.
\nLis Lucassen really did an amazing job in depicting the suffering of the characters throughout their ordeals.
\nThe story – I won’t tire to repeat it – was very real and I knew from page 1 I would love it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nBecause shit happens and circumstances change you, but it’s up to you to stear that change towards the positive or the negative.<\/p>\n
\nWhat I didn’t realize ’til the very end, was that Heat<\/em> is part of a series and that there are more books\u00a0on the way. Which made me insanely happy, because I’m already obsessed with Heat<\/em>!
\nI’m a book-stalker, no use denying it.
\nI tend to go coo-coo crazy when I like something (don’t judge me!) and I my mantra is “the more the better”.
\nSo, lay it on me.
\nI want it.<\/p>\n
\nHighly recommended.<\/strong>
\nI really don’t regret loosing sleep over it.<\/p>\n![\"Simona-Blog-Separater-Rawr\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Simona-Blog-Separater-Rawr.jpg?resize=400%2C98&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"B&W](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/25456223.jpg?resize=317%2C475&ssl=1\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nDan doesn\u2019t like being touched. But when he sets out to uncover Lynn\u2019s secret, it means he\u2019ll have to tell her some secrets of his own.<\/p>\n
\n![\"add-to-goodreads\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/havecoffeeneedbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/add-to-goodreads.jpg?resize=195%2C61&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\nMeet Lis Lucassen:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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