White Knight, an all-new romantic standalone from New York Times bestselling author CD Reiss, is available NOW! 

This was a beautiful second-chance romance of teenage lovers broken apart and finding each other again many years later, yet it was definitely not what I expected.

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From NY Times Bestseller, CD Reiss… Catherine’s long lost love is found.

Catherine Barrington is a rich girl. Chris Cartwright is a poor boy.

He left her to make something of himself. A man she could be proud of. A man she could bring home to her parents. A man she could marry.

On the trading floor he became the man he knew he could be. Now, it’s time to return.

Rich girl.

Poor boy.

She didn’t care about his money, but he didn’t believe her. Soon after he left, all the money was gone.

Her life is hell.

Now he’s back, and he’s different. Pristine. Gorgeous. Rich.

Rich boy.

Poor girl.

Money was never the barrier, until now.

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White Knight is a standalone in the same world as King of Code, with its own beginning, middle, and end. You don’t need to read anything else to read White Knight.

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One of my favorite things about CD Reiss is that she is one of the most versatile authors that I read. Everything from dark, twisted, and taboo and across the spectrum over to sports romance, her writing is always unique and suspenseful, keeping me glued to the pages throughout. Basically, she’s that author for me that is like a box of chocolates, and I never know what I’m going to get when I pick up one of her books. White Knight was definitely that. The story was a beautiful second-chance romance of teenage lovers broken apart and finding each other again many years later, yet it was definitely not what I expected.

I really floundered with my feelings for Chris and Catherine. Usually, I love it when characters come full circle and redeem themselves in one way or another in the end, but I was just missing a better connection with them somehow.

Catherine was such a genuine and good person, and she spent years nurturing the people and families of Barrington. She was fiercely protective of those she loved, and I, in turn, loved her giving heart. Usually, I would admire a heroine in a story for that alone, but Catherine had such a lack of confidence and just seemed so incredibly unhappy with her life, even after everything that she had accomplished. I’ll also admit that I’m never a fan of heroines that are criers, which she did all the time, and I just found her character to be somewhat lackluster.

I really liked Chris’s character and admired him for his leap of courage to leave for New York as a teenager, with only his dog and a bit of money. He came from nothing and worked so hard to become the type of man worthy of Catherine and her uppity family. However, the reason that Chris came back to Barrington and rather sudden decision to pursue Catherine again, just sat weird with me. At first, his perspective offered that he owed her something after all their years apart, but then later, he also thought she had been the one to push him away. It was confusing. I really did love the way he adored and always wanted the best for Catherine though!

CD Reiss’s writing was full of emotion, and while I wanted to get caught up in the swells of the story, I just didn’t. The first part was told in the present tense with flashbacks to Chris and Catherine’s youth, where their relationship first blossomed thirteen years ago, and the second part is when they meet again years later. It was told by both Chris and Catherine’s point of views, which filled in all the gaps over the years through the flashbacks. The pace really seemed to drag for me, and the surprises didn’t keep me engaged. The ending also felt a bit abrupt, and I would have liked to have known how Chris’s career ‘situation’ played out, since it was such a key element in their relationship early on in the story.

Again, this really was a sweet story. It had a happy and rather perfect ending for Chris and Catherine, and this could definitely be the ideal romance for some. Perhaps it was my mood, and maybe I had different expectations from the previous books and their ‘hacker’ themes in King of Code and Prince Charming, which was my first 5-star read this year. They were so intriguing, fast paced, and suspenseful, and their unique stories really blew me away. I thought this would be somewhat similar, but it wasn’t at all.

White Knight just fell short for me and didn’t have the edge to it that I have come to expect and love from CD Reiss. However, I remain a huge fan and look forward to her future works!

* ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange of an honest review *

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I crossed the train tracks, looking both ways as if the freight ran on a thoroughfare. It was a few steps to the rows of mobile homes that defined that side of Barrington.

The playground was in a little clearing just west of the center of the trailers. My fingertips were cold, but the rest of my body thrummed and pulsed so hard that I made my own heat. I told myself I didn’t know what to expect from this meeting, but if I didn’t know what to expect, I knew what to hope, and they were pretty much the same thing.

“Catherine!” Chris wasn’t loud, but the excitement in his voice made him sound as if he were shouting.

“Chris?” I spun around, looking for him in the darkness.

And on a three-quarter turn, he crashed into me, all lips and hands, digging his fingertips into the muscles of my back as he pulled me close. I tasted the minty toothpaste in his mouth and thought he brushed his teeth for me. He kissed me as if he would never kiss me again. He kissed me as if this was the last kiss he would ever have in his life. As if he wanted to eat me alive. I’d given over my freedom and my choice to this thing with him, to this moment, to this stupid set of choices that would ruin me forever. As surely as the sun would rise, I was the designer of my own destruction.

I wanted to be destroyed by that kiss.

When Chris took my hand, I imagined I could feel the blood pulsing through the veins, the cells in his skin. I imagined that when my nerve endings vibrated at his touch, they connected to his somehow.

Everything felt new. I was discovering that my body had routes between one place and another that I never knew existed. I never knew that when a man touched my hand or kissed my nipples, I could feel it between my legs.

There was a click behind the tree line, and he stopped kissing me with a jerk. We froze long enough for him to smile.

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Read it Today!

(Free in Kindle Unlimited)

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2G1YDLL

Amazon Universal: http://mybook.to/WhiteKnightCDR

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CD Reiss is a New York Times bestseller. She still has to chop wood and carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn’t pick up she’s at the well hauling buckets.

Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get her master’s degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that went nowhere but it did give her a big enough ego to write novels.

She’s frequently referred to as the Shakespeare of Smut which is flattering but hasn’t ever gotten her out of chopping that cord of wood.

If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine.

Connect with CD Reiss:

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Website: www.cdreiss.com
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