Synopsis
This
is the tale of first and last loves. And those that come in between…
Jack Harrison is a relentless overachiever who
leaves little in the way of compromise. A businessman to the core—he's
hell-bent on being at the top of the food chain. After all, no one can trip you
up if you’re on top, as he likes to say. The problem for Jack is there’s only
one thing that continually trips him up—and
that’s
her.
Amelie Rose, with a name like poetry and a heart
of gold, as her father always said, is a free-spirited photographer who has
managed to land a job at one of the top travel magazines in the world. This is
both a blessing and a curse since Amelie never stays in one place for long and
has refused to commit to anything—ever.
It might seem to the casual observer that these
two have almost nothing in common. But fate would disagree. The story
chronicles Jack and Amelie’s lives from childhood into adulthood, beginning
when they meet as then eight- and ten-year-olds at summer camp specifically
designed for children who’ve lost too much.
As fate steps in, and that first summer seals
the deal, they come to depend on each other in ways neither of them expected,
with each summer bringing them closer than the last. As they come to terms with
life and loss, with hanging on and letting go, they’ll teach each other that
some bonds are meant to last. Together, they will travel the world, meeting in
various places where they’ll come together, and fall apart, all the while
struggling to discern if the other could possibly be the one.
This unlikely love story takes us on an
adventure where two people come of age, fall in and out of love, and question
the role timing plays in it all.
Their story is proof that neither time nor
distance—perhaps
not even death—can destroy what love
creates.
So it seems the only question left to ask is
whether love is enough?
Buy
Links
Amazon / Amazon CA / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords / Kobo
Comes Out April
14, 2014
Excerpt
Jack had been thinking of the letters when
the girl’s voice caught his attention. Although he was pretty sure she wasn’t
here last summer, he’d never paid much attention to whatever it was they
discussed in their little powwow they held over there—but this time he found
himself anxious to hear what she had to say. Whatever it was he was going to
use it to destroy her. To crush her once and for all. Keep her out of his
business, out of his life, out of his thoughts. Once is all it’d take, he knew
this all too well. He watched as she stood and addressed the group. She was
peppy, confident even—although not overly so.
The good news was this was her weakness. It left room for people like him to
create cracks, to manipulate the situation. But at the same time, she was the
optimistic type. Nothing seemed to keep her kind down for long, and he hated
her for that. These types of people were the worst.
Jack leaned back in his chair, crossed his
arms, and observed as she casually flicked her blonde ponytail over her
shoulder. She paused, looked up, and smiled directly at him. It was an evil
smile with a lie behind it. That much Jack knew for sure. Whatever she was about to say, it was going
to be stupid. He was going to hit the jackpot later when he rubbed it all in
her face. As she spoke up, her voice cracked a bit but she recovered quickly.
“I’m Amelie and I’m eight. This is a poem I wrote in honor of my dad. He was a
famous poet. But now he’s just dead.”
The counselors smiled at one another, clearly
a little uneasy and then nodded at the girl to go on. She was proud, her smile
unwavering. It didn’t even falter on the word dead. This was going to be so good.
“Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
My dad is dead.
If you’re here... yours probably is, too.”
The room was silent. The counselors looked
nervous, wary. But the girl, she just smiled, and then
glanced at Jack—or was it a wink? For a
moment, he couldn’t believe it. But then, as she sat back down, she curtsied in
his direction, and that one movement solidified it all. The more he thought
about it, the more he was sure that she had, in fact, winked at him. Clearly, this Amelie girl was
messing with him.
About The Author
For those of you who prefer it
straight up, no chaser: Mama to five. Lover of Life. Writer.
Juggler extraordinaire. That just about covers it…
The extended version and in third
person no less : Britney is married to a man she adores (when he isn’t driving her crazy) and is the
mother of FIVE amazing kids, who (surprise!) also have a habit of driving her
crazy, her best guess is that it’s genetic. In addition, she founded a local network for women in
2012, which has grown to almost 800 members. Currently, she occupies a job she
loves- serving and running Austin Women’s Network. To further prove that she
may in fact be certifiably insane, she decided to publish her debut novel
entitled, Bedrock in May of 2013. Then and only then,
could she consider her training to be an expert (life) juggler complete.
In her free time,
you might find Britney running, reading, or spending time utilizing the
wonderful venues that make her city great.
Giveaway
Hosted By:
______________________________________________________________________
If you have read and enjoyed Real (Real, #1) by Katy
Evans, Golden Trail (The ‘Burg, #3), and Wicked Burn by Beth Kery then you will
LOVE this book!
Basic
Summary
This is the tale of first
and last loves. And those that come in
between…
Jack Harrison is a relentless
overachiever who leaves little in the way of compromise. A businessman to the care—he’s hell-bent on being at
the top of the food chain. After all, no
one can trip you up if you’re on top, as he likes to say. The problem for Jack is there’s only one
thing that continually trips him up –and
that’s her.
Amelie Rose, with a name like poetry
and a heart of gold, as her father always said, is a free-spirited photographer
who has managed to land a job at one of the top travel magazines in the
world. This is both a blessing and a
curse since Amelie never stays in one place for long and has refused to commit
to anything—ever.
It might seem to the casual observer
that those two have almost nothing in common.
But fate would disagree. They
story chronicles Jack and Amelie’s lives from childhood into adulthood,
beginning when they meet as then eight- and ten-year olds at summer camp
specifically designed for children who’ve lost too much.
As fate steps in, and that first
summer seals the deal, they come to depends on each other in ways neither of
them expected, with each summer bringing them closer than the last. As they come to terms with life and loss,
with hanging on and letting go, they’ll teach each other that some bonds are
meant to last. Together, they will
travel the world, meeting in various places where they’ll come together, and
fall apart, all the while struggling to discern if the other could possibly be
the one.
This unlikely love story takes us on
an adventure where two people come of age, fall in and out of love, and
question the role timing plays in it all.
Their story is proof that neither time
nor distance—perhaps
even death—can destroy what love
creates.
So it seems the only question left to
ask is whether love is enough?
*For mature audiences
I really like the way the
story is told, it’s a little different than the typical third person point of
view and to me it adds a nice new fresh element to romance books. I also really enjoy the character development
in the beginning as far as getting to know Jack and Amelie as children then
later on as adolescents. I totally love
Jack’s reactions to Amelie and I love Amelie’s playful personality.
As I said the character development is
awesome in this book, but so far that’s about it. There are absolutely no descriptions of
anything around these characters so far.
A lot of the beginning scenes take place at Camp Hope but there is no
solid description of the layout of the camp, what the bunks look like,
etc. Plus there are a lot of great
descriptions of what Amelie looks like but so far there has been little
description as to what Jack looks like.
I’m still in Part One which seems to be Jack’s side of things and I get
he wouldn’t be describing himself tons of times but I would appreciate a solid
description in the beginning of each character.
What
I Loved
I don’t want to give any details away but there were definitely a couple points while reading this book that was crying right along with the characters and others where I was just was joyous and happy as they were. The book begins with Jack’s story and how he was feeling when he first laid eyes on Amelie and follows him all the way through college. I really loved that it started with Jack because as a female reader I tend to get more emotionally invested with the female characters, but with this book starting with Jack made me instantly fall head over heels in love with him. He starts out as such a great boy that grows into an unbelievable man and it was hard to finish this book knowing that I would have to say goodbye to him.
Not
So Much
This book could definitely have been
at least 50 pages longer. There was a
lot of great conversations and I I know you can’t include everything in a book
that you want especially when it comes to a story that takes up such a large
amount of time. We follow Jack and
Amelie since they were kids all the way till they are adults and that’s
awesome, but there was no depth this story.
There was tons of conversations in this book but there was no huge
explanations or actions added in while these conversations were going on. Plus the transitions from different time
periods to different time periods just weren’t very smooth and seamless to me.
Plus there are just no real details
about anything in this book other than Amelie and Jack and even then that was
few and far between. Tell me what Jack’s
house looked like when he was little, or what Amelie’s mother looks like. Describe to me Amelie’s apartment in Rome or
Jack’s apartment while he was in Princeton.
Did Amelie make friends when she was France, and if she did who were
they? We know nothing about Jack’s
friends or even what his father looks like.
I feel like I was emotionally invested in these characters to a point
because there was no depth to their environments or descriptions of events that
happened in their life while they weren’t together. I know that Amelie loved Rome but I have no
idea why, where did she travel to when she was there, what her day to day life
was like when she was there. Even if it
was just a paragraph going into more detail about their experiences or their
lives would’ve been much appreciated. Saying all this I will point out that I read
an ARC and maybe the final copy will be a little different.
This
Book Was…
Really Good! This book was filled with tons of heart
breaking moments; I had to tears in my eyes at least three times while
reading. I really loved Jack and Amelie,
right away I fell in love with Amelie’s go getter personality and Jack’s jaded
personality. I have never read a story
before that was the expanse of most of a character’s life, so reading this book
offered a fresh new component in the romances I usually read. I loved the way the book was written as if
the narrator was opening up the book and reading right to you personally.
I loved to see all the places Jack and
Amelie went together and my heart broke every single time they parted. There were so many times I wanted to scream
at Jack or at Amelie or throw my iPad across the room because this story was so
exhilarating and infuriating all at the same time.
I would’ve loved this book if there
was just more depth to the story and way more details. I get that the story is about Jack and Amelie
but for me I need the background set to really get into a story. There just didn’t seem to be a solid
foundation as far as their surroundings or their lives outside of each
other. Also I wish there was more depth
as far as the supporting characters, tell me why Amelie’s mom betrayed Amelie,
all that was said was that Amelie got her answers and wasn’t happy; well tell
me what her answers were! This book
could’ve definitely been at least 50 pages longer. I wish the book would’ve ended a little
differently as well, there was no set conclusion, for me it just kind of ended
not really knowing if this cycle between Jack and Amelie was done or was it
still continuing. If you’re going to write
a love story then you need to give it a definite end of the road type of the
ending unless you plan on writing a sequel.
This book definitely had a lot of new elements that I haven’t come
across in my readings so I definitely enjoyed that and I do feel that I would
read other books from this author.
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