Favourite Reads

And still with the Emma Scott love, another book of hers I adored.

I can’t seem to get enough of Emma Scott’s books since I rediscovered her and this is her most recent release.

Forever Right Now by Emma Scott

We first met Darlene Montgomery in The Butterfly Project.  She was the best friend of the hero and though she was bubbly and effervescent, she had some deep issues she tried to medicate with drugs.  She’d been drug free for a while but relapsed so I was delighted to see this book is her story.  When last we met her, she was in a relationship and doing her best to stay off drugs.  It’s now a year later and the relationship she was in didn’t work out.  While she was upset it didn’t, it didn’t trigger a return to drugs.  She’s been drug free for a while now and is ready to make big changes in her life.  The first and biggest is moving to San Francisco.  She gets a squeal of a deal on a sublet, has taken a course in massage therapy and landed a fairly good paying job at a swanky spa.  And most of all, she’s ready to start dancing again.  She hasn’t really since drugs stole dancing from her.  Everything is looking good – at least until she meets her new neighbour Sawyer Haas.  To put it politely, he’s a grump.  Darlene sees sparks of a different kind of guy when he interacts with his adorable daughter, but other than that, he’s Mr. Unfriendly.

But because Darlene is who she is, with her sparkling personality isn’t going to let a little thing like that stop her so she slowly but surely wiggles her way into his life.

I think this one might be my favourite Emma Scott book yet and that’s saying quite a bits as I’ve adored all the books I’ve read so far.  Going in I already loved Darlene and because we’re ‘met’ her, was ready to cheer her on right from the get go.  She’s so loaded with personality that she’s a joy to read.  Although she’s an addict, she figures she’s got it beat.  Her new sponsor Max, another great and colourful character warns her that she’s not quite seeing the whole picture of an addict but Doreen assures him she’s good.  The reader of course, knows she’s in for a fall and I almost had my fingers crossed that she wouldn’t go back to drugs like she had previously.  I’m not going to say whether she does or not – mean of me I know.

And Sawyer.  What a fascinating and 100% wonderful guy he is.   He has a lot of balls in the air and he’s stressed to the limit.  He’s in the final stages of getting his law degree and he has a great job lined up – as long as he passes the bar.  It’s helpful that he has an eidetic memory.  That’s the kind where you remember everything you learn.  Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory has that kind.  But law school is just part of his stressors.  He’s also a single father with sole custody of his very young daughter and he’s trying to make do financially on just the money from a scholarship. 

In his previous life, he was one Wild and Crazy Guy.  He and his roommates lived in party central and being young and attractive with a great future, finding willing young women was never a problem.  But that life style ended up abruptly when a one night stand came to visit carrying a baby, said it was his and took off, in the middle of one of his epic parties even..  Being a stand-up guy, Sawyer changed his life style completely and now is a totally womanless, stressed student and simply wonderful single father who would do anything for his daughter, It’s impossible not to love him to pieces and want to jump in and help him.  And that’s what Doreen tries to do but he does make it very hard for her.  And I can’t finish this review without giving big thumbs up to his daughter, Olivia.  Ms. Scott has even infused her with an adorable little personality.  Most of the time I’m meh about kids in romance but in this case, Livie was just as wonderfully done as every other character.

There is a brief appearance of Beckett and Zelda from The Butterfly Project but this book works just fine as a standalone.

With a wonderful story and a most excellent price there is no reason not to give this one a try.  I almost 100% guarantee you will fall in love with it too.

 

Outline: Outline: Darlene Montgomery has been to hell and back…more than once. After a stint in jail for drug possession, she is finally clean and ready to start over. Yet another failed relationship is just the motivation she needs to move from New York to San Francisco with the hopes of resurrecting her dance career and discovering that she is more than the sum of her rap sheet. As Darlene struggles in her new city, the last thing she wants is to become entangled with her handsome—but cranky—neighbor and his adorable little girl...

Sawyer Haas is weeks away from finishing law school, but exhaustion, dwindling finances, and the pressure to provide for himself and his daughter, Olivia, are wearing him down. A federal clerkship--a job he desperately needs--awaits him after graduation, but only if he passes the Bar Exam. Sawyer doesn’t have the time or patience for the capricious—if beautiful—dancer who moves into the apartment above his. But Darlene’s easy laugh and cheerful spirit seep into the cracks of his hardened heart, and slowly break down the walls he’s resurrected to keep from being betrayed ever again.

When the parents of Olivia’s absentee mother come to fight for custody, Sawyer could lose everything. To have any chance at happiness, he must trust Darlene, the woman who has somehow found her way past his brittle barbs, and Darlene must decide how much of her own bruised heart she is willing to give to Sawyer and Olivia, especially when the ghosts of her troubled past refuse to stay buried.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Favourite Reads

Since I’ve started reading 99.5 % of all books as ebooks, m reading life has undergone huge changes.  The vast majority of books I read now are either self-published or published by small publishers.  Except for a few exceptions, I don’t read books published by the big publishers any longer.  The prices are just too high.  And I’ve found some pretty amazing authors by going the self-pub, small pub route.  I thought I’d share some of my favourite.

Up first is Emma Scott.  I have read some incredible books by her.  She writes the kind where you’re lucky you aren’t sobbing by the end.  But they always end up happy.  I read no other kind. 

 

The Butterfly Project by Emma Scott

 

Last year I read a great book by this author, How to Save a Live and for some unknown reason I didn’t read another one – until now.  This is a truly beautiful book about self-forgiveness and I was mesmerized with it.  There wasn’t a single paragraph, sentence or even word that I didn’t love.

The book opens with Zelda Rossi pretty much at her lowest.  She has moved from Vegas to NYC to try and sell a graphic novel she has penned and just received her latest rejection.  The last house to reject her at least gave her a crumb, they thought she had potential but needed to add ‘heart’ to her novel.  She had no idea what they meant as she had already poured her heart and soul into Mother, May I, the name of her graphic novel.  She was robbed at the hostel she’d been staying and was running low on funds but she didn’t want to give up and go back to Vegas.

She decides to have one last good meal and heads into a small Italian bistro.  But as she is of Italian heritage and the very smell of food reminds her of home and the nightmare she has lived with for years, she needs to escape and heads out the back.  It is there she meets Beckett Copeland, a busboy who offers her comfort and an escort back to the hostel.  Through a series of events they end up as roommates.  Beckett helps her find the heart of her novel and in the process they help each other to heal grievous wounds.

 

This story is exquisite.  It’s rare when I fall as deeply in love with both the heroine and the hero as I did with Zelda and Beckett.  I even adore their names.

Years earlier Zelda had been with her sister when her sister was kidnapped and subsequently murdered.  Zelda blamed herself for not saving her sister and she was forever changed.  She suffers from panic attacks and PTSD.  She suffers from nightmares years later.  She is even unable to go home for any length of time because the memories still haunt her.  Her graphic novel, about a woman from the future who goes back in time to eliminate child predators and change the future events, is a reflection of Zelda’s need for closure.  She’s such a wonderful and well-drawn character that we can’t help feeling the pain and loss she does.

And Beckett’s story is just a tragic.  He was raised by his grandfather and it was poor existence.  When his grandfather fell ill, Beckett participated in a home invasion and the homeowner ended up dying of a heart attack.  Beckett spent two years in prison for armed robbery but because he has such a huge heart, has never been able to forgive himself.  Prison wasn’t nearly enough.  He writes the most heart rendering letters to the widow, letting her know how deeply he regrets his part in the death of her husband.  He is so compassionate and that makes the whole situation even more tragic.  The author gives examples of his nature in a number of different ways including making sure a neighbor is always fed.  Because he has a prison record and on parole, his options are limited and he works part time as a busboy and his main job as a bike messenger.

Beckett and Zelda start off as friends but their relationship deepens into more than love and they become each other’s savior.

If you are a reader who needs to ‘feel’ a book to enjoy it to its fullest then The Butterfly Project is a book you need to read.  The connection and the need that Beckett and Zelda have for each other seeps gently into the read with every page.  They truly are two halves of a whole who it almost seems destined to meet and fill the holes made by tragedy in each other. They filled the loneliness they each felt and because they both experienced deep guilt, they ‘got’ each other more than most people.

The writing is also so vivid.  I could actually feel the cold and freezing weather that Beckett felt when he was biking around the city.  I also experienced his anguish that because of his record, he couldn’t be there at a time when Zelda really needed him.  And I could feel on Zelda’s side, the influence he had on her novel and how, with his help and input, it was raised to a whole new level.  And as her novel was so much more to her, his thoughts also helped her heal in a way she didn’t they she would ever be able to.

This is a book that is going to stay with me and a book that I’m going to need to read again – and again – and again.  I also rectified the lack of Ms. Scott’s books and stocked up as soon as I finished this one.

 

Outline: Where you are is home..."

At age fourteen, Zelda Rossi witnessed the unthinkable, and has spent the last ten years hardening her heart against the guilt and grief. She channels her pain into her art: a dystopian graphic novel where vigilantes travel back in time to stop heinous crimes—like child abduction—before they happen. Zelda pitches her graphic novel to several big-time comic book publishers in New York City, only to have her hopes crash and burn. Circumstances leave her stranded in an unfamiliar city, and in an embarrassing moment of weakness, she meets a guarded young man with a past he’d do anything to change...

Beckett Copeland spent two years in prison for armed robbery, and is now struggling to keep his head above water. A bike messenger by day, he speeds around New York City, riding fast and hard but going nowhere, his criminal record holding him back almost as much as the guilt of his crime.

Zelda and Beckett form a grudging alliance of survival, and in between their stubborn clash of wills, they slowly begin to provide each other with the warmth of forgiveness, healing, and maybe even love. But when Zelda and Beckett come face to face with their pasts, they must choose to hold on to the guilt and regret that bind them, or let go and open their hearts for a shot at happiness.

The Butterfly Project is a novel that reveals the power of forgiveness, and how even the smallest decisions of the heart can—like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings—create currents that strengthen into gale winds, altering the course of a life forever.

Grade: 5 out of 5

 

Recent Read

How to Save a Life by Emma Scott

Why this one: It was one of those books that comes up “Recommended because” in reference to One Day Soon and since I thought that book was brilliant…..

Steam Level:  pretty heated

Genre: YA

Outline: Josephine Clark is trapped. A harrowing past haunts her every time she looks in the mirror, and she can’t escape the violence of her everyday life. More and more, her thoughts turn to Evan Salinger, the boy she knew in high school. The boy they called a mental case. A loner. A freak. The boy who seemed to know things no one could know. For a few short weeks, Jo had found perfect solace in Evan’s company, sneaking every night to meet him at the local pool. In the cool of the water and the warmth of Evan’s arms around her, Jo had tasted something close to happiness.

Cruel circumstances tore them apart, and four years later, the sweet memory of their time together is dissolving under the punishing reality of Jo’s life now. Evan seems like a fading dream…until he reappears at the moment she needs him most. Guided by Evan’s strange intuition, they flee her small Louisiana town, and Jo begins to suspect there is something more to his sudden return than he admits.

Over twelve days across America’s heartland, deep secrets come to light, buried pasts are unearthed, and the line between dreams and reality is blurred as Evan and Jo fight to hold on to their soul-deep love, and discover that there is more than one way to save a life.

My Thoughts: I think if I had read this book at a different time, I may have gotten more out of but coming on the heels of One Day Soon, and because I found One Day Soon so…. Everything, How to Save A Life didn’t have as much of a chance.  It’s like watching a brilliant ice dance skate in the Olympics, the kind that gives you goose bumps.  Each move by both is perfection, even down to the move of a hand.  Their connection to each other is intense and the audience knows it’s watching something they will rarely see and experience.  And then the next pair of ice dancers come on to the ice and they do a wonderful job, worthy of high scores, but it just didn’t give you the goose bumps that the first pair did.  On another night. In even the slightest of circumstances the second couple could come first – but just not this night.  That’s how it was with this book.

Josephine, or Jo, is one very angry, very damaged young woman.  It’s her final year of high school and she’s the ‘new girl’.  She lives with her uncle and as a long distance truck hauler, they move around a lot and even when they settle somewhere, he’s not around much.  Jo has good reason to be angry.  She was abused by another uncle, though the author doesn’t really get into it in any detail.  When she scarred herself on purpose to make him stop, her mother who already suffered from mental illness, couldn’t handle it and killed herself.  So Jo was left with basically no one.  We don’t know about her father.

She gets involved with the ‘geeks and freaks’ crowd though she also bangs the jock of the school.  This gives her the ‘illusion’ of being in control though of course we the readers, know this never really works.  But it adds to her isolation.

But there is someone even more isolated that Jo who attends the small town high school and that is our hero Evan.  He is ostracized by everyone and bullied and made fun of.  And even worse, it is his foster brothers that lead the charge.  They hate him with every breath they take

He interests Jo, here is someone very handsome who to her should be one of the cool kids but then she hears his story.  He has visions and has spent time in a mental institutions.  In the cruelty that can be young people that’s all it takes.

But Jo gets to know Evan better and she sees he’s a wonderful caring young man.  As their young love begins to grow and flourish and as she begins to trust Evan. Jo slowly lets down her walls a bit.

But just as things start going very well, a tragic incident happens and they are ripped apart from each other and Jo’s life slowly descends into hell.

Will they find each other again?  Can they heal each other?  Can their love overcome all that keeps them apart? This is what is answered in the second part of the story and I’m not going to tell.  Instead, if I’ve intrigued you enough, you will want to find out for yourself.  I will say though that it becomes a road trip book, based mostly on the ‘visions’ that Evan still sees.

I loved both Jo and Evan.  Jo is only keeping it together by a thin veil of ice, never really letting herself trust, always expecting the worst and sometimes even sabotaging herself to get what she thinks she deserves.

And Evan – well, even as a young high school student he’s swoon worthy.  His past is almost as sad, he was abandoned and then later adopted by a couple who aren’t really aware or care, what is going around them, how horrid this young man they took in is being treated.  He will break your heart with his story.

I have no problems whatsoever recommending this book and I’m sure many will very much enjoy it too.  For me though, not quite as much as the ‘other’ book

 

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Would I read it again?:  I don’t know honestly.  I can see me starting to read it and the other book calling to me.