Blog Tour/Giveaway - 'How Many Chances' by Beverley Hollowed

Today I'm thrilled be part of my friend Beverley Hollowed's blog tour for her new novel, How Many Chances, Part Two of the Chances Series (the sequel to No Second Chances). I tried like mad to finish the book in time for a review, but sometimes the Universe has other plans for my schedule! The good news is that you can read my review of No Second Chances to give you an idea and this much I can already tell you even though I haven't finished: Beverley's trademark, heart-wrenching angst is veritably oooooozing out of this one! I swear to God this poor couple will NEVER find happiness!  If that's your bag as a reader, then you need to be a Bev Babe like yesterday (I just totally made that name up - you're welcome, Bev!). So check out the teasers below, enter the giveaway and then download your copy. Or both, if you haven't read the first (you will be completely lost if you haven't, fyi). 

Thank you for stopping by and please be so kind as to subscribe to my blog so you know when I have new posts up and news about my own writing (over there →). ENJOY!

Synopsis 

Having fallen head over heels in love with the handsome and very charming Cole Thomas, Ally Brody had her heart broken and her world torn apart. 

She feels lost, but is determined to move on and start her life a fresh. 

However, Cole still fills her every thought and she is finding it harder and harder to stick to her rule of no second chances.

Cole is left a broken shell. He can’t think of anything but Ally and showing her just what she truly means to him.

Can Cole prove to Ally that she is meant to be with him? 

Can Ally ever learn to trust Cole again?

Can they start over and find happiness or will life keep throwing hurdles in their way…How Many Chances does true love get? 

Teasers

When he reached Ally’s door he stood for a moment and took a deep calming breath before he softly knocked on the door.  He listened for movement inside but there wasn’t a sound. He knocked once more but still there was no reply.

“Ally, please,” he begged pressing his head against the door. “Please open the door and talk to me. I love you.”

He listened for a sound but there was still none. Panic started to bubble up inside him. Why wasn’t she answering the door? What if Jason had come back? The sudden thought filled him with so much terror and he began banging on the door in panic.

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As she sat there, immersed in the hot water, she closed her eyes and once again her thoughts were consumed by Cole. She longed to see him. She longed to have him hold her in his arms and tell her this was all just a mistake. But she knew that was never going to happen. She could barely breathe, she needed him. But she knew she had to let him go. He lied to her and he broke her heart.

As the song that was playing on her iPod ended, the sounds of Kiki Dee’s ‘Amorouse’ filled the bathroom. The words of the song hit her like a steam roller. “Should have told him, I’d do anything if I could hold him, for just another day.”

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“Why is it stupid?” Cole asked looking her straight in the eyes, taking a step towards her. “You love me, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do,” she agreed.

“And you know I love you?” He continued as he walked towards her slowly.

“Yes,” she swallowed nervously as he stopped directly in front of her. He was so close she could feel his breath wash across her face. She knew she needed to stay strong but she also knew he knew exactly how to get under her skin. He reached up and traced his fingertips down her face and her stomach contracted.

“I want you Ally,” he said breathlessly, his lips barely and inch from hers. “I want to have you with me when I go to sleep at night and I want you next to me when I wake up. I need you. Please. Tell me you want me too.”

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“I know you have something on your mind, gorgeous girl,” he said finally. “And I know you will talk when you are ready. But I am begging you, please don’t shut me out. Let me help you.”

His words cut through her. He thought she was shutting him out because he had done something wrong. But truth was, she was about to destroy his world and she was afraid he would hate her for it.

“Promise me,” he continued looking down at her lying in his arms. “Tomorrow we will talk.”

“I promise,” she said in a quiet voice. And she knew she would have no choice. Tomorrow, whether she was ready or not, she was going to have to tell him everything.

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“I love you,” he breathed against her mouth. Suddenly he moved above her and pinned her to the bed, his mouth claiming hers. She could feel the need in his kiss. She knew he was hurting and he was trying to deal with it the only way he knew how.

She wanted to talk but she knew he wasn’t ready. So she returned his kiss. She wanted him to know they were still okay.

“I need you,” he said hungrily against her mouth. “Please.”

“I’m yours” she whispered breathlessly back to him.

She kissed him harder, pouring every bit of hurt and pain that she had felt that day into showing him what he meant to her.

He broke his lips from hers and stared down into her face and all Ally could see was love staring back at her.

He reached down and, taking hold of the end of her dress he slowly slid it up her body and pulled it over her head. Never taking his eyes from hers, he pulled back the straps from her bra, each one falling down on to her arms. Then he reached behind her and undid the clasp of her bra, slipping it down her arms and dropping it to the floor.

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Meet The Author

I am Beverley, though my friends call me Bev. I am 38 years old and I live in Dublin with my Husband and two sons. I love to read and I love music. 

I have been writing as long as I can remember.

I released my first book in December 2012 called Forever and Always.

My second book, No Second Chances (the first book from The Chances Series) was released April 29th.

My third book A Stolen Heart was released July 12th.

Some random facts about me.... I am a middle child, I have a fear of mirrors, spiders and birds and I make custom jewelry.

I adore music and it is a big part of my writing. 

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Blog Tour - 'The Forgotten Ones' by Laura Howard

Very pleased to be a stop on Laura Howard's blog tour for her new novel The Forgotten Ones (Book 1 of The Danaan Trilogy). Laura was one of the first authors to befriend me on Facebook and I've been waiting for this book for MONTHS now, lol! So check it out and catch my review below. Please feel free to leave your comments for me or the author at the bottom of the post - we love to know that our efforts are worth it to you. 

Synopsis:

Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity.

My Thoughts:

(*mild spoilers follow - turn back now*)

Well I didn't actually read the synopsis before I started the book so I wasn't expecting anything of a paranormal nature, therefore I was a little surprised when faeries started showing up, LOL. However, it was really nice to read a book with more plot line than just the boy-meets-girl relationship. There is certainly an interesting budding romance between our young heroine Allison and Ethan, with whom she's been in love since first grade, and there is a devastating love story between Allison's schizophrenic mother and her long-lost father Liam, but the absence of sex scenes in this book was quite refreshing to me. But that may just be a personal thing because I read a lot of erotica. 

It was a quick read, even for me (my crazy schedule means I read bits at a time), moved along at an even pace, the characters were nicely developed and the story as a whole held my interest from start to finish (as an aside, I was over the moon that there were no spelling, grammatical or formatting errors, too! Hallelujah!). The cast of characters is huge, so pay attention, but the author does a great job in writing them all in a way that you follow along with relative ease, including at one point when Allison asks of one of the Danaan, "Who is so-and-so again?" which happened to be exactly what I had been thinking at that very moment, so thank you for that, Laura! As an aside, I do highly suggest referring to the guide at the end of the book for pronunciation of the beautiful Gaelic names of the Danaan, though. I promise you, you will NOT be able to pronounce them in your head yourself. 

Overall I very much enjoyed this book and didn't find much to really complain about at all. There were a couple twists that I never saw coming, which is always a good thing, and Allison's rejections of Ethan were appropriately wince-worthy (aw, poor, handsome boy!  ). The author's descriptions of the human world vs. the faerie world were straightforward but vivid. I would have liked a little more time spent on Allison's emotional reaction to meeting her father so suddenly, as the weight of a moment like that seemed a bit brushed off, but in general this is a good story that I want to continue reading in the sequel (and OF COURSE there's a cliffhanger!). 

Rating: Four Smooches! (out of five)     

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Meet The Author:

Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known. The Forgotten Ones is her first published novel.

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Review - "Forever and Always" by Beverley Hollowed

Well Lil Lovers, the time has come for me to jump into this book reviewing thing! I would like to preface my first one by saying that I hate to judge other peoples' art. It's uncomfortable, as a fellow author, knowing how much work, heart, emotion and time is poured into every word to then possibly have to tear it apart. 

Thank God I don't have to do that with my very first review, which happens to be Forever and Always by Beverley Hollowed! 

When 17 year old Melanie O’Leary agreed to spend the summer with her Aunt Maggie in Boston, she was less than thrilled. But after an argument with her father, the trip gives her just the space she needs. 

When she meets the handsome and very charming Sam Cooper, she loses her heart completely and utterly and then has it broken. Suddenly her life falls apart and is changed forever. Now she has to pick up the pieces and start again.

Seven years have passed and three weeks before her wedding to the dependable Simon Brennan, she comes face to face with the man who stole her heart and broke it. Now she must decide between her past and her future. But will a secret she is hiding find her having the choice made for her instead? Will she find the one who will love her.... Forever and Always?

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This is the first full length romance novel I've read in over a decade. No lie. When I was in college I read romance novels by the truckload...then I got a computer and I stopped reading that much altogether. Travesty. So I'm glad to be back in the swing of things. That said, I am now reminded both why I love romance novels and why they make me absolutely cray cray! This book pretty much goes as follows:

Reader meets girl.

Oh the drama! The teen angst! The overprotective parents! The arguments! The misunderstandings! The world travel!

Boy meets girl.

The States! The burgeoning emotions! The excitement! The elation! The nerves! The trembling! The deflowering! The innocence lost! The promises! The lurve! The beach!

Boy loses girl.

The heartbreak! The sobbing! The world travel! The Emerald Isle! The major health crisis! The adult angst! The weight loss! The grief! The panick attacks! 

Boy tries to get girl back.

The love triangle! The nosy friends! The yummysweatymonkeylovin'! The self-hatred! The lies! The meddling loved ones! The drinking! The further weight loss! The dresses! The promises! The broken promises! The misunderstandings! The flip-flopping! The misunderstandings! The flip-flopping! The misunderstandings! The flip-flopping! The last leg of world travel! The States!

Boy gets girl back.

Happily ever after. I think. Is there another shoe somewhere? Cuz my heart can't take anymore. Watch the sky! 

It's an absolute emotional roller coaster, my friends. A big ole sappy, gooey, angsty, heartbreaking emotional roller coaster.  If you love that sort of thing, THIS IS YOUR BOOK! Admittedly, I like a big dose of realism with my romance (i.e. - I don't believe for one second that *SPOILER ALERT* ANY man would be celibate for seven years while he pines away for his first love, Miss Beverley...boys just aren't wired that way...just sayin' ), but this book sucked me in and the author did it with the lovely relationship she set up at the front between Melanie, our 17 year old heroine (when we first meet her) and her father Alex, who is hopelessly, charmingly besotted with his daughter. 

Melanie in the first half of the book is a bit of a petulant brat. But she's a teenager, so of course she is. In the second half of the book, she is a 24 year old adult but severely broken, with more than one excellent reason. But she's managed to move on with her life and put it back together, albeit with not much more than Scotch tape at best. 

Sam Cooper, our hero, is of course uber-gorge and whipped from minute one. I kinda liked that, since everything on the market right now is all about men who treat women like shit and somehow get away with it (what the hell is wrong with us, ladies? Cheezandcrackers  ). He is also endlessly patient not just with teenage Melanie but with adult Melanie, long past the point where a good man actually should be. I had more than one "Moonstruck" moment while reading where I wanted to slap Melanie and scream "Snap out of it!" -- I can only imagine that if Sam was real he may have wanted to, also. But Mel's cootch must've had super powers! 

Two things saved Melanie for me:

1) Her dad finally calls her on her shit. Dear God, someone had to. (And then he meddles in her love life to a degree that is grossly inappropriate and absolutely aaaaaawwwww all at the same time, making me wish my dad would have cajones that size in regard to my happiness if ever I needed him to.) 

2) Beverley writes the blossoming love story between Melanie and Sam so sweetly and tenderly as well as Sam's conviction that there is no one else for him so unshakably that I couldn't help but root for them, no matter how star-crossed the pair was and how woe-is-me Melanie got (and again I feel compelled to mention that she does have good reason). Did I believe how desperately they loved each other? Abso-fuckin-lutely. And that's the most important thing to me.

Last note is that I was impressed with Beverley's through line with the story - many tiny little details seemed meticulously thought out, and no call back missed, which is no small feat when you have a seven year time jump in the middle of the book. I also offer kudos in how she wrote Sam and Melanie as a young couple and then how she wrote them seven years later...both were entirely believable at their given ages in both time frames of the story.

All in all, I really enjoyed Forever and Always and I highly recommend it to anyone who is all about the romance. The reason it gets a four out of five is because I know what she's got coming up the bend and I have a feeling I'm gonna need the wiggle room! 

Rating: 4 smooches (out of 5)       

And now, if you'll excuse me...I have to go call my daddy... 

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