Happy Release Day!
Congrats Susan
on the release today of
Stone Heart!
Stone Heart by Susan K. Hamilton
Contemporary Women's Fiction, 380 pages
Published August 30th 2022 by Writing Bloc
Lauren Stone is no stranger to regret...
A singer in a successful band, she's learned a hard lesson over the years: people don't love her for who she really is. They love what she is and what she can do for them. The only person who ever truly loved her ended their relationship years ago, and it nearly destroyed her. But Lauren doesn't have time to pine over lost love. If she doesn't get her songwriting mojo back-and fast-The Kingmakers' new album is going to be a colossal failure.
When Lauren returns home to New York for a recording session, a publicity stunt gone awry brings her face-to-face with her past and her biggest regret: Danny Padovano, the ex-boyfriend who broke her heart. The spark between them is still there but getting involved with Danny again is one step short of insanity. Lauren knows she's playing with fire-things are a lot more complicated now than they were when Lauren and Danny were younger, and the stakes are much, much higher. Soon, everything Lauren's worked so hard to achieve starts to unravel.
Can she come to terms with her regrets? Or will they finally destroy her?
My thoughts about Stone Heart ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First line—"Lauren Stone owned a big-ass, beachfront Spanish Colonial Revival in Santa Monica, California."
Stone Heart is a very complicated story, but in a good way. Lauren and Danny are high school sweethearts, truly and deeply in love. But they both want different things out of life so they go their separate ways after graduation. Fast forward a number of years and they are thrown together again. Are those gut-wrenching feelings still there? Or will they be content as platonic friends?
The story then takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, involving the two of them and their entire family and friends' worlds. There is plenty of relationship drama and angst. I felt all of it right along with everyone else.
This is a wonderfully written story about a complex topic but it is also a beautiful tale of deep love, regrets, forgiveness, and following your heart. Stone Heart is the first book I have read by Ms. Hamilton and it's her first foray into women's fiction. She writes did a fabulous job, the words just flowed off of the pages. I will definitely be reading more of her books. I highly recommend this book to everyone who likes women's fiction.
I received a copy of Stone Heart from the author and this is my honest opinion of the book.
Susan has donated a copy of her book for me to use as a giveaway. Scroll down to enter.
An interview with Susan K. Hamilton
1. Your previous books have all been in the fantasy genre. What prompted a women’s fiction novel?
Fantasy has always been my go-to genre. I loved reading it as a kid and that love continued into adulthood. So, writing it just came naturally. But I’ve been trying to expand my horizons a little. I’ve done some flash and micro fiction challenges that have made me write in genres I might never have tried before. Some authors stay in a very specific genre, and there’s nothing wrong with that—but I also believe that if you’ve got a story in your head that needs to come out, you should write it regardless of what genre it falls into.
I’d had Stone Heart rattling around in my head, but I always put aside turning it into a manuscript because I was working on some other projects. When my last novel, The Devil Inside was finally out, I needed something new to work on. I thought about a follow up to Devil but wasn’t quite ready for that. And it just felt like the time was right to turn Stone Heart into a more formal project.
2. Are there any themes that run through Stone Heart?
I’d say it’s about relationships, regrets, and the dumb decisions we make when we’re in love. But for me, regret is a central part of the story. We all have them—okay, there are probably some people out there who are truly living their authentic lives, but most of us have at least a few regrets. Some big, some small. The promotion we didn’t go after. The friend we fell out of touch with. That thing we said when we really should have kept our mouth shut. The relationship we gave up on…or the one we fought too hard to hold onto when we really should have let go.
I tried to make the characters in Stone Heart feel authentic. They’re fundamentally decent people, but they make some bad choices. Choices that come with consequences.
3. Does Stone Heart have any autobiographical elements?
Not really! The closest thing to anything autobiographical is that I have tremendous admiration for anyone who is musically gifted because I am not. I’ll sing my heart out along with the radio when I’m in the car alone, but I don’t have a very good singing voice. I wish I did. So I may have put a bit of my own wistful desire to front a band into Lauren’s success but that’s about it.
4. Part of Stone Heart revolves around an affair. Why did you choose to take on a topic like infidelity?
My intent wasn’t to “take it on” as a topic. For me, the affair is just one part of the story. An important part, yes, but not the only part. But I do know that affairs and infidelity are going to be sensitive topics for some readers. My hope is that I’ve written my characters in such a way that what comes through is their fundamental humanity. They’re ordinary people stumbling their way through life—and that comes with mistakes and questionable decisions.
5. What do you hope readers will take away from your novel?
One thing is empathy for others. We’ve all made decisions we wish we could do over. Making a bad decision doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person. It just means you’re human. Life is rarely black and white, and I try to create characters who are genuine, complicated, and who, despite their best intentions, don’t always get it right. I hope people see a little of themselves in my characters, or a little bit of people they know–and that they remember that relationships and love can be complicated, messy things. But also that it is worth it, even when it may not turn out quite the way you planned.
About the author
SUSAN K. HAMILTON is an award-winning author who has published books in multiple genres. Her novel, Shadow King, was a Top Ten Finalist in the inaugural Launch Pad Manuscript Competition (now the Launch Pad Prose Competition). Her newest novel, Stone Heart, is one of a limited number of works being published in 2022 by indie publisher, Writing Bloc.
As a child, Susan enjoyed writing but drifted away from it during high school. Once in college, however, her passion for creative fiction was rekindled during an English class that assigned her a creative project. The result of that assignment sparked the desire to write a novel, and she’s been writing ever since.
Susan appreciates the fact that life is rarely black and white, and the decisions people make often happen in that gray moral area between right and wrong. She tries to incorporate this complexity into her own writing and create characters who are genuine, complicated, and who, despite their best intentions, don’t always get it right. She encourages new writers to find their voice and tell their stories. She is a longtime supporter of Grub Street, a creative writing center in Boston.
Professionally Susan works as a corporate communications manager focused on employee engagement communication. An avid equestrian, she co-owns a Dutch Warmblood mare and competes mostly in small schooling jumper shows for fun.
Connect with Susan
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Sounds like a book I will enjoy reading.
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