Book Blast: Restless by Michelle Bellon

Restless

Restless by Michelle Bellon

Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Pages: 204

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

You grow up. You get married. You have a family. At least, that’s what Malea Winters believes she’s supposed to do. So why is it that every time she comes close to finding that happily ever after, she runs? 

When she meets Garrett Taylor, she warns him that she’s not the marrying type because history has shown that long-term relationships are not her forte. She has a tendency to leave when things get too serious; the direct result of being raised by an emotionally detached mother and a stepdad with philandering ways. So she swore off men and surrounded herself with her best friends; three quirky, funny women who are facing challenges of their own. 

But Garrett is everything she’s ever looked for; charming, successful, fun, and sexy. Despite her better judgment, his persistence pays off and she finds herself falling for him. 

Learning how to love and be loved will be the hardest lesson she’s ever faced. The question is, will her relationships survive that lesson?

Excerpt

As I walk down the aisle, avoiding eye contact with my husband-to-be, I remember the dream and feel the need to run.

I clutch the bountiful bouquet of flowers, red and white for our Christmastime wedding, and feel the sweat on my palms collect in the center. I want to rub them down the front of my dress.

But that would be unacceptable. My grandma has lovingly sewn every stitch, carefully placed every pearly bead, and worked every delicate piece of lace. It’s a work of labor and love.

Today, I am supposed to be a princess.

But as I look around at familiar faces, friends and family, watching me take this enormous step into life as a wife, as a life partner, I feel anything but princess-like.

I feel the lie. I feel the relentless pursuit of truth. Both follow me down the aisle, tapping on my shoulder and reminding me that I have no ability to live up to this responsibility.

I am quaking in my white heels. My knees are shaking. But still I march forward on the arm of the only male in my life I’ve ever thought of as a father. He isn’t really, but he’s the only man my mom brought home over the years to whom I formed any real emotional attachment before they’d split ways. Due to his philandering ways, he was out of our life more than he was in it. But when he was around, something inside of me recognized something inside of him, and I cared for him.

I swallow down my fear. It’s only nerves. It’s normal. This is the natural order of things: you grow up, you get married, you have a family. That’s how it’s done.

Then what?

I finally make eye contact with Garrett and search for…safety? Love? Answers?

Only my own fear reflects back. He can see the hesitation, the anxiety, the angst. He smiles cautiously. He’ll never admit what we both know.

Just before we reach the altar, I take one last look around. The gathering within the small church is there for only one purpose: to watch us get hitched.

I could run right now. This is my last chance. I could just turn around and make a run for it.

 About the author

Michelle Bellon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and boyfriend, Seth. She loves coffee and has an addiction to chapstick.

She works at a surgery center as a registered nurse and in her spare time writes novels. She writes in the genres of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won four literary awards to include making finalist in the New Age category in the USA Book Awards for her latest release, The Fire Inside. Her latest release is the contemporary romance, Restless.

Connect with Michelle

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? April 18, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

Click on the book image to read more on Goodreads.

What I'm currently reading/listening to


She Poured Out Her Heart
by Jean Thompson

Better Off Dead in Deadwood (Deadwood #4)
by Ann Charles
(audiobook)
I love Violet!

What I recently finished

Echoes of Mercy: A Lowcountry Novel
by Kim Boykin
My thoughts will be posted later today.

What I am going to read next

Sister Dear
by Laura McNeill 

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh ~ My Thoughts

I Let You Go

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
Kindle Edition, 385 pages
Published November 6th 2014 by Sphere

A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn't have prevented it. Could she?

In a split second, Jenna Gray's world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.

Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating . . .

My thoughts about I Let You Go ~~

(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 line.)

First line from the prologue—"The Wind flicks wet hair across her face, and she screws up her eyes against the rain. Weather like this makes everyone hurry; scurrying past on slippery pavements with chins buried in collars."

The prologue of this book grabbed me and I needed to keep reading. The worst thing that could happen to a mother happens to this woman. How can she go on?

I Let You Go is an amazing and intense story which I thoroughly enjoyed. There were twists and turns that I did not expect. I remember gasping out loud in surprise at several points in the story. The characters did things I was totally not prepared for and that completely caught me off guard. People and things were not who and what you thought they were going to be.

This is a fabulous story that will keep your attention and you just want the good guys to win. Clare Mackintosh is a new writer to me but I know I will enjoy anything else she writes. I can't wait to read more.

I received a copy of this from First to Read in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the author

Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant, and now writes full time.

Clare’s debut novel, I Let You Go, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller for 12 weeks, and was the fastest selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It was selected for both the Richard and Judy Book Club and ITV’s Loose Women’s ‘Loose Books’, and has been translated into almost 30 languages. It has sold more than 500,000 copies to date.

Clare’s next book, I See You, will be published in July 2016.

Connect with Clare

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads

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Book Spotlight Giveaway! Three Star Trek Books, One Lucky Winner!

So, if you follow The Book Bag at all, you know I post a Book Spotlight Giveaway every week. Some of the books are mine that I have admitted I will never get read or that I might have duplicate copies of. I also have some that were given to me by my daughter, after she admitted that she will never get them read. Well -- our tastes in books are somewhat different. She reads more mystery, Sci-fi, etc. She is also a huge Star Trek fan but she has given up 3 of her Star Trek books.

So this week, I am giving away 3 Star Trek books to one lucky person. I hope you like them. 

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

Click on the covers to learn more about each book.

The Ashes of Eden (Star Trek: Odyssey #1)

by William Shatner

The Secrets of Star Trek: Insurrection

by Terry J. Erdmann

Mosaic (Star Trek: Voyager)

by Jeri Taylor

One winner will get all 3 books!

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Book Blitz: Everdeep by Candace Knoebel, an Excerpt, and a Giveaway!

Everdeep

Everdeep by Candace Knoebel
(Night Watchmen, #4)
Publication date: April 14th 2016
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult

There are some sacrifices we never recover from…

Faye Middleton is at a crossroads in her life. After breaking the last seal and discovering their Rebellion camp was destroyed, she returns to Ethryeal City, determined to avenge the deaths of her mother and friends.

Faye and her team do what they can to keep their Coven intact now that the Priesthood has fallen, but with Darkyn attacks threatening the exposure of their kind, the Primeval Coven is close to being cut off by the United Nations.

Until Meredith, a mysterious Darkyn, appears, claiming she has information that will help Faye bring down the two responsible for the deaths of her mother and friends, and for the fall of her Coven. The only catch is that it requires returning to the very place she lost her mother—the Underground.

Not wanting to risk any more lives, Faye and Weldon agree to go with Meredith on their own. They know Faye will have to face the one machine every Coven is after—the Exanimator. No one who has ever stepped in has ever come out the same, if at all…

But Faye will do anything she can to protect those she loves, even if it costs her life.

Goodreads | Amazon

Previous books in the series:

Grab book 1 – Everlasting – for FREE until April 15th only!

Excerpt

Jaxen’s on the edge of the bed with nothing but a pair of gunmetal gray sweatpants on, an empty glass in his hand, and a half-empty bottle resting by his feet.

He looks so tortured. Looks at me as if he wishes he were seeing someone else. Someone less distant and broken. It feels like ice is eating away at my bones. Like fire is scorching every one of my nerves.

“How did your meeting go?” His strangled words slur a little.

“Okay, I guess.”

I make my way over to him, but everything feels so unfamiliar and shaky—like walking into another plane of time. Like stepping on a spider web and finding myself caught as the truth makes its way across, ready to spin me and drain my blood.

He makes a haphazard gesture for me to sit next to him. “That good?”

“It was fine,” I lie, taking the empty glass from his hand. I grab the bottle by his feet, pour myself a shot, and toss it back, reveling in the fiery burn running down my throat that washes away the awful taste the Belladonna I took a few minutes ago left behind.

“So, this is what we’ve become then?”

I hate the desolation in his voice. There’s a desert between us without a hope for either one of us crossing it.

“What’s that?” I ask a little tersely, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and downing another shot. I’m trying to pretend I don’t know where this is headed. That I don’t see and hear the heartache ripping our guts out right now, because I need to pretend. I need to fake that everything is okay. Need him to believe I’m fine because the moment I don’t… the moment he looks at me, knowing I’ll die and seeing that death reflected in his gaze, then it will all be over.

Everything.

He tries to clear his throat, but the sound is painful. Like he’s swallowing tears. “I don’t know. Strangers? Two lovers who lie to one another? Who hide things from each other? Who can’t turn to each other whenever something bad is happening?”

I don’t recognize this Jaxen. This raw ache in his voice that scratches at the door of my heart, waiting for me to open it. I find myself missing the old him. The one who had his emotions under control. Who could take this pain and survive in it.

I set the glass down. Brace my hands on my knees as the alcohol sends my brain spinning. “I love you, Jaxen. More than I could ever explain to you.”

He laughs like he might be losing his mind. “Yet, here we are, our entire future splitting off from each other.” The cynicism in his voice is as thick as tar, and it’s choking my ability to think. To make sense of what I should and shouldn’t say.

I need a breath of fresh air. Need a new body to hide in. One where I’m safe from his prodding. Safe from myself.

“Jaxen, what am I supposed to do?”

“Stop shutting me out.” His chest heaves, heart throbbing in his neck.

I find a shadow across the room. Feel my regret slip down my cheek.

“I can’t even feel your mind anymore. It’s like you’re… you’re purposefully pulling away from me. Like you’re a ghost haunting me.” His eyes are flashing with anger now. He’s two steps from falling off the edge. From losing it all. I want to tell him everything. Want to tell him about my impending death, and that it’s easier this way because he’s going to lose me, only, not because of his curse.

Because of my curse.

“There are things, Jaxen. Things we knew would happen one way or another,” I say, and I find myself surprised by how calm I sound when my heart rattles at the cage of my bones to be free from my irrevocable torture.

“Things,” he retorts, spitting out the word with heavy distaste. “No, Faye. Things are that dresser or this pillow. Things are not the secrets Mack, Weldon, and Seamus has asked you to keep from me. Things are not the way you’ve been handling everything lately. That’s called shutting down. That’s called knowing about something that’s going to happen… that’s going to affect both of us, and you deciding not to tell me.”

I can’t believe the anger radiating off him like heat waves. The fury raging in his eyes as his hands clench and unclench against his legs, like he’s trying to contain the outburst that’s been coming my way since we returned here to Ethryeal City.

About the author

Candace Knoebel is the award-winning author of Born in Flames - book one in a young adult fantasy trilogy. She discovered in 2009 through lunch breaks and late nights after putting her kids to bed, a world where she could escape the ever-pressing days of an eight to five Purgatory. And an outlet for all the voices residing in her head.

Published by 48fourteen in 2012, Born in Flames went on to win Turning the Pages Book of the Year award in February of 2013. In January of 2014, the last book in the trilogy, From the Embers, was released, thusly completing the trilogy. She now works on the Night Watchmen Series, while guzzling Red Bulls and pretending to be a ninja on Heelys.

Connect with Candace

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

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