[Blog Tour] Guiding Lights by Jessica Florence (Review + Giveaway)

Guiding Lights by Jessica Florence

Published August 20th, 2015

New Adult Contemporary Romance

Premise:
He sings of suffering. His eyes hold the pain of living in sorrow.
The moment our gaze meets recognition flares within.
We are tortured souls drifting in a sea of darkness.
He knows I have secrets that I'll never tell.
I am numb
I am broken
I am dirty
I can never be the guiding light through the darkness he thinks I am.
I have forsaken my past, I rely on keeping myself shut off.
But he has secrets too, secrets that would destroy everything I have left.
I wish things were different, that maybe we could be each other's lifeline.
But destiny drags us down like an anchor.
The broken can only drift in the sea barely staying afloat.

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Review

My thoughts:

This is a beautiful story about two broken souls that recognize each other in the dark and together find their way to the light. The story is very gritty and powerful, it's a romance but it still has that darker quality of deep emotions that goes beyond the romantic relationship. 

The book is written in first person, from Nera's point of view. Nera is twenty three but has experienced enough horrors for two lifetimes, and that has left her broken and afraid of trusting people. She feels the need to hide from life and for a while, Durness, Scotland has been the perfect hiding spot.  There she works as a bartender in a pub called “Spurtle” which is own by Evan, and lives at a B&B owned by his wife, Aggie. Evan and Aggie are good people and have taken Nera in as a daughter. They really care for her and that warmth they bring to her life is exactly what Nera needs. I enjoyed their characters a lot and I think Nera deserved to have people like them in her life. 

The thing about Nera's dark past is that you don't know right away what happened to her. You know she went through something horrible and since the very first page her past becomes the mystery you want to solve. I really liked this aspect of the book, it added suspense and allowed for a lot of character development for Nera. 

One night, at the pub, a really handsome singer named Wolfe, takes the stage and bares his soul through his music. His voice and heart-felt lyrics strike a chord with Nera and she realizes she's found another broken soul. A little shaken up by his performance, Nera goes outside to regain her bearings and the singer goes after her to make sure she's okay. I really liked this first scene between them, it really showed the connection between since the very beginning. 

Wolfe is a mysterious character, he has this kind of bad-boy vibe but he's also incredibly sweet to Nora and I really enjoyed their relationship, especially at the beginning when they were at such ease with each other. The connection they shared was pretty much instantaneous, but their relationship grows little by little throughout the book. The secrets Wolfe withholds from Nora are intense and I understood why he had trouble sharing them, but it drove me insane that he took so long to come clean when he was clearly willing to do just about anything to get through to her. 

What I liked the most about Nera was that she was a bookworm. That made her more relatable to me and I giggled a lot when reading about her nerdy clothes and her fangirl-ish love for erotica authors. It was something I wouldn't have expected from her and that gave her a lot more dimension.

The thing that bothered me the most about this book was the accent. I get that it's supposed to be set in Scotland, but I think it would've been easier for me to get into the story if the dialogues weren't written with Scottish accent, it would've been enough if it just said the characters had an accent, but with everything written like that I had a really hard time trying to figure out what they were saying and that prevented me from fully immersing myself in the book. 

Overall, I think this is a powerful story about allowing yourself to be happy even when things have been rough. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a darker contemporary romance, especially to people who enjoy accents and books set in Scotland, because if you're into that I'd bet that you would fall head over heels for Wolfe! 

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About the author

Jessica Florence makes her home in Southwest Florida where she runs her own business, and of course writing! She one day after reading a book a day for a year just sat down and started writing, thus finding a new amazing hobby that she was looking for, for years, and that was also very therapeutic. 

She spends her days reading, writing, watching TV, working, playing with her cute as hell baby, and black German Shepherd Rogue aka Rogue-i-bear, and of course tormenting her husband ;)

She also enjoys taking naps, bubble baths, eating pickles like candy, and having Harry Potter marathons.

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Don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops for more reviews and amazing content!

Blog Tour Schedule

August 21

What Is That Book About - Guest Post

A Beautiful Book Blog - Excerpt

Books Unhinged - Review

August 22

For The Love of Fictional Worlds - Review

  The Dark Realm - Excerpt

Lostin Ever After  - Review

August 23

Coffee Books & Art - Excerpt

Textteaser - Review

August 24

The Divas Book Lounge Book Club - Review

Adventures in Writing - Excerpt

Works of Fiction - Review

August 25

flirty fiction blog - Review

Mischievous Reads - Playlist

Romance Obsessed Book Blog - Review

August 26

Greyland Reviews - Excerpt

Typical Distractions - Review

August 27

Roxy's Reviews - Excerpt

Sarah & Kirsty's Book Reviews - Excerpt

Evermore Books  - Playlist

Resch Reads and Reviews - Review

August 28

FMR Book Grind - Review

JordansBookReviews - Excerpt

This Literary Life  - Review

August 29

Kris & Vik Book Therapy Cafe - Review

Nicole's Book Musings  - Excerpt

A girl and her books - Review

August 30

Lita's Book Blog - Review

Book-Lover - Excerpt

deal sharing aunt  - Interview

The Book Hookup  - Review

August 31

Oh My Growing TBR - Excerpt

Kitty Kats Crazy About Books - Review

September 1

Pause Time Reviews - Review

Alpha Book Club - Excerpt

Word Forward  - Review

Love Us Some Books  - Review

September 2

Mama She's Crazy About Books  - Review

Pages Abound  - Review

G & T Indié Cafe  - Excerpt

Ashley Book Blog  - Review

September 3

Cosying Up With Books  - Excerpt

Between The Lines  - Review

Book Lovers Obsession - Review

Once Upon a Book Blog - Review

2 Girls Who Love Books  - Review

[Blog Tour] Gaia by Karen Ann Hopkins (Review + Guest Post + Giveaway)

Hosted by Kismet Book Touring

Welcome to my tour stop for the second book in The Wings of War series, Gaia, by Karen Ann Hopkins. I'm new to this series and I'm really excited to share the love! I will reviewing both Gaia and Embers -which is the first installment in the series. Also, I'm featuring Karen's Guest Post in which she'll be sharing her Dream Cast for some of the amazing characters in this series. And don't forget to check out the giveaway at the end of this post!

Embers by Karen Ann Hopkins

The Wings of War #1

Published October 21st, 2014

Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy

Premise:There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them. And she may be the only hope mankind has as the rapture approaches and evil rises.Embers is an epic paranormal adventure about an eighteen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she finds out that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels. While Ember learns about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two young men who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it is cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war—one that’s been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil—and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She also might be one of the few champions who will make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.
Embers is a dark and gritty YA novel that’s the first book in the series, The Wings of War.

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Review

My thoughts:

I'm new to Karen Ann Hopkins book but I've heard amazing things about her books and her writing style and now I can honestly say that they live up to the hype. 

I'm not going to summarize the book because I think the description given is pretty accurate and it's better if you go into it not knowing exactly what you're in for. I'll only say that the end of the world is coming, but it's not quite here yet. First, Ember must fight smaller battles, so don't go in expecting the world to go up in flames right away.

The beginning was kind of slow and a bit confusing to me. At first I had a difficult time establishing a time-line for the events such as the accident, the encounter with the priest and the prologue. But little by little everything begins to fall into place and the action starts building-up and before you know it, you're so deep into the story and its character that you can let go of the book. 

The world building is amazingly well done considering that it's a huge world full with a lot of different supernatural beings with different set of rules and powers. The characters were really multi-dimensional and well developed. I liked the way they toyed with the line that divides what's right and wrong, good and evil, it gave them much more depth. 

Ember is a great protagonist. She's bad-ass but not so much that it takes away from that relatable quality of her character. I really enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes and discovering all of her powers along with her. 

Sawyer is an impossibly gentle soul trapped in an awful life which requires him to do awful things to survive. I won't go much deeper into it's character, because all of his mysteries are better when you discover them yourself. 

I really liked Ivan and Ila too. Ivan was very sweet and shy and my heart went to him for all he'd been through. Ila was a seriously bad-ass character. She's is very cryptic and she has this grandma-like sweetness to her but she still is very active and amazingly strong. The mentor being the one who tell the girl she is different was pretty refreshing. I know it's been done before, but not as many times as the version where the mysterious guy with whom she inevitably falls in love, is the one who tells the girl the truth about who she is.

This first installment ends with a bang, it's like everything explodes and the story rises up to its full potential and there's fighting, deep emotions and suspense. It left me with a sense of closure but still very excited for what's coming next. I don't know how people managed to sit still while the next book was in the making. I'm really glad I get to jump right into it!

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Gaia by Karen Ann Hopkins

The Wings of War #2

Published July 26th, 2015

Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy

Premise:

As the Demons grow bolder and the walls between the planes of existence weaken, Ember is forced to develop her powers as quickly as possible, and she seeks out a powerful earth Watcher to continue her supernatural lessons. Her glimpse of the future demands she fight the dark forces spreading across the earth.

But her new mentor has his own agenda, making her question everyone and everything she ever trusted.

When Ember is thrust into the world of the Watchers, she learns of their plans—ones that defy the scripture and make them enemies of the Celestial Host. Ridding the world of evil gets complicated when it becomes impossible to take sides.

As Ember struggles with morality, she soon discovers that there’s something more frightening than anything she’s faced before.

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Review

My thoughts:

OMG! This series is so freaking fantastic, you guys! I'm having a hard time reviewing this one because I'm so agghh! Why did it have to end there?! I was dreading those last few pages, I didn't want it to end because now the waiting for the next one is going to kill me!

I don't know if this happens to anyone else but me, but I tend to get suspicious when the book covers are too pretty. Like they are too good to be true. And this book covers are freaking gorgeous! But I'm relieved to say that, in this case, the beautiful covers are the perfect complement for the gorgeous story inside...

I know I'm not making much sense, but I'm writing this right after finishing the book and my mind is in pieces... Let me breathe for a while...

Okay, here we go...

Gaia picks up right where Embers left off which is great since I started this book as soon as I finished the first one and the transition was seamless. The big difference between this installment and the one before is the pace. Since the very beginning there's action and honestly just a whole lot of crap going on, which I love. So make sure you're comfortable and don't have to be anywhere else soon, because you won't be able to put this thing down once you pick it up.

I'm not going to go into much detail about the plot, because I stand by what I said in my review of Embers. It's way better if you don't know what you're getting into. The surprises hit you in the face like a brick and it's freaking awesome. 

I should not be amazed at the world-building since it was already pretty well done in Embers. But the depth it shows in Gaia was monumental. I've not read the Bible since I was a kid, but I still got most of the references and the way its text found its place in the backstory of the characters and their purpose was superb. Everything was really well put together and I can't wait to see how all the revelations dropped here and there play out in the next book.

Onto the characters now... I loved Horas addition to the gang. His character makes me really happy for some reason, I loved his relentless teasing and how he could be so sarcastic and snarky even in the most dire moments. I just love him to bits. 

I also really enjoyed spending time with Piper, since she was often mentioned in the first book but we didn't see much of her all in Embers. Also Timmy! I'm glad they both had a place in this book, because I felt like we should know these characters that meant so much to Ember.

Ember keeps growing as a character throughout this book. Her powers are growing and she's also discovering where her loyalties lie. She struggles a lot to find balance between right and wrong in this book, because everything is mostly different shades of grey and I really enjoyed seeing her trying to make the best decisions in the most impossible situations. She's just overall a great main character. 

We finally meet the famous Insepth in this book and he's a handful. He's really powerful and cocky and unbelievably resourceful. But he's also mysterious and has his own agenda. Sawyer also got his mystery back. We know he really cares for Ember, but there's still just something about him though. I think I trust him, but the thing is that every freaking character in this book made me uneasy! I had a really hard time trusting people in this book. When things were nice and quiet I could feel myself just waiting for the other shoe to drop, thinking "I don't trust you Karen! I know you're up to something!". And then bam! Like an nuclear explosion everything went to hell and then there were even more characters and HUGE revelations and my heart could barely take it when it ended. 

I can't wait for the next book. This series is one of my favorite angel-themed series of all time. It's very different than what I've read before on angels and I'm enjoying it immensely. I sincerely recommend it to anyone who likes paranormal fantasy, especially people who are looking for more than just a story, because this world is phenomenal and you won't want to get out of it. 

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[Blog Tour] Discovering Delilah by Melissa Foster (Review + Giveaway)

Discovering Delilah by Melissa Foster
Harborside Nights #2
Published July 9th, 2015.
New Adult Contemporary GLBT Romance

Premise:
After the death of her parents on the day of her college graduation, Delilah Armstrong thought she could finally follow her heart and come out to her closest friends, but the guilt of going against her parents’ beliefs haunts her. The feelings she has for her best friend, Ashley, are stronger than anything she’s felt before, but Delilah has never even kissed a girl, and fear stops her at every turn.
Ashley Carver promised herself that she would never again date another girl who wasn’t out, but that was before she met intoxicatingly sweet and sexy Delilah.
When another girl offers to teach Delilah the ropes, it changes Delilah’s whole world and gives her the courage to go after the only girl she really wants. But coming out isn’t as easy as Delilah imagined, and moving past her parents’ death and the feelings of guilt she is left with is even harder. The intense passion between Ashley and Delilah is too strong to deny, but coming together means risking everything.
Discovering Delilah is an edgy, evocative, romantic story of friendship, family, and the courage to love.

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About Book #1: Catching Cassidy 

Wyatt Armstrong never imagined that instead of celebrating his college graduation, he and his twin sister would be dealing with the death of their parents. Then again, Wyatt had never been one to think past tomorrow. He heads to their summer home in Harborside, Massachusetts, with his best friend Cassidy Lowell in tow, to deal with his parents’ death and to try to figure out his next step.Six foot two, infuriatingly handsome, and flirtatious, Wyatt Armstrong has always been there for Cassidy, helping her pass her classes and fend off unwanted advances, while driving her insane with his one-night stands—but that’s what best friends are for, isn’t it? Having each other’s backs. There was never any doubt that she would accompany him to his family’s summer home—but she never expected to begin seeing Wyatt as more than a friend. Or has she been ignoring her feelings all along?It’s impossible to ignore the sizzling heat between them as Wyatt and Cassidy get even closer, but Cassidy knows Wyatt’s past, and she has a real job to begin in the fall. Wyatt may be a sure thing for the summer, but Cassidy needs more. For the first time in his life, Wyatt is forced to look toward the future if he doesn’t want to lose the one woman who’s shared his past and owns his heart.

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KINDLE | NOOK | KOBO  | GPLAY | iBOOKS | AMAZON UK | AMAZON CA | AMAZON AU | Paperback

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Review

My thoughts: 

Discovering Delilah is the second book in the Harborside Nights series, but it can be read as a stand-alone without feeling incomplete. It's a sweet story about love and friends but also about grief, overcoming guilt and allowing yourself to be happy even after something tragic happens. 

Even thought there are two points of view in this story (Delilah's and Ashley's), for me it felt like it was mostly Delilah's story. Her struggles about accepting who she really is and who she loves. After her parents death, she can't stop feeling guilty for having feelings towards girls. She keeps repeating the same scene over and over again in her mind: the look of disgust her parents gave her the day she told them she was a lesbian. Most families would've gone through the process of arguing and coming to terms in one way or another with that fact, but not Delilah's. Because on that very same day she finally revealed her sexuality to her parents, they died in a car accident, and the subject was left hanging. 

Now she's having strong feelings for Ashley, a girl who's been her friend for a few months and even though Ashley feels the same way towards her, Delilah can't let go of the guilt of going against her parents wishes and the fear of being shamed for loving another girl. 

You know that moment in a romance book when after the glancing, the flirting and everything in between you finally find out that the love interest of your main character actually likes her/him too? Since in this book we have both perspectives, Ashley's and Delilah's, we go through that moment way too soon, as in the first few pages, and that took a little excitement and build-up out of the relationship. The story still has a lot of sexy scenes and heart-warming moments of romance between the two girls, but I felt like they we started to witness their relationship from somewhere around the middle and not from the beginning. But even then, their relationship was kind of adorable. They had a lot to work through but they supported each other every step of the way and you could tell they were just right for each other and that was awesome. 

Delilah is not the type of character that I relate to the most. Not because she's a lesbian and I'm not, but because she's way too concerned with the way other people see her or think about her and let that dictate her life for most of this book. I understand that not all characters/people can be self-assured and not all gay people are comfortable with the way they feel and come out of the closet as soon as they know they're gay. But I always love the characters that are authentic and completely themselves no matter what. So, all the hiding and fearing that Delilah went through in this book prevented me from really connecting with her. I appreciate her growth though, and I hope to catch some glimpses of how she's doing with her new take on life when I pick up the next book in this series. 

That said, even though I didn't relate much to Delilah on the previous matter, I still understood where some of her feelings were coming from. I don't know what would I do if my parents suddenly died, much less what I'd do if they died in the middle of a huge argument, like Delilah's did. The guilt I imagine I'd feel for their deaths would be horrible, because our last moments together would have been filled with resentment and disappointment and I don't even know if I could handle that or if it would drive me completely insane. So, the grief side of the story I totally got and I felt for her and her loss.

Overall, I think this book was pretty good. It had a sweet romance, a full set of interesting characters (a few of them already have their own story told in some of the other books of this series), a compelling writing style and a great message about letting yourself be who you truly are and be happy. It wasn't perfect but I enjoyed it. It was refreshing to read a GLBT contemporary romance with a female protagonist, which I'd never done before. I'll be picking up the first book in this series soon and the third one when it comes out. 

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About the author

Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes sexy and heartwarming contemporary romance, new adult romance (M/F, M/M, F/F), romantic suspense, thrillers, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Melissa also co-writes the Love on Rockwell Island series with New York Times bestselling author Bella Andre. Melissa's emotional journeys are lovingly erotic and always family oriented. Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the World Literary Café. When she's not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success.

 Melissa has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Her interests include her family, reading, writing, painting, friends, helping others see the positive side of life, and visiting Cape Cod.

 Melissa is available to chat with book clubs and welcomes comments and emails from her readers. Visit Melissa on social media or her personal website. Never miss a release! Follow Melissa here on Amazon and sign up for her newsletter: www.MelissaFoster.com/Newsletter

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[Blog Tour] Before We Were Strangers by Renée Carlino (Excerpt + Giveaway)

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City.

To the Green-eyed Lovebird:We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House.You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more.We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other.Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding…I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello.After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half?

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EXCERPT

2. Five Days After I Saw You
MATT
I took the damn F train, an hour-long ride to Brooklyn from Midtown and back every day, at lunch, hoping I would run into Grace again, but I never did.
Things were bad at work. I had submitted a request to go into the field three months earlier but had been denied. Now I had to watch Elizabeth and Brad walk around in bliss as people congratulated them on the baby and Brad's promotion, which came right after the announcement.
Meanwhile, I was still rejecting any forward motion in my life. I was a stagnant puddle of shit. I had volunteered to go back on location to South America with a National Geographic film crew. New York just wasn't the same anymore. It held no magic for me. The Amazonian jungle, with all of its wonderful and exotic diseases, seemed more appealing than taking orders from my ex-wife and her smug husband. But my request hadn't been approved or denied. It just sat in a pile of other requests on Scott's desk.
I pondered the current state of my life while I stared at a blank wall in the office break room. Standing next to the water cooler, holding a half-empty paper cone, I tallied the insubstantial years I had spent with Elizabeth and wondered why. How had things gone so terribly wrong?
"What are you doin', man?" Scott's voice came from the doorway.
I turned and smiled. "Just thinking."
''You seem a little brighter."
"Actually, I was thinking about how I ended up thirty­six, divorced, and trapped in cubicle hell."
He walked to the coffeepot and poured a mug full then leaned against the counter. "You were a workaholic?" he offered.
"That's not why Elizabeth was unfaithful. She fell right into Brad's skinny arms, and he works more than I do. Hell, Elizabeth works more than I do."
"Why are you dwelling on the past? Look at you. You're tall. You have hair. And it looks like"—he waved his hand around at my stomach—"you might have abs?"
''You checking me out?"
''I'd kill for a head of hair like that."
Scott was the kind of guy who was bald by twenty-two. He's been shaving it Mr. Clean-style since then.
"What do women call that thing?" He pointed to the back of my head.
"A bun?"
"No, there's, like, a sexier name for it. The ladies love that shit."
"They call it a man-bun."
He studied me. "Jesus, you're a free man, Matt. Why aren't you prowling the savannahs for new game? I can't watch you mope around like this. I thought you were over Elizabeth?"
I shut the break-room door. "I am. I was over Elizabeth a long time ago. It's hard for me even to remember being into her. I got caught up in the fantasy of it, traveling with her, taking photos. Something was always missing, though. Maybe I did work too much. I mean, that's all we talked about, that's all we had in common. Now look where I am."
"What about Subway Girl?"
"What about her?"
"I don't know. I thought you were gonna try to get in touch with her?"
"Yeah. Maybe. Easier said than done."
"You just have to put yourself out there. Get on social media."
Will I find Grace there? I went back and forth between wanting to do everything I could to find her and feeling like it was totally pointless. She'd be with someone. She'd be someone's wife. Someone better than me. I wanted to get away from everything reminding me that I still had nothing.
"If you care so much, why haven't you approved my request?" I asked.
He scowled. I noticed how deep the line was between his eyebrows and it occurred to me that Scott and I were the same age...and he was getting old. "I don't mean the actual savannahs, man. Running away isn't going to solve your problems."
"Now you're my shrink?"
"No, I'm your friend. Remember when you asked for that desk job?"
I walked toward the door. "Just consider it. Please, Scott."
Right before I left the room he said, "You're chasing the wrong thing. It's not gonna make you happy."
He was right, and I could admit that to myself, but not out loud. I thought if I could win an award again, get some recognition for my work, it would fill the black hole eating away at me. But deep down, I knew that wasn't the solution.
After work, I sat on a bus bench just outside the National Geographic building. I watched hordes of people trying to get home, racing down the crowded sidewalks of Midtown. I wondered if I could judge how lonely a person was based on how much of a hurry he or she was in. No one who has someone waiting for him at home would sit on a bus bench after a ten-hour workday and people-watch. I always carried an old Pentax camera from my college days in my messenger bag, but I hadn't used it in years.
I removed it from the case and starting clicking away as people flooded in and out of the subway, as they waited for buses, as they hailed cabs. I hoped that through the lens I would see her again, like I had years before. Her vibrant spirit; the way she could color a black-and-white photo with her magnetism alone. I had thought about Grace often over the years. Something as simple as a smell, like sugared pancakes at night, or the sound of a cello in Grand Central or Washington Square Park on a warm day, could transport me right back to that year in college. The year I spent falling in love with her.
It was hard for me to see the beauty in New York anymore. Granted, much of the riffraff and grit was gone, at least in the East Village; it was cleaner and greener now, but that palpable energy I had felt in college was gone, too. For me, anyway.

Time passes, life goes on, places change, people change. And still, I couldn't get Grace off my mind after seeing her in the subway. Fifteen years is too long to be holding on to a few heart-pounding moments from college.

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About the author

Renée Carlino is a screenwriter and bestselling author of romantic women's novels. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their sweet dog June. When she’s not at the beach with her boys or working on her next project, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate.

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