Spotlight Tour | RECLAIMING THE SAND | Review Stop
Hello everyone, I have my review for Reclaiming The Sand in light of the Spotlight Tour that is happening this whole week. Reclaiming The Sand is available now and is on sale till the sequel, Chasing The Tide comes out in December. Get it while the deal is on.
Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.
Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.
Particularly Freaky Flynn.
Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.
But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.
And moved on.
Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.
When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other.
And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.
But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.
TRAILER:
Excerpt #1:
I had been right. What we shared was so much more than sex.
It was an intimacy that came from baring your heart to someone you knew would take care of it.
And he looked at me. Really looked at me. He didn't hide his face. Our eyes connected and clung to each other just as our bodies clenched together tightly. There was no disappearing. There was no denying what this was.
It was love.
Pure and simple and completely complicated love.
The need to tell him burned my throat; my eyes glassing over with unshed tears as he pressed into me.
But I kept silent. Because words weren't necessary. The truth was in the way we touched. The way we moved. The way our eyes never looked anywhere but at each other.
Speaking out loud would only encumber the honesty that couldn't be communicated with words.
"Flynn..." I said on a sigh, handing him my soul on the breath of his name. he rested his limps in the hollow of my throat, his hands gripping me tightly; sweat drying on our skin as we came back to earth.
I loved him.
I did.
I had never loved anyone before but now I loved with my whole being.
It split me open.
My guts spilled out on the floor at Flynn's feet.
He owned me. Completely.
There was no coming back from this.
Flynn had reclaimed me.
Excerpt #2:
"I like being with you. I missed you," Flynn said, surprising me. Of all things for him to say, I had not expected that. It was such an innocent thing but it held so much weight.
He missed me.
After everything I had done to him.
He missed me.
I couldn't respond. I had nothing to say to that. I couldn't reciprocate because I hadn't missed him. I had spent most of the last six years despising him. Blaming him for things that weren't his fault. It had been easier to hate him than to hate myself.
"You stopped talking to me. After my birthday. You never called me again. Mom said to leave you alone. That you weren't my friend. But you were my friend. Because you told me I was and I believed you." His eyes were bright and even though he wouldn't look directly at me, I knew his eyes were wet..
I should tell him the truth. I should shatter his illusions of me before they could grow into something more dangerous.
His mother hadn't told him what I had done. She had saved him from that particular pain. I didn't know whether to be thankful or upset that sh e had done that. Because now here were, six years later, on the cusp of something not yet realized and i struggled.
I wanted to tell him. But I wanted to lie as well. I liked the way he looked at me. To Flynn Hendrick, Ellie McCallum was important. She was wanted. If i told him the truth about that night, I was sure that would all change.
I won't be rating this book as I don't think my rating will do it justice becuase I felt frustrated and helpless and just plain angry and sad with this book. It was freaking sad. Brutal. God. I had to skip some parts.
The story follows Ellie who tries to get her life back in order when she sees the boy who she bullied with her friends during highschool is back in town. She tries a hand at taking some semblance back into her life and trying to make amends with Flynn and also tying to better her friends' lives. Trying to deal with her friends' selfish ways of living their life, Ellie tries to hope her life can get some order and that she can be content. Ellie and Flynn have both taken some chances and tried to be better people. Ellie having a little difficulty at first but she does at the end with Flynn by her side.
I had a hard time seeing how Ellie and the rest were living their lives. Ellie would try to not live like they were but Dania would bring her back. Ellie used to give herself a hard time. It was pretty difficult to go through her thought process. It was raw and plain sad.
The book focused mainly on Ellie's narrative with Flynn's flashback narrative in a manner that required the story to be told to us readers. They were conclusive and added to the backstory obviously.
I dunno how else to review this book. It was a first for me reading such kind of abook and also one by Ms. Walters. Kudos to her for writing such a raw one.
I give it three stars for making me sad but that would mean injustice as this book dealt with strong characters having mental health issues. For some it will be a five star. And it will be deserving.
About The Author:
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary and Paranormal romance including The Find You in the Dark and Bad Rep series as well as the upcoming stand alone romance, Reclaiming the Sand, and a dark new adult series for Gallery Books.A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect of her writing.
When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.
A. Meredith is represented by Michelle Johnson with the Inklings Literary Agency.
Connect: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
***The powerful continuation of the story that began in Reclaiming the Sand- a tale of love and forgiveness and learning to move on from a past that has come to define you.***
Bully and Victim
Friend and Lover
Past and Future
Ellie McCallum and Flynn Hendrick’s story was as painful as it was devastating. But they were able to find within each other an unlikely yet beautiful love. Despite the obstacles that tried to keep them apart.
And together they rose out of the ashes of their tragic history.
Now years after their life changing reunion Ellie is back in Wellston, having just graduated from college and ready to start her future with the man who taught her how to love. However, returning to a town that held so much bitterness and anger was the last place she wanted to start over.
But for Flynn, who is now an art professor at the community college and firmly rooted in the place that gave them their beginning, she’d do just about anything.
Yet it’s difficult building a life when you’ve only just learned how to live.
And love, no matter how strong, doesn’t always conquer all.
Ellie and Flynn must learn how far they are willing to go to stay together. Or whether the ghosts of the past will consume them both.
Because finding a happily ever after is harder than it seems. Particularly when you’re fighting against the one thing that could destroy you.
Yourself.
Glad to be a part of this Spotlight Tour. Follow the rest of the tour.
Thanks for stopping by my stop.
Toodles.
