We are super excited to have one of our favorites on our blog today!! We welcome HB Heinzer to our blog to celebrate her book, Bent!!! **fan girl squeal** Make sure you read through the entire post... we have lots of goodies for you... including a GIVEAWAY!!
Buy the book from Amazon: Here
Blurb:
If there’s one thing Julia Wilson has learned in life, it’s that you can’t push your own dreams to the background for anyone. Newly divorced, Julia returns to the hometown she once swore would never see her again. Her plan is simple; enjoy the cheap rent her friend is offering and stay just long enough to develop a plan to make her own dreams come true.
It doesn’t take long before Julia realizes she’s made a big mistake.
Micah Anderson came closer to breaking Julia than anyone else ever had. After promising her forever, he broke her heart the week before she left for college. Now, Julia’s back in town and he’s going to have to tell her the truth about why he left her. It’s not possible to hide a twelve year old child when you live in a town of 5,000 people.
Is following your dreams worth it if it means giving up on a second chance with her first love? Is trying to make a relationship work worth it if his past becomes a threat to her safety?
My Review:
Ok, so have you ever started a book and could not put it down even to feed your own children???? Well that was my day today!! I read Bent by HB Heinzer in one day!! ONE DAY!!! Housework done.. Nope, laundry finished... Nope, organized for the workweek.... Nope, read an amazing book that is a solid 5 stars.... YEP!!!
Bent has such strong characters that force you to love every one of them, even when they are being total screw ups! I was so wrapped up in this book that I literally HAD to read it and find out what was going to happen. Would Julia and Micah refuel the spark of young love and find their happiness, or would Julia's hard headed, stubborn ways cause her to never forgive Micah and force them into permanent regret???? Ugh!!! Just forgive him Julia and let's see more of those steamy bubble bath scenes!! ;)
I was rooting for them as a couple the entire book... Well minus crazy Karen... But I don't want to give any spoilers away there! I loved how HB Heinzer told the story from the different characters' perspectives. It allowed me, as a reader, to dissect what they were feeling at the time. Micah was the alpha male that spent the entire book trying to make up for a mistake he made as an 18 year old boy. Now, trust me... it was a big mistake so he should have been sucking up to Julia. I felt his heart break that he had lived with all those years and had my fingers crossed that he got his happy ending. That's not to say though that there were not times in the book that I found myself shouting "Really?!?!?" at my Kindle! When Caleb was introduced in the story, I was a goner. My heart absorbed that kiddo and I knew then, that he HAD to have his happy ending... Or else! Ha! I love how the setting was small town. Julia fought the entire time trying to get away from the typical small town atmosphere, but in the end it was exactly what she wanted and kept coming back to.
Let's just say this book has it all... love, laughter, angst, and tears! I was on an emotional roller coaster ride throughout this book! One minute I would be laughing at scenes like the snow fight, feeling the angst over crazy Karen, crying over Caleb and his loneliness, and totally wrapped up in Micah and Julia's love. I only hope that this is a first in a series of books and we are blessed with more stories of this group of friends and their lives. Great job HB Heinzer!!! 5 solid stars for Bent and one of my new favorites!!!
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Check out the playlist that HB thought of when writing Bent!!
Excerpts:
Just as Julia reached for her phone, finally having the liquid courage to enter all ten digits and hit send, the melody to Hard to Love by Lee Brice announced that she wouldn't have to make the call. Micah was calling her.
"Hello?" she said weakly.
"Jules, what the hell is going on?" Micah's voice cracked under a flurry of conflicting emotions. "Where are you?"
She drew a long breath and poured a fifth shot. After tossing it back and coughing from the burn, she responded, "Um, I... I had a job interview. Well, I have one in the morning." It wasn't a lie, she was meeting with Krista first thing in the morning about a job. She was grasping for the words that would ease his mind until she knew what she wanted to do.
"A job interview?" he scoffed, "You have a job interview tomorrow, but you're gone now. You didn't think to tell me about this job interview? I'm going to ask you again, what in the hell is going on?"
____________________________________________________________
"They used to talk about you," he said, his eyes fixed on the road in front of the car.
These six words were the first Caleb had volunteered since he and his dad had their argument in the backyard. She wanted to know what he was talking about but she was also terrified to know the answer.
"Excuse me?" she glanced to the passenger's seat assessing his demeanor.
"My mom and dad. They used to talk about you," he said flatly. "Well, they never really talked. They fought. A lot. That's where I knew your name from when my dad introduced us. I didn't make the connection until now."
If Julia had a list of conversations she never wanted to have this one would have been on there. No one had been forthcoming with information about Karen, even after the attack, and now this. The one person who wanted to speak freely was a twelve year old who would be getting out of the car less than two minutes after pulling the pin on a grenade.
"Okay?" She couldn't think of anything that made her more uncomfortable than not knowing where the discussion was going. She could scream at Micah for being so stupid as to not realize his son would hear the fights he and Karen had.
"She said he'd never love her because he was in love with you." His tone was completely flat. "That true?" he asked, finally looking in her direction.
The conversation had officially crossed into territory that Julia didn't want to discuss with anyone, much less a twelve year old boy. She couldn't blow him off like he was a child who didn't deserve to know the truth. She'd lived that life and was disgusted by the number of people who lied to her face in the name of protecting her. "Yes, at one time he did love me."
"And did you love him?" he asked, picking at his cuticles to avoid any eye contact.
"Yes, I did," Julia whispered. There was a time it would have hurt to admit that but now, she wondered if that was because there was never a time when her love could be referred to in past tense. She did love him. Even with the sucker punch he'd thrown at her this morning, she still loved him.
Caleb made no motion to get out of the car as she pulled up to the curb in front of the school. "But you were gone before I was born, right?"
"Yes, I left for college after graduation and that's when your dad and I broke up." The answer was completely honest. It was more of an answer than anyone gave her questions when her mom left. In some ways she and Caleb were a lot alike. "I never even knew about you until I moved back here right before I met you."
__________________________________________________________
He looked down at her through his droopy eyelids. "You confuse me, you know that?" His words were playful but she could hear that he was serious.
"What?" she asked trying to pull back from his strong embrace so she could better see his face.
His arms stayed tense, not allowing her to move. "One minute, you look like someone shot your puppy and the next minute you're laughing at me. What's that about?"
"You smell like a girl," she laughed. She was hoping the statement would deflect his attention from her sullen mood.
Strong fingers started sweetly stroking her back seconds before breaking into an assault on her ticklish sides, "So, you think I'm a girl now?" he joked. She hated being tickled and Micah knew that. This morning, it was just what she needed.
___________________________________________
She walked up the driveway to where Micah was finishing making cuts. "Hey, can we talk at lunchtime? I'll buy today."
"Yeah, sounds good," he said as he kept moving boards and marking them. "Hey, Jules, you wanna come out and keep me company in a bit?"
Julia shook her head and smiled, "We'll see. I might have to take a nap. Some hot guy took me out last night and I didn't get to bed until late."
Micah played along, feigning anger. "Need me to take care of him for ya?"
A smile broke out on Julia's face, "Nah, I think I might like him," she teased while retreating to the house.
The smile didn't leave Julia's face as she sat down to check in with her clients. Once she'd sent emails to everyone to let them know she'd gotten moved and would be back to work on Monday, she decided to email her brother back.
____________________________
For only the second night since she'd been back, the emptiness between them in the bed was gone. "Can I ask you something?" Micah breathed into her ear as they lay in the dark.
"You just did," Julia laughed.
Micah gently pulled on Julia's shoulders until her face was inches from his. "Do you think there's a chance that someday your heart will heal from everything I've done to you so you can really love me again?"
"Micah, even with everything that's happened in our lives, I don't think there was ever a time when I didn't love you. You've bent the hell out of my heart but for whatever twisted reason, I never stopped loving you."
He rolled her back so her back was pressing into his chest as he drew her as close to his body as possible. "I don't deserve you."
"No, you really don't," she agreed as she drifted off to sleep.
______________________________
"How did you do this?" Julia asked in wide-eyed wonder.
A smug grin broke on Micah's face, "I have my ways," he said, pulling her gently to him. "Come on, there's one more thing," he said as he led her to the master bath. The long vanity was lined with tealights and a vase containing four long-stemmed roses.
"One yellow rose," Micah said handing the first rose to Julia, "to tell you how happy you've made me by coming home, even if it's only for a while."
"A pink rose," he continued, "to say thank you for allowing me into your life. I was an ass and even if I told you I'm sorry every day until I die, it wouldn't be enough."
"This red rose," he handed her the third stem, "because I love you. I always have and I always will."
He pulled the final rose from the slender crystal vase and placed it in Julia's hand, "And the orange rose to show you that you are the only woman I desire. There was a time in my life when I thought I could convince myself otherwise but I was wrong. It's only ever been you."
______________________________
Finally, Annie broke the silence, "Look, no one's asking you to be a mom. Not right now. And I think you're wrong about Caleb. He needs someone like you in his life. He'll see that if you don't give up on him."
"Where the hell is Pepe with our food?" Carly whined.
"Um, I'm pretty sure his name's not Pepe," Julia laughed. "Pepe may be here somewhere, but I doubt he has blond hair and green eyes like our waiter."
"Nuh-uh," Carly said wagging a finger at Julia, "They're all Pepe. It's, like, a rule to work here or something."
Conversation ceased as not-Pepe arrived with platters of fajita toppings. Once the women filled their plates, Annie continued, "Look, I probably shouldn't be saying this, but they need you. And you need them--"
Julia stopped her friend, "No, what I need is to have some space to figure out what I need. That was the whole point of me coming up here. I can't throw that all away for anyone. I spent a decade following my husband all over the damned country for his dreams. I spent the past four years playing the part of the perfect housewife, the whole time knowing we were nothing more than roommates. I'm not going to make any decisions based on what someone else needs."
Author Bio:
With the exception of three years in Nebraska, H.B. is a Wisconsin girl through and through. She lives with her husband, two kids and roommate (also known as the “bonus parent”) in the middle of nowhere but close enough to civilization to maintain a shred of sanity.
She credits her father introducing her to an APAzine in the mid-90s for her love of writing. Bent, her debut novel, was a NaNoWriMo challenge to write 50,000 words in one month. After years of attempting and failing, she finally got through it and this is the result!
Check out this beautiful cover for Stormy Surrender by Nicole Andrews!!
Stormy Surrender
By Nicole Andrews Moore
Blurb:
Sometimes the life you planned isn’t the one you get to live. Sometimes the pain of the past overshadows the future. And sometimes to start over you have to go back to where it all began. That’s how it was for Joe Masters. That’s how he ended up back in New Hope. And that’s why he was in his thirties and had nothing to show for his life. He needed a complete overhaul, just like his father’s old house. Instead of a fast track, he had slowed down and was on a ten year plan. These days that was more his speed. And as much as he tried to fight the inevitable, he was learning to accept and surrender.
Martha had weathered her fair share of storms in Vermont, was accustomed to the cold, both the chill in the air and the cold shoulder in her marriage, but after the miscarriage she felt like she would never get warm again. So she did the research from the laptop while sitting in front of the fireplace. She knew what she needed when she Googled hope, she just never imagined that it would bring her to New Hope, South Carolina. She never imagined that her husband would trick her into leaving and never follow. She never imagined that a southern storm with all its force and fury could be so destructive. But after the storm, the land is washed clean. It’s perfect for a fresh start, a clean slate, and a new love.
Author Info
Nicki has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina with her children for the past eleven years and her husband for the past three years. Her journey has barely begun and she loves every minute of it. Every day of her life seems to bring new adventures, some bigger, better, shinier and prettier than others. She's still getting used to that new life smell she's experiencing, a combination of hope, love, and happiness. (The perfect scents to build a new life on...)
For fun, she spends time with those she cares about, cooks, reads, writes, and especially lives to travel. The current travel goal: visit every Margaritaville. Two down! (Eleven to go?)
In addition to writing on Suddenly Single Journey, Nicki is a contributor for Project Underblog. Her writing can also be found on Shine, where she is a Shine Parenting Guru and an award winning Yahoo! Contributor on YourWisdom as the relationship and dating expert. And she has been published by McClatchy News in their syndicated papers.
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