Sass by Laramie Briscoe Excerpt + Giveaway

Author Laramie Briscoe brings you her next standalone  novel SASS.

I, Cassandra Straight, have loved Reed Shamrock to distraction since I was a teenager. I even watched him fall in love with someone else and almost get married. 

A year ago, when he walked into his house and found his fiancée’s face in his best friend’s crotch, his life changed forever and it hasn’t been the same since.

On his first night out since the horrible incident, we run into the ex-skank. Seeing the devastation in his eyes, I made a promise that I would help him get over her. I told him that a pretend relationship between us would work. It would help him move on.

I didn’t count on my heart or his getting in the way. And I sure as hell didn’t count on not being able to tell when pretend turned to reality. When it all implodes, the only thing left is the truth. 

Sometimes though, the truth? It hides and we have to dig deep to find it. To make it come to the surface, we have to give it a little talking to. We have to give it a little Sass.

Sass gives me a bored, disbelieving look as she pushes her sunglasses down on her nose so her eyes are exposed to mine.

"Are you sure you put fish in this pond? Have you fed them? Have they died? Did they leave you for someone who actually cared? Two hours, Reed, and we haven't gotten a bite."

Review: The Perfect Son by Barbara Claypole White

The Perfect Son
Barbara Claypole White
Lake Union Publishing, 386 Pages
Source: Kindle Unlimited
*** Stars
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From a distance, Felix Fitzwilliam, the son of an old English family, is a good husband and father. But, obsessed with order and routine, he’s a prisoner to perfection. Disengaged from the emotional life of his North Carolina family, Felix has let his wife, Ella, deal with their special-needs son by herself.

A talented jewelry designer turned full-time mother, Ella is the family rock…until her heart attack shatters their carefully structured existence. Now Harry, a gifted teen grappling with the chaos of Tourette’s, confronts a world outside his parents’ control, one that tests his desire for independence.

As Harry searches for his future, and Ella adapts to the limits of her failing health, Felix struggles with his past and present roles. To prevent the family from being ripped apart, they must each bend with the inevitability of change and reinforce the ties that bind.

My Review

The Perfect Son proved to be a quick and heartfelt read. It was an accurate depiction of family life and dealing with behavioral issues. I very much related to all characters, even Harry's.    As the story starts out you get a sense of detachment and maybe even a hint of resentment from Ella towards her husband Felix.  Well, I did anyways.  However,I was pleasantly surprised when the story took a turn in a direction that I didn't see coming.   

Harry is the perfectly imperfect son of Felix and Ella.  He suffers from tourettes as well as ADHD and anxiety. When Harry was a small child and his neurological condition came to light, there was this sort of unspoken arrangement between mom and dad; Felix would be the bread winner while Ella would manage their son's condition and day to day living.  To say the relationship between father and son was strained would be a small understatement.  Not because dad didn't want a relationship rather it was hard to connect with him given the circumstances. However, I liked Harry's character, he tried to be independent, had good insight into his condition while managing himself and his emotions well. Despite his challenges he manages to have a relatively normal life with friends and the all too familiar teenage angst.  

Ella is doting, loving, fierce, strong and determined as a mother.  It's very evident how hard she works with Harry and how much she loves him. She's always anxious to be away from Harry but she must travel to take care of her father who has injured himself.  Ella is on her way home from her father's when tragedy strikes.  And it throws everyone's life into a tailspin. 

In the beginning of the story we don't get much of Felix.  The picture that is painted of him is that of a cold and uncaring man who's only concerned with money and work.  Once Ella's tragedy strikes it throws Felix into this situation with his son that really leaves them no choice but to learn to live with each other.   And  this is when the warm and fuzzy feelings come about and you witness a father and son grow into their relationship.   It was so heartwarming and satisfying! 

While I enjoyed the story and the writing, there were a few things I felt could have been better explained.  For instance, there wasn't too much backstory on Ella's jewelry making although it's mentioned a few times throughout the book.  While there were hints of genetics from dad's side contributing to Harry's condition, it's merely brushed over.  it left me questioning how/if  Felix's upbringing contributed to Harry's condition at all or if dad had any inkling of his own quirks?  These were some of the questions I had while reading the novel however it didn't stop me from liking this book at all. 

Overall, The Perfect Son is a heartfelt and heartwarming story about family and over coming obstacles.  It highlighted choosing family over circumstance and the love parents have for their children and the love children have for their parents.   I really enjoyed the writing and will be looking into more works by this author. 

Chapter Reveal! Before & After by Nazarea Andrews

 

Today we are having a chapter reveal for BEFORE & AFTER by author Nazarea Andrews. This book will be released next Thursday, July 30th and it is a New Adult contemporary romance.

 

Click here to ADD THE BOOK TO GOODREADS

BEFORE & AFTER BOOK BLURB: Rike and Peyton fell in love in college. A boy from the wrong side of the tracks, covered in ink and crooning in a bar is the last person a straight laced girl with a art major should fall for, but his rough edges made her jagged, alive, shaving away the coddled southern princess and revealing a soul wild and brilliant. They fell in love, despite her family and his past and all the reasons why it wouldn't work--and with their best friends, they made a life. Everyone was supposed to live happily ever after. They, more than anyone, knows that life doesn't go according to plan. Rike and Peyton fell in love in college. A boy with a guitar, and a poet's heart, and a girl with freckles dusted over her nose, a perfect fucking fairy tale. But what happens when the fairy tale doesn't fall apart--but is forgotten?

     

Chapter One:

Prologue Now It's raining buckets and I don't want to go out in that. I stared at it from under the awning of the club and felt Lindsay sway into me. For a second, we both wobbled and another one of the girls banged against my side and I shrieked, sure we were going down. Lindsay rights me, pulls me close. I lean my head on her shoulder and puff out a petulant, "Bitch." Her grip tightens just a touch and she laughs. I haven't been this drunk since senior year of college, when we did Christmas at her parent's beach house in Key West. I wouldn't be this drunk now except she begged. Hung over and washed out wouldn't do for the wedding, and even after that insane night on the beach with jello shots and beer funnels and tequila body shots, I had woken up without a hang over. And that's what you do, when your best friend begs the night before her wedding--you do her shots while the rest of the bridal party screams at the strippers and you slip her watered down beer that smells like piss. You take the holy fuck never again drunk, because tomorrow, no one will be looking at me while she prances down the aisle in white. Well. One person will. And he'd think this shit was hilarious. I giggle against Linds' shoulder and she bumps me gently. "You good?" She murmurs as we wait for the cab. I smirk up at her, the world spinning unsteadily. "I'm fucking wasted." She laughs softly and kisses my forehead. "Lindsay, get in," one of the other girls calls and she peers at the cab. It won't hold all of us, and I can feel a new tension settle over my best friend. Lindsay doesn't have a lot of close friends. Partly because we came here, to this city neither of us knows, because of the boys. So we both started over. And because when we have each other, and the boys, well. We don't need much else. But she's more social than I am. And she works at a small ad agency, where she's gotten close to the other girls. So when she needed bridesmaids, of course she asked them. I smirk as Lindsay shakes her head. "Y’all go. Peyton and I will grab the next." There's a moment of rain splattered quiet and then the girl--I forget but I think she's one of the Jennifers--shrugs and slides into the little cab, slamming the door behind her. "What a bitch," I mutter. She laughs, that real noise that I know like breathing. Not the fake shit she's been shoveling at the other girls all night. "Stop it," she orders and I blink up at her. "You’re thinking too much. Your drunk, Pey. Let go and enjoy it." I lean into her, and murmur, "Wanna help?" She laughs again, shoving my shoulder, and I giggle. "You are such a slut when you drink." She mutters. I nod agreeably, and a cab pulls up. It's dingy and the driver is frowning at his phone even as it he pulls to a stop. He gives us a distracted look as we spill in and the world sways, dizzy for a long moment. Lindsay tugs me against her as I whimper and pushes my hair back, studying me. "The Embassy Suites," she says and he nods, jerking into motion. Linds mutters under her breath and reaches for her seatbelt. "Sit up, honey. Belt. The rain is awful." "Freaking mother hen," I grumble and she shrugs, implacable. I huff and shift to sit up and my phone goes off, the ringtone that only Rike has. I squeal and Lindsay reaches for me as I scramble for my purse, abandoned on the dark, dirty floorboard. I close my hand over it and hear her scream, my name a twisted noise that is almost unrecognizable. It's the last thing I can't remember.

 

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