Hello, hello! Happy Thursday, and welcome to the stop for the day. I'm hosting Barb Han with her novel, Gone. Enjoy!
The author is also offering a $25 Starbucks gift card to a random winner. For your chance to win, go here and enter. Good luck!
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Blurb
How
far would you go to find a child that never existed?
Elizabeth Walker awakens in a mental
institution, the aftermath of a nightmare in her veins. All she can think of is
saving a little boy—her son. But the orderlies who rush in and jab her with
needles assure her she has no son. So does her mother, who demands her doctors
keep her calm and prevent her from these troubling delusions. But Elizabeth
Ex-military medic David Kerrigan will
never stop blaming himself for the childhood tragedy that took his younger
sister’s life. Working on assignment at the facility, he’s drawn to Elizabeth Elizabeth
Warning: This title is intended for readers over the age of 18 as it
contains adult sexual situations and/or adult language, and may be considered
offensive to some readers.
Review:
Gone is the story of Elizabeth, a woman trapped in a haze and mental hospital, unsure of where she's come from or how she got there. She has nightmares and is in a continuous state of drug induced stupor. Until, that is, the handsome and charming David comes into her life abruptly.
I won't divulge too much, because it might contain too many spoilers. This was a fantastic read. The first chapter sucked me in and I read the whole thing in a matter of an hour or so. I really rooted for Elizabeth and David, although at the halfway point of the book I just wished they'd suck it up and admit their love for each other instead of beating around the bush. The ending wasn't really surprising, but that's okay. It was still a fabulous story.
There was one thing I had trouble wrapping my head around, though. The author kept mentioning west Texas and a remote hunting cabin out there surrounded by trees and brush. Now, I was born and raised in and around Seminole, which is almost as far west as you can go without being in New Mexico. From experience, I can tell you the scenery flattens and shifts to desert just before Abilene, and if you aren't past Abilene you're not in west Texas. I understand the author herself lives in the far north east of the state, and when you're that far out west Texas might come a little quicker. This is just the west Texan in me being picky. Perhaps she was alluding to an area south of where I was raised. All I ever knew as a west Texan was desert and sand. Having said that, I otherwise really enjoyed this one. Four of five stars.
Excerpt
If memories were liquids, then Elizabeth Walker’s would be blood. Not warm, life-giving, tissue-bathing blood, but cold, coagulated, dried up, and stepped-over-on-the-sidewalk blood.
Memories weren’t liquids.
They were more like fireflies blinking in the dark, daring to be caught, disappearing a moment before they could be reached. And the only liquid left in Elizabeth
Nightmare or not, she would claw her way through any level of consciousness to save the boy. The last ounce of breath she drew from her lungs burst out as a scream, leaving her choking and gasping for air.
The sense of urgency to save him, to do something, burned frustrated holes through the bottoms of her feet—feet that did not touch pavement no matter how fast she moved.
She had to do something. But what?
She calculated the likelihood of reaching him and came up short. He was far. No way could she reach him in time. Yet waiting, doing nothing, wasn’t an option either. Protective instinct propelled her legs forward, and damn the odds.
“Somebody. Help.” She pushed herself from the dream.
She dug her fingers into her mattress, discharging a crush of bleach into her hyperventilated nostrils. A drowning sensation filled her lungs. She clenched her chest muscles. She gasped, struggling for oxygen.
A door slamming against a wall made her sit bolt upright. Two bulky men in blue scrubs burst into the room.
About the Author
Barb Han lives in
When she's not writing, researching, or otherwise getting lost in a story, she volunteers at her children's school, is in the kitchen 'creating' dinner, or can be found on or around a basketball court.
Writing contemporary romance and romantic suspense has been a dream come true for Barb--something she's wanted to do for as long as she can remember. She left her corporate job, at her husband's urging, and has been happily playing with imaginary friends ever since.
Learn more about her latest releases at http://www.barbhan.com and don't forget to say hi. She loves hearing from readers.
Connect with Barb Han
1 comment:
Thank you so much for hosting me today.
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