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Description:
Honor hurts…all the time. The doctors say she’s fine – it’s
all in her head. But Honor feels pain. What she doesn’t know is…it’s not her
pain– it’s everyone else’s.
Seventeen year-old Honor Stevens is not an ordinary teenager.
Sure, she looks like one on the outside…but on the inside, there’s a whole
world of pain going on. Honor is an empath. That means she can feel other
people’s pain – like that of the girl who is about to be raped in the woods, or
the girl who is dying of cancer, or her mom…who is suffering a heart attack.
What she doesn’t know is what Ethan Sutherland comes to town to tell her – she
can save these people. But at what cost? For every life Honor saves, she knocks
years off her own.
When Ethan comes looking for her, he isn’t counting on
falling in love. Now that he has, he wishes he hadn’t told her about her
abilities. Though he tries his best to talk her out of saving every soul, Ethan
loses the battle – Honor’s too nice for her own good.
Then there’s the matter of Ethan’s estranged, morally corrupt
half-brother, Storm – he loves Honor too. And because Honor is intrinsically
empathic, she’s aware of Storm’s softer side and begins falling for him as
well.
When the two brothers are forced to work together against a
group of evil empaths who are after Honor, they need to put their differences
aside and focus on saving the one girl they both love.
A Touch of Honor is a paranormal love story of a different kind. In a world
gone mad with vampires and werewolves, A Touch of Honor tugs at the
heartstrings with a girl out to heal the world…one person at a time.
Excerpt:
He
takes hold of my hand, and we proceed to the wooden playground area off to the
side of the library. A maze of playthings built from wood will serve as the
background to, I suspect, a life-changing turn of events.
We
ascend the wooden…plank, I think to myself, though it is really a wooden ramp.
But “walkin’ the plank”seems so much more appropriate at this time.
Since, unfortunately, I intuit a death sentence on the horizon.
“Honor,”
Ethan starts, sitting down on one of the built-in benches. Of course, I follow.
“I’ve been having this conversation with myself all afternoon,” he drops his
head back against the seat’s wall and shuts his eyes. “Yet I still
don’t know where to begin.” He opens his eyes and raises his head. Looking
straight at me, right into my own violet eyes, he blurts out, “You’re adopted.
You do know that, right?”
Now
if I had not been aware of this fact already, I’d be quite traumatized right
now. In fact, I’d have become just a bit unhinged at the moment. Come to think
of it, I am anyway. “How do you know this?” I ask, astounded that he is aware
of something so personal.
“Oh
my God, Honor,” he puts his hand on my knee, “you didn’t know?” he asks,
shocked.
Pulling
my knee out from under his hand, I slide as far over as possible. But when I
turn to face him, I swear…there’s a tear falling down his cheek. This tempers
my anger…a little. “Yes,” I answer, hearing the sardonic tone in my voice. “I
knew. I know…”
Ethan
moves toward me.
“But…how
do you know? We’ve kept this a secret. No one knows.” Tingly
chills run up my spine. I am suddenly afraid.
“Your
mother’s name was Hanna. Your father…Daniel. Your last name was Robinson.”
Ethan ceases to talk, probably surmising, correctly, my need to absorb this new
piece of intelligence about my own life.
Too
dumb-stricken for words, I remain silently in awe.
“They
gave you up for adoption…because they were dying,” Ethan resumes. “They were
only in their early twenties.”
Hearing
this makes me sadder than I’ve ever been. My body goes slack, and my eyes begin
to burn. My mom, the one who raised me, had told me that my mother, the
biological one, was dying when she gave me up. But I’d no idea she was so
young. And no one had ever mentioned a father. There is a hollowness in my
chest that I’d never known. A vacant home that had been hidden away, not
knowing my true identity, now manifests into a cavernous canyon, because now I
do know.
“You
are from a special breed of people, Honor.” Unaware of the current turmoil
taking place in my mind…and my heart, Ethan keeps on talking. “The violet eyes?”
He pauses for a reaction from me, which he gets in the form of a blank stare.
“They’re characteristic of your true nature.”
There
is just no voice in me. All my thoughts are actually knotted into one mess of a
ball in the pit of my stomach, where I can feel it trying to find its way up my
esophagus. I want to vomit.
“Honor?”
Ethan probes, as if I’m not listening. “All that pain you feel…day in and day
out,” he pauses and is intent on looking me directly in the eyes, “and healing
your mother. You know…you did do that. You know that, don’t you?”
I
just shake my head slowly, hand over my mouth.
“Honor
Nicole Robinson Stevens.”
My
head moves back and forth quickly now, unable to grasp this. My hand is still
covering my mouth.
Ethan
will not stop.
“You
feel people’s pain…Honor.” Ethan shakes his head now. “It is…a horrible
existence, Honor, I’m not going to lie.” Tears roll down his face again. “But
you are special.”
He
smiles through his tears.
“You…”
His head drops in a slight bow. “You can heal people…you are an empath, Honor.
You take on the hurt and the pain of others…and you can take them away.”
About the Author:
J.P. Grider, born in Paterson, New Jersey as Julianne
Pellegrino, was raised in Haledon, New Jersey, the oldest of six siblings. Her
love of writing started early in her childhood, when she started writing poetry
in-between homework assignments. As part of a school work program as a
Journalism major in High School, J.P. Grider worked as a freelance reporter for
a local newspaper, writing feature stories about exceptional high-school
classmates. She studied Television Production and Film Writing at Seton Hall
University in South Orange, New Jersey, where she graduated with a Bachelor's
degree in Communications.
Two of J.P. Grider's novels have won awards in the Textnovel
Writing Contest, with her recently published, Unplugged (A Portrait of a
Rock Star) reaching Semi-finalist position. Though Unplugged is not
her first novel written, it is the first to be published. Her second novel, Maybe
This Life, published Summer 2012, was actually her first attempt at writing
a novel. After completing the whole manuscript, Grider decided to scrap the
whole thing and rewrite Maybe This Life from scratch. In Grider's
opinion, the difference between the two were night and day.
Currently, J.P. Grider is working on a Young Adult Paranormal
love story and continues to work on stories in her main genre,
Contemporary/Paranormal romance.
Connect with J.P. Grider
