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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Monday, November 9, 2015

passions that drive people to pursue the desires of their hearts - All the Way to Heaven (The Fallout Series, #1) by Becky Doughty

Anica Tomlin, business major, has just learned that the man she’s been planning her future around, her Global Finance professor, already has a beautiful wife and family. Ani cashes in her graduation gift to herself a little early—a trip to Tuscany—but from the moment she boards the wrong train in Pisa, her plans for solitude and self-indulgence begin to unravel around her.

Description:

Published: November 2nd, 2015

Anica Tomlin, business major, has just learned that the man she’s been planning her future around, her Global Finance professor, already has a beautiful wife and family. Ani cashes in her graduation gift to herself a little early—a trip to Tuscany—but from the moment she boards the wrong train in Pisa, her plans for solitude and self-indulgence begin to unravel around her.

When a bicycle accident thrusts Ani into the skilled hands of the dashing Dr. Cosimo Lazzaro, she reluctantly accepts his invitation to recover in his family’s country villa, perched on a hilltop surrounded by the Lazzaro olive groves. But it’s been a black year for olive growers all over Italy, and generations of tradition are being put to the test like never before.

Ani is swept up in the drama of life in Tuscany, the convergence of old and new, and the passions that drive people to pursue the desires of their hearts. Just as Ani begins to get her feet under her again, an unexpected turn of events leaves her doubting the very existence of happily-ever-after, unless she can learn to trust the desires of her own heart.

Although All the Way to Heaven is a stand-alone novel, it is the first book in The Fallout Series, a collection of sweet contemporary romances that follow characters featured in the first book.

EXCERPT

There was a tiny alarm going off somewhere in the back of my mind. Warning. Warning. Warning. It was persuasive speeches and gentle caresses that had blinded me to Jacob’s true colors. Were Cosimo’s words practiced seduction or was he just as flustered in my presence as I was in his? And if so, what about me had turned his head so completely? I was nothing special. My hair curled a little too zealously just below my shoulders. I wasn’t overweight, but I was no health nut, either. I suppose, if I was honest, I might even qualify as being plump. At least certain body parts that I didn’t have to look at. I had funny quirks and unglamorous habits, like chewing on the cuticles around my thumbs, which made me look like I was actually sucking my thumb from the right angle, and not painting my toenails because the little toenail on my right foot had been damaged in a childhood bike accident and was only about a millimeter wide. It looked like a racing stripe when I did put polish on it. Tish had dubbed it Toe-Hawk. 

I was twenty-two years old, just a college kid, broken-hearted, broken-legged, still frail from three days in the sick bed, and penniless to boot. 

Maybe that’s exactly what he saw in me, just as Isa had said. I was the quintessential damsel in distress. 

So what was it about damsels in distress that stirred the need in men to slay dragons, to sweep the fair maiden off her feet and carry her away to his castle in the sky? I glanced past his shoulder out over the valley spread below us. This was as close to a castle in the sky as I was ever going to get. 

Perhaps I could do this after all.

About the author:
Becky Doughty is the author of the best-selling Elderberry Croft series, The Gustafson Girls series, Waters Fall, and more. She’s also the voice behind BraveHeart Audiobooks. She writes Women’s Fiction with strong elements of romance, as well as Young Adult and New Adult Fiction. Becky’s favorite people are edge-dwellers, those who live on that fine line where hope and despair meet, where love is the only answer and grace becomes truly amazing. Becky is married to her champion of more than 25 years. They have three children, two of whom are grown and starting families of their own, and they all live within a few miles of each other in Southern California. They share their lives with too many animals, a large vegetable garden, and a strange underground concrete room they’re certain was built for dark and sinister purposes….
Author's Giveaway

2 comments:

Jan Lee said...

A nice Italian set romance :) I'll be looking for the rest of the series after this one!

Linda Trinklein said...

My thoughts... awesome , awesome, awesome! ;) I think it sounds perfect!
Thank you for the chance!