Cover Reveal & Excerpt
Orange Blossom
by
by
Sarah Daltry
Cover Design: Shoutlines Design
18+ New Adult Contemporary Romance
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"I’ve never understood a year. A year was always a
measurement of something bad for me. A year in my father’s prison sentence, a
year since my mom’s death, a year left of school before I could get far, far
away from here. Now, as I look down the end of my college career, with only a
little more than a semester to go, a year seems like something magical. It has
been a year since Lily chose me, since she sat with me on the old swing set and
made a decision that I was worthy of her. And every minute of the entire year
has been better than the last."
You already know their stories: Lily, the perfect princess,
always living someone else's life. And Jack, the broken boy, who had stopped
believing in hope. Somehow, though, they found each other and what was one
night blossomed into a love story.
Now, a year later, Jack and Lily are dreaming of the future.
Despite all of his promises to himself that he would never be indebted to
anyone, Jack makes a new promise - this time to Lily - that he will be there
for her forever. But when life unravels for them, he starts to pull away, and
Lily worries he's out of reach for good.
When Jack does the unthinkable, Lily is left destroyed. Is it
possible to have a happily ever after? Does love ever really save anyone?
“What
are you thinking about?” she asks later that night, when we’re curled up in my
bed in my grandmother’s basement. It was late and I didn’t want to ride my bike
back in the cold, so we decided to stay here.
“Nothing.
The future.”
She
laughs. “The future is nothing?”
I
shake my head. “It’s so… big.” It sounds fucking stupid, but I can’t explain it
any other way.
“Yeah,”
she says, but I know she understands. One of the things I think no one, even
Lily, gets about why I love her so much is that I feel both totally adult with
her, and yet at the same time, a kid. My whole life has been this collection of
events, where I’ve either been the victim of bullshit at the hands of other
people and thus, never really given a shot at being a kid, or my own stupid attempts
at being grown up, which generally led to terrible choices. With Lily, I feel
completely normal. I feel like the big question of buying an engagement ring
and also what kind of career I want are the worst concerns people have. I
clearly have significant problems, but with her, I don’t. I’m just a guy, with
the most incredible girlfriend.
“Do
you ever think about ten years from now?” I ask.
She
nods against me. “All the time. It feels alien, though. I can’t picture having
a real job, maybe a house, being a wife…” Her voice trails off and I know she’s
worried. I lift her chin and look at her.
“The
entire concept of family is probably my biggest fear, Lily, but there is very
little I wouldn’t consider for you.”
She
shifts and sits up. “Really? I don’t want you think I’m asking. Not yet. But
it’s kind of there, as, like, a hypothetical.”
If only she knew, I think, but I’m not ready to speak in certainties. “I
know. A year ago, I stood in the parking lot of the café and I remember telling
you I could never be your boyfriend. I was scared. I didn’t think I could be
good enough for you.”
“You’re
better than good enough,” she says and smiles.
“Thank
you, but I don’t think I’ll ever understand what makes you think so. Still, I
remember that night, and I begged you not to fall for me, because it was too
late for me. And then there was Derek and all that mess and New Year’s, but as
a hypothetical, I want to make you happy. Plus,” I add, “imagine the
honeymoon.”
She
laughs and hits my arm. “You’re a pig.”
~ Book Trailer ~
Reading Order Note: Forget Me Not, Lily of the Valley, and Blue Rose can
be read in any order. There is some crossover in scenes between the titles, but
each stands alone as one character's story. Star of Bethlehem is a direct
continuation from Forget
Me Not and Lily
of the Valley. Orange
Blossom and Ambrosia
assume readers have read the other four titles and read as sequels. In essence,
the first three are #1, Star
of Bethlehem is #1.5, Orange
Blossom is #2, and Ambrosia is
#3.
Forget Me Not
~ Synopsis ~
18+ New Adult romance
This isn’t a sweet and innocent coming of age story. If dirty talk, bedroom toys, and threesomes offend you… this is not your book. There are also no billionaires, strippers, or virgins. This is just the story of typical college kids trying to connect to each other.
“No one tells you when you start school just how homesick you will be, or how hard it will be to start life over with no direction and no friends or family. No one says that becoming your own person is terrifying.”
Lily had a crush on her brother’s best friend, Derek, for years – which led to their steamy night ten months ago in her bedroom. Now, she’s off to college and she and Derek are still going strong. However, when school starts, Lily realizes it’s hard to maintain a relationship, while also trying to live her own life. She and Derek find themselves falling apart and she has no idea where to turn.
Enter Jack. Everything about him is wrong for Lily and she knows it, but she can’t stop herself from being attracted to him. When things implode with Derek, it’s Jack who’s there to pick up the pieces – and to show Lily an entirely new set of experiences she didn’t know she was missing. Of course, Jack has his own problems and once Lily gets to know him better, she starts to wonder if she can handle all of Jack.
When Derek reappears on the scene, Lily is forced to decide between two guys and herself. Can she find herself without losing the people who matter in the process?
~ Add to Goodreads ~
~ Excerpt ~
The
movie is awful, but it’s fun spending time with people who are easygoing and,
when Don suggests going to Denny’s afterward, I agree without even asking
Derek. When we get in his car, I worry that he is disappointed, though.
“Are
you mad?” I ask him.
He
shakes his head. “Of course not. Lily, I love you and I’ll be there for you,
but you need to have other people. I wouldn’t expect you to demand that I have
no one at school.”
“Do
you have a lot of friends at school?”
“Yeah,”
he admits. “There’s a group Jon and that I spend a lot of time with. If you
come up sometime, I’ll introduce you. Although, if you stay with me, you know
what that means...”
“Yeah.
Hands off all weekend - under penalty of death by older brother.” I laugh. Jon
would obviously never hurt either of us, but I still don’t think it would be
kosher to get too frisky with Derek in his room.
I
debate about asking the question I know I shouldn’t, one I have never worried
about, but for some reason need an answer to now. I survived my entire senior
year by not asking this question; now
that we’re on the same page, I feel like I need to know. I have to know what
I’m facing.
“This
group. Are there girls in it?” I ask.
Derek
pulls into the parking lot at Denny’s, puts the car in park, and turns to look
at me. “Three. Alyssa, Maya, and Jodie. Jon had a thing with Alyssa for a
while, but nothing serious came of it. And stop it. I see the jealousy brewing.
They are all homely and hideous and you’re the only girl I’m interested in.” He
kisses my forehead and I know it’s supposed to make me feel better, but it only
makes me feel like a kid. I had moments over the past year when I worried that
Derek would think I was too young, but now I have these three women to picture
and I don’t want to picture them.
Although
I was a virgin when I slept with Derek the first time, he wasn’t. I don’t know
what he did at school before we got together, but he had plenty of girlfriends
in high school and I can’t imagine he was celibate for those first few months
last year. We’ve never talked about it; although I know how many people he’s
been with, I don’t know for sure who they are or when he was with them. I can’t
bear to know. I hate thinking of him with another girl so close to when we
started dating.
I’ve
managed not to be the jealous type for almost a year, despite him being away,
although I can’t pretend that it doesn’t bother me if I think too much about
it. I know it’s hypocritical, since my new group of friends includes guys, but
I can’t help it. I feel like Derek’s going to realize sooner or later that I’m
not enough for him.
We go
into the restaurant, because I don’t want to think about Alyssa, Maya, and
Jodie; it is easier to fake it with company. Everyone is in high spirits and I
try to let the worry slip away. There is not a lot I can do anyway. I’m pretty
sure that Derek has been faithful. Right now, all I can do is trust him. As
hard as that is, I have no reason to think that he would cheat. Still, I can’t
stop picturing him in bed with someone else.
~ Links to Buy ~
(Flowering, #1.5)
~ Synopsis ~
18+ New Adult romance
This isn’t a sweet and innocent coming of age story. If dirty talk, bedroom toys, and threesomes offend you… this is not your book. There are also no billionaires, strippers, or virgins. This is just the story of typical college kids trying to connect to each other.
“No one tells you about pain. They tell you that it hurts, that sometimes it’s consuming. What they don’t tell you is that it’s not the pain that can kill you. It’s the uncomfortable numbness that follows, the weakness in your body when you realize your lungs may stop taking in air and you just can’t exert enough energy to care. It’s the way taste and color and smell fade from the world and all you’re left with is a sepia print of misery. That’s when the shift starts – the movement from passive to active. I fall asleep, hoping that the morning will bring back the pain. At least the pain is a thing.”
Plagued by a dark past, Jack sees college as a way out. Desperate to escape the area where he grew up, the people who know his secrets, and his own family, he deals with his problems through alcohol and meaningless sex.
When he first sees Lily, she’s the epitome of everything he hates. Yet something about her makes Jack rethink everything he knows and assumes about other people. Now, with the help of his best friend and lover, Jack has to decide if he wants to pursue something that he knows will only end badly.
Can Lily be one of the few people who can see Jack for who he really is – or will his darkness be too much for her to handle?
~ Add to Goodreads ~
~ Excerpt ~
My grandmother is so happy
that I agreed to visit with my father on my way back to school that I almost
feel okay with the decision. Until we reach the prison and the familiar
sickness returns. I can’t turn around now and say I don’t want to go in, but the
sky is steel grey and I wonder why it’s never sunny when I come here. Even the
weather hates me.
She has a hat on, because
it’s a prison day, and I don’t have the heart to tell her that she tries to
look nice for a group of lowlifes. I feel like somewhere in her head she
convinces herself that she looks like she’s going to church or something and
that people will think that’s what she’s doing. She seems to believe that if
other people assume she’s not the mother-in-law of a killer, then she’s not the
mother-in-law of a killer.
The security check is
backed up today because some guy is arguing with the guard about his belt. They
want him to leave it at the entrance, since it keeps setting off the metal
detectors, but he’s apparently really attached to the stupid thing and doesn’t
want to give it up. They argue back and forth and it’s the dumbest conversation
I’ve ever heard. And I go to college with frat boys.
“Buddy, you have to take
off the belt and leave it, or you can’t get in,” the guard explains. “Unless
you can pass through here without setting off the machines, you aren’t going to
see anyone.”
“You’re just trying to rob
me. You’re all part of the system, man, and I ain’t giving you shit.”
“You’ll get the thing
back,” the guard tries to reason.
“Fuck you. You’re just
trying to keep me down.”
The guard sighs. “Look,
just put the belt right here on this shelf. I will personally watch over it and
make sure it’s safe.”
“Why should I trust you?
You work for them.”
“I do and I make less than
twenty bucks an hour. I don’t care about your damn belt.”
“More than I make. Think
you’re so special, judging me, acting like you’re too good for something that
belongs to me-”
“Holy fuck, just give him
the fucking belt,” I yell. The guard, the random dude, and my grandmother all
turn to look at me. “What? This is fucking stupid.”
The guy seems so taken
aback that he quietly removes his belt and hands it to the guard. He goes
through the metal detector, this time without setting anything off, and turns
back to look at me. He shakes his head and mumbles, “Crazy ass motherfucker.”
The guard just stares at
me. I walk through the machine and the thing goes insane. It’s my belt
ironically. He raises an eyebrow and just holds out his hand. “I need you to
leave your belt here.”
I don’t care about the belt
or this visit and the sooner we get in, the faster we leave. I hand him my belt
and then my grandmother is through. The guard buzzes us into the next area,
where a few more guards are sitting in a small office. I wait for them to lead
us to the room where we’ll meet my dad. The metal table shines in the
fluorescent light. If I stare at it long enough, maybe I’ll go blind.
“No outbursts,” my
grandmother warns.
“It wasn’t an outburst. He
was wasting time.”
“I don’t care. Your actions
impact your father.”
“Yeah, well, his kinda impacted me,” I point out.
She shakes her head and
turns to face the door through which my dad will enter. I hate it here. I hate
the way the lights are covered in weird metal mesh grates that make it always
feel like five o’clock on a winter evening. I hate the way that the voices of
other visitors and prisoners bounce off the walls, disembodied and
incomprehensible, but invasive enough to remind you that you’ll never be alone
in here. I hate how the guards try to treat me like their own kid, as if by
being sympathetic it will fix anything. And I especially hate the stupid look
of hope that refuses to leave my grandmother’s face no matter how many times we
come here. Sometimes I think maybe it’s that look that makes me limit my visits
as much as I do, more so than even hating my father. Because the fact that she
believes someday things can be okay? Well, there is just nothing I can say
about that.
~Synopsis ~
Warning: This book deals with topics of abuse and
may trigger reactions in people who have experienced those things in their own
lives. It remains a story about healing, but it's not always an easy journey.
"Four. My life has
been shaped by four people. Four men, to be more specific. My father, my
stepfather, my best friend, and my boyfriend. The first two shaped it in
horrible ways, but what I am, who I am, is all because of four men."
Over the last twenty years,
I've learned how to keep secrets. It doesn't really matter, since everyone
already seems to think they know everything about me. So I hide. I avoid
confrontation, I treat Xanax like a magic pill that will make it all go away,
and I become everything they think I am. A slut. A whore. Nothing but
trash.
I can only name two guys
who have ever made me feel like I was more than that. Jack is my best friend
and I've loved him since I met him. Now, though, he's in love... with someone
else, and I guess I need to get over him. Somehow.
And then there's Dave. The
guy I never gave a chance. The guy I used almost as much as people used me,
because I wanted to pretend I was someone worth loving. Two years have passed
since we last spoke, but I don't know how to stop thinking about him.
My new therapist is making
me face my past, and she tells me that life inevitably changes without our
permission. I believe it, but I know what I am. I hear what she's saying to me,
and I want to try again with Dave, to help Jack find joy, to love myself, and
to move on. I just wonder if anyone can do that, really.
~ Link to Buy ~ Amazon
~ Link to Playlist~
~ Book Trailer ~
~Excerpt ~
Later that day, at lunch, I had just
found a seat by the window when he sat across from me. I was used to sitting
alone. He didn’t say anything, and he had nothing to eat. He looked up at me,
though, after a few minutes, and his eyes did it again. I hated my body, hated
the way I looked, hated that somehow I owed my body and my looks to everyone
else. But when Jack looked at me, I wanted to let someone touch me. I wanted
him to hold me. He felt like safety.
It didn’t even make sense. He was just
a broken kid, like me. He always wore the same threadbare hoodie. Most days, it
covered his head. He was cute, but awkward. His hair was too long and usually
greasy. His Chucks were a little too big, so they looked a little like clown
shoes. Yet those gorgeous eyes were all I cared about. I hadn’t considered guys
at all. I didn’t find them attractive, and I certainly couldn’t see the appeal
of sex or of intimacy. With Jack, though, the thought of him near me didn’t
make me nauseous.
“Do you want my orange?” I asked him.
“Are you sure?”
It wasn’t a groundbreaking question.
But it was how I knew that what I naturally felt for Jack was right. Because no
one had ever asked me that. No one had asked if I minded, if I was sure, if
something was okay. They just took things.
“Yeah.”
He took it and I handed him my knife.
It was flimsy plastic and wouldn’t even pierce the rind, so I took the orange
back and peeled it with my fingernails. Jack just watched me and, when I handed
him the orange, now peeled, he smiled. His upper lip curled more than it should
have and he looked silly, smiling at an orange. But he drew the same smile from
me.
“Thank you,” he said, and he pulled two
slices free from the whole and handed them back to me. I didn’t eat them right
away. I just watched him eat his part. He was messy and he ended up covering
himself in the juices. He unzipped his hoodie after the orange squirted down
the front. Underneath, he was wearing a washed out blue T-shirt with a train on
it. He looked ten.
“Nice shirt,” I teased.
He looked down. “I live with my grandmother.
She has no concept of clothes.”
“It’s cute.”
He smiled again and it was less awkward
this time. “Do you live with your grandmother, too?”
I was wearing a huge black sweater over
baggy black pants. “No. I just… I don’t like people looking at me.”
“Yeah. I get that.”
He didn’t tell me that I was too pretty
to dress the way I did; he didn’t say my body was too good to hide. He just
went back to eating his orange, letting the juice spill all over the train
shirt. We were fourteen, but I already knew Jack would always be the only thing
that mattered in my future.
(Flowering Holiday Novella)
~ Synopsis ~
Jack isn’t a rock star. He’s not the leader of a MC. He isn’t a billionaire. Lily’s not the daughter of a mob boss, or a stripper, or a virgin with a BDSM fascination. They’re just regular college kids, who somehow found each other in the middle of all the crap and chaos of growing up.
“With you, Jack, it was the first time I ever felt real. It was the first time anyone looked at me and saw substance. It was the first time I wanted to make someone see me.”
Jack and Lily have navigated his past, her desire to move on from her family’s demands of her, his depression, and her loneliness. Now, on New Year’s Eve, they have an entire year laid out ahead of them. First, though, Jack needs to meet Lily’s family, to be welcomed into her life. It’s intimidating, but with a sweater that is way too hot and his grandmother’s ugly car, he arrives at Lily’s gleaming house on a hill, ready to open himself up completely to her.
Inside the perfect, sparkling house, Lily waits for the boy she has come to love. But Lily’s house and family are a lot like her – shiny and pretty on the outside, with a sad emptiness on the interior. Lily wants to give Jack the one thing he has always dreamed of – family and love – but can she keep him from seeing how hollow a lot of the picture perfect life he fantasizes about really is?
This is a novella length work that follows Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley.
~ Add to Goodreads ~
~ Excerpt ~
I take his hand and pull him down beside me on my bed. I feel so complete in his arms, as if nothing can go wrong when he holds me. It’s all the other stuff. The world, people, pressure. Maybe it’s a little fear that things just ended with Derek. That one day, as quickly as I fell for Jack, I also fell out of love with Derek. I don’t have enough experience to know if that’s normal. What if it happens again?
“What? Tell me,” Jack whispers.
“Have you ever felt like your entire life is some surrealist’s joke? That you think you’re in control of it, while really, you’re probably just…”
“A melting clock?” he finishes and laughs. I look at him, disappointed that I can’t explain it, but also relieved that he doesn’t care.
“All the fucking time,” he says. “I know you’re scared. I know I’m scared. But I seem to remember you telling me that I should remember what matters. I made you a promise, princess. Yes, your house intimidates me. Your life intimidates me. Hell, loving you intimidates me. But I’m in this. I’m here. Present. Entirely. I’m looking only forward. And all I see is you.”
“Take the damn book,” I tell him. “I just wanted to show you that I have faith in us. It was a conscious decision to give you something that was a very special gift to me, to tell you that I trust you with it, because I trust you to be there. Long term.”
He takes me in his arms and kisses me. I decide I won’t stop him if he goes further, but he doesn’t. Our bodies crackle with the energy between us, but as much as the sex thrills me, Jack does so much more for my mind than his body could even do. I can’t believe how alive I feel when he’s near me. Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s desperate. But I want him here in my life; I want him with me, because I love being this aware.
I speak against his cheek, while his hands slowly explore my body. It’s sensual but not sexual. He’s studying me like a work of art. “I don’t want to fall out of love with you. I thought Derek was all I ever wanted. I don’t want to be in the same place with you a year from now.”
“You won’t be,” he tells me.
“How do you know?”
He kisses along my face, brushing his lips against my cheek, my forehead, my nose, but never reaching my mouth. “I don’t know how. But I do.”
I love that he can put aside his doubts to ease my own. I know Jack’s had so much trouble in his life, and the fact that he can comfort me, when my problems are so petty and stupid in the scheme of things, is one more thing I love so much. “I know I’m shallow. But I don’t want to be, Jack.”
“You’re not shallow. You’re not empty. Anything you think of yourself – it’s crazy. If you want to talk about surreal, it’s the fact that you think you’re less than something. Maybe you didn’t get shit on the same way I did in high school, but clearly, people have underestimated you. They missed out on you. And you have every right to be hurt. But, Lily? No one will ever hurt you again.”
I smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry I’m being so moody. It’s probably hormones or something. I think I’m just frustrated.”
“Yeah?” He laughs. “Well… I mean… I can help you relieve some of that.”
He’s on top of me and I don’t care that it wasn’t exactly what I meant. I don’t care that someone could walk in. Someone probably will walk in, since eventually they’ll come looking, but I don’t care at all. I want to belong to Jack, and I don’t know any other way to do so.
~ Links to Buy ~
The Flowering Box Set
Volume 1
~ Links to Buy ~
~ Top Ten ~
Author’s Favorite Books
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Clockwork Angel – Cassandra Clare
Lola and the Boy Next Door – Stephanie Perkins
Days of Blood and Starlight – Laini Taylor
Red Moon – MA Grant
Author’s Favorite Book Boyfriends
Jake Barnes – The Sun Also Rises
Holden Caulfield – The Catcher in the Rye
Heathcliff – Wuthering Heights
Rochester – Jane Eyre
Will – Clockwork Angel
Etienne – Anna and the French Kiss
Hamlet – Hamlet
Ian – The Host
Bru – Summer Sisters
Samuel – The Lovely Bones
Author’s Favorite Video Games
1. Borderlands 1 and 2
2. Fallout 3
3. Persona series
4. Silent Hill series
5. Final Fantasy series
6. Skyrim
7. Dragon Age series
8. Mass Effect series
9. Fable series
10. Bioshock series
11. Magic: The Gathering
12. Perfect Dark
13. Heavy Rain
14. LA Noire
15. Catherine
16. Zuma
Author’s Favorite Bad Boys
1. Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
2. Jake Barnes from The Sun Also Rises
3. Will from Infernal Devices
4. Lord Byron
5. The Scarecrow in Batman Begins
6. Lucifer from Supernatural
7. Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice
8. James Dean
9. Damon from Vampire Diaries
10. V from V for Vendetta
~ An Interview with Sarah ~
· What inspired you to write your book?
I had written a short story about Derek and Lily and their first time called “Her Brother’s Best Friend.” It was just supposed to be a short erotic story. But it sold well, so I thought about writing more about the two of them. However, as I started writing Forget Me Not, the story would not work for me. Until I found Jack. And then the novel was over and there was just so much more to his story, so Lily of the Valley was born.
· How did you come up with the title?
Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley are both flowers, and the series is called Flowering. The reason is that it is about love, sexuality, and growing up – sort of blossoming into the person you will be. Forget Me Not also addresses the idea of leaving your life behind and moving on. And Lily is the main female character, so hence Lily of the Valley.
· Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
People are complicated, as are relationships. The things we think we want sometimes turn out not to be what we want. In addition, the people we think we understand may surprise us. We can’t assume anything about love or each other. They are too complex.
· What books have most influenced your life most?
The Catcher in the Rye, because it was the first time I understood that other people felt like me and it also said it was okay to be different. And The Sun Also Rises, because there can be beauty in suffering.
· If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Hemingway. I know he’s dead, but he knew how to write true.
· What are your current projects?
I am writing Scandal, a contemporary romance about a teacher and an actor who find each other after they are both ruined by rumors, and I am waiting to release Bitter Fruits, a New Adult paranormal/urban fantasy romance in December through the publisher. I am also working on Immortal Star, the second book in that series.
· What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Jack’s experiences and emotions are really closely tied to my own and it was hard to write some of his scenes.
· If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?
Aubrey Plaza. She has the same type of biting sarcasm that I do.
· If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with the time?
Travel the world and write.
· What kind of people do you dislike?
Anyone who is cruel to other people or creatures. People who assume their own reality is the only reality. And people who don’t read.
~ About the Author ~
Sarah Daltry writes about the regular people who populate our lives. She's written works in various genres - romance, erotica, fantasy, horror. Genre isn't as important as telling a story about people and how their lives unfold. Sarah tends to focus on YA/NA characters but she's been known to shake it up. Most of her stories are about relationships - romantic, familial, friendly - because love and empathy are the foundation of life. It doesn't matter if the story is set in contemporary NY, historical Britain, or a fantasy world in the future - human beings are most interesting in the ways they interact with others. This is the principle behind all of Sarah's stories.
Sarah has spent most of her life in school, from her BA and MA in English and writing to teaching both at the high school and college level. She also loves studying art history and really anything because learning is fun.
When Sarah isn't writing, she tends to waste a lot of time checking Facebook for pictures of cats, shooting virtual zombies, and simply staring out the window.
~ Connect with Sarah ~
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