Release date: November 5th 2013
Self-Published
Purchase: Amazon
After a tragedy nearly ripped 21 year old Madeline Darlington-Gray’s life in half, she's spent the past three years trying to put the pieces back together. But pieces never just fit back together, and when she's betrayed by those she trusts, everything crumbles. Shoving everything she owns into the trunk of her car, Maddie drives south, trying to run from her past.
Eno, North Carolina seems like the perfect place to hide. Working at a local café is light years from Maddie's Manhattan existence and for the first time in a while, she's finding her family. There's Grandma, the café owner; Samantha, the hairstylist next door with plans to make Maddie's life unsuck and Noie, the three year old girl who's stolen Maddie's heart.
And then there’s Gabriel Mendez, Noie’s single dad. He’s intrigued Maddie since the first time she met him, and while he has his own secrets, he wants more from her than just friendship. But the past never stays past, and all too soon, Maddie realizes she can't hide from hers. If she can't put the pieces of her shattered life together this time, she'll have no hope for a future.
A future she desperately wants.
Eno, North Carolina seems like the perfect place to hide. Working at a local café is light years from Maddie's Manhattan existence and for the first time in a while, she's finding her family. There's Grandma, the café owner; Samantha, the hairstylist next door with plans to make Maddie's life unsuck and Noie, the three year old girl who's stolen Maddie's heart.
And then there’s Gabriel Mendez, Noie’s single dad. He’s intrigued Maddie since the first time she met him, and while he has his own secrets, he wants more from her than just friendship. But the past never stays past, and all too soon, Maddie realizes she can't hide from hers. If she can't put the pieces of her shattered life together this time, she'll have no hope for a future.
A future she desperately wants.
This one was of those books...
I didn’t expect
to LOVE this novel SOOOOOOOO MUCH!
Let me
start off by listing all those terrible
characters in this book that had made me cry:
The
3-year old Noie
Grandma
Evelyn
And the
girls.
Kidding!
But they
did make me cry. Imagine HOW can a 3-year old burst your bubble hard enough for
you to shed tears? I can’t imagine as well, until I read this novel.
One
tragedy to the next – that’s how Madeline Darlington-Gray’s life had been, and
she was just 21 years old. She was lost, broken and hurt. She had lost someone
who is dearly close to her, it didn’t help when she was betrayed by someone she
trusted the most. She just wanted to walk away from it all. She took her car,
drove away, threw her mobile phone in the middle of nowhere and ran away from
her past.
Changing your location doesn’t necessarily mean losing your problems. They’ll show up wherever you are, changing to fit the situation. But until you break them down and deal with it, there is nowhere far enough for you to run away from them.
She ended
up in Eno, North Carolina. The perfect place to hide, not just because the
population was small, nor the beautiful beach that was just nearby – but this
was something way out of her ordinary mundane past. She unexpectedly found work
in a café as a waitress, a place to live and some new friends.
There was
Noie – yes, yes, the three year old who made me cry! But she was just SOOOOO adorable.
She likes pink, had an awful stranger’s anxiety and an imaginary friend named,
Devi. Maddy was the only stranger she wasn’t afraid of. Maddy and Noie’s life
is much more intertwined that they would have thought. There’s Grandma – who had a surprise of her
own. She own’s the café. I love her, she’s cool, she’s hip and sensitive. She
knew exactly what Maddy needed, space, and when the time came, a shoulder to
cry on. She didn’t push, prodded, she allowed Maddy to set the tone of their
relationship. Of course, there’s Sam – the lively, energetic and persuasive
friend who constantly push her out of her comfort zone. Then of course, there’s
Gabe. The single father who had her heart palpitating the first time she saw
him. Both of them had troubled past,
they have enough baggage already. They must settle with their past in order for
them to find peace in the present.
I love, I
love, I love this book!!! It was an unexpected surprise for me. It started out
with so much pain, and I was glad to join Maddy in her journey towards healing.
Fate had perhaps pushed her towards Eno. It didn’t just helped her heal and
finally got the peace of mind she was desperately searching but she also found
new friends, new family and perhaps, a new love…
This was
not just a story about love, second chances, and moving on – this story is so
much more… It had the hair on my arms rose on its rather surprising twists that
had really caught me off guard. They were more connected that I can possibly
imagine. I was glued from the first page, until the very final one – the moment
I was at the end – I was surprised. Again, K.K. Hendin gave me an unexpected
ending, but nevertheless, over all, this was an amazing work and I would love
to read more from this author!
Here’s something for KK Hendin…
AND…
Everyone’s past has ways of sneaking up on them. You just have to be in a place in the present that you’re strong enough to deal with when your past comes to visit.
KK Hendin's real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she'll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate.
kkhendinwrites.blogspot.com |twitter.com/kkhendin
Thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful review. Thanks for participating!
ReplyDelete