Nobody's Angel: A Heavenly Read

 

Nobody’s Angel
Willow Park Romance # 1

By: Sarah Hegger

Releasing March 31^st, 2015

Zebra

Blurb

In this evocative new series from author Sarah Hegger, a woman returns home after a long absence—and wonders if two wrongs really can make a right...

Nine years ago Lucy Flint ran away to Seattle, taking her friend's boyfriend and leaving her high school sweetheart without a word of explanation. Now she's back in Willow Park, Illinois, to help care for her ailing father—and it's no surprise that her ex, Dr. Richard Hunter, is still angry.

Still, she's a different Lucy now. Sober, wiser, ready to make amends to the long—make that very long—list of those she mistreated during her wild younger days. Falling for Richard all over again would mean wreaking havoc in both their lives and possibly squandering her opportunity for redemption. But here, in the place where everything went wrong, is the one person who always felt right, and a second-chance that could be the best mistake she ever made…

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnj4IHOhcuU

Link to Follow Tour:  http://www.tastybooktours.com/2014/12/nobodys-angel-willow-park-1-by-sarah.html

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22494932-nobody-s-angel?from_search=true

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes | ITunes | Kobo

Rafflecopter Giveaway (Including: (1) $20.00 Amazon Gift Card, (3) $10.00 Amazon Gift Cards, Five Print Copies of NOBODY’S ANGEL (Or Digital for Int. winners))

Link to Rafflecopter Page, http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NTIxYWM0YzhjYmFkNDc1MDkxYzA3ZDNmMjhhM2RjOjYzOA==/? 

 

 MY REVIEW:

I received an advance reader copy of Nobody’s Angel in exchange for an honest review.

I was expecting a good book as I adore Hegger’s writing style. What I wasn’t expecting was to have my heart broken and rebuilt. Nobody’s Angel is beyond doubt the most exceptional book I have read in years.

Hegger reached inside me, ripped out my heart and shredded it. She touched all those secret vulnerable spots that we hide and made me feel things I haven’t felt for a long time. I ached for Lucy’s pain. I was crushed by her sorrow and soared with her joy.

In this heart breaking, heart-warming story, Sarah Hegger touches on revisiting your past mistakes, re-finding old love and making amends. Secret shame, hidden feelings and deep desires fill Lucy’s story.

I laughed. I cried. I moaned. I rejoiced.

I won’t spoil the story for you, but I can honestly say that you DO NOT want to miss this one.

Oh, the feels!

This is a book that will remain on my shelf forever. Can I get it in hardback? Please? I’ll need it to be durable because I’ll be reading this one over and over again.  (Yes, it was that good!)

Excerpt 

Silence hung heavily over the phone lines. “Lucy? Lucy, are you all right?” “Um, I am.” Lucy peered into the gathering gloom nervously.

Her heart sank. Nothing outside the car had changed. The dark thing spread across the snow was definitely human shaped. The object near the human thing, wheels spinning senselessly, was the bicycle it had been riding. Riding, until someone had opened their door on it. And that someone was her. “I’ve gotta go.”

“What was that noise?”


“I doored a cyclist.”

“You what?” There was nothing dulcet or dreamy about Mads and her smoky vocal chords now.

“It seems I doored a cyclist. I’m going to have to go now.”


“Is the cyclist okay?”


“It’s moving.” Lucy stepped from the car, shut her door, and took a ginger step forward.

A soft noise rode the steady sibilance of the wind. “And I think that’s it groaning.” She held the phone out nervously at the bipedal stain in the snow. “Can you hear it?”

“I can’t hear anything but this howling noise. That’s not it, is it?”

“Nope.” Lucy was reasonably sure on this point. “That’s the wind.”

“Fuck, Illinois.”


“I know, right?” Lucy took a half shuffle closer. “I think it’s a him.”

“How do you know it’s a him? Can you see its face?”

 “Nope.” Lucy blinked away a sloppy snowflake. “But it’s either a man or a very large woman, with a butt that looks like a man.” And she certainly noticed the taut, muscular lines of his thighs and ass. She tilted her head to the side to get a better look. Those were male and not too bad, current situation aside. The Thinsulate pants could not be doing much good against the cold, because they left very little to the imagination. The figure on the ground moved again and rolled carefully onto his back. Yup, that was very definitely a he and not a she.

“Uh-huh, it’s a him,” she clarified for Mads without taking her eyes off the cyclist. “Excuse me? Are you all right?”

The cyclist cursed softly.

Lucy inched a little closer, ready to launch a heroic retreat into her childhood home if the injured party got pissed at her, the front steps of which loomed tantalizingly close. Coward. Lucy tried to master her yellow streak. “Should I call nine-one-one?”

“Does he look like he needs an ambulance?” Mads asked.

“I’ll ask him.” Lucy raised her voice. “Are you hurt? Should I call nine-one-one?”


The man on the ground moaned and struggled into a sitting position.

Her victim didn’t look all that injured or dangerous, yet.

He stretched out his legs with a hiss.

“I think he’s getting up,” Lucy whispered into the phone.

“Then he can’t be too badly hurt, right?” Mads sounded hopeful. “Any blood? Exposed bones? That sort of thing?”


“I don’t see any blood.” Lucy leaned forward and peered. Now that the cyclist was moving she didn’t want to risk getting any closer. “No bones either. I think that means he might be all right.”

 “I can hear you,” he spoke.

“He can hear me,” Lucy reported to Mads. “Oh.” She stopped talking and stared.

“That’s good.” Mads kept it positive.

“I think he’s going to be okay,” Lucy whispered.

The cyclist ignored her and started unbuckling his helmet.

“It’s a good thing he wore a helmet,” Lucy reported into her phone.


“Why?” Mads whispered back.

“Because it’s sort of . . . busted up.”


“And his head?”


“Seems fine.” Lucy stood on her toes for a better look. “Are you sure you’re all right?” Her voice shook slightly as she risked speaking to the cyclist.

“No thanks to you.” The man examined his helmet. He shook his head angrily.

“I didn’t see you.” Lucy kept her tone conciliatory. “You came out of nowhere.”

“Then perhaps you should stop talking on the phone and concentrate on what you’re doing.”


Lucy froze. She knew that voice. “Ah shit.”


The cyclist whipped off his goggles and tucked them into his helmet in short, angry movements.

“This is going to get ugly.” She hadn’t realized she’d spoken out loud until Mads replied.

“Well,” Mads huffed, outraged on her behalf. “Okay, I know you hit the guy with your door. But for the love of God, what kind of dork rides a bike in a snowstorm?”


The wind dropped just then and Mad’s voice squawked out of Lucy’s phone loud and clear. The cyclist jerked his head up and Lucy swore again. All the way west in Seattle, Mads had no idea. Lucy ignored the steady stream of rationalizations coming through the phone as her stomach sped south, into her boots.

“Bye,” she whispered and hung up.

The man in the snow had gone dead still. His gaze locked on her like a heat-seeking missile. And Lucy knew he knew that she knew and he knew that she knew he knew. Or something. Her mind went blank. There must be something to say in situations like this, but she had nothing. She stared at him and he stared right back.

“What the hell are you doing here?” All things considered it was a very reasonable question.

Author Info 

Born British and raised in South Africa, Sarah Hegger suffers from an incurable case of wanderlust. Her match? A hot Canadian engineer, whose marriage proposal she accepted six short weeks after they first met. Together they’ve made homes in seven different cities across three different continents (and back again once or twice). If only it made her multilingual, but the best she can manage is idiosyncratic English, fluent Afrikaans, conversant Russian, pigeon Portuguese, even worse Zulu and enough French to get herself into trouble.

Mimicking her globe-trotting adventures, Sarah’s career path began as a gainfully employed actress, drifted into public relations, settled a moment in advertising, and eventually took root in the fertile soil of her first love, writing. She also moonlights as a wife and mother.She currently lives in Draper, Utah, with her teenage daughters, two Golden Retrievers and aforementioned husband. Part footloose buccaneer, part quixotic observer of life, Sarah’s restless heart is most content when reading or writing books.

She loves to hear from readers and you can find her at any of the places below.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Website:  http://sarahhegger.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sarahheggerauthor?ref=hl

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SarahHegger

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8202895.Sarah_Hegger

AND I am looking forward to the next book in the series ...

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Katie

Stories, Conundrums and Characters. Oh my!

I hope you've come from S. C. Mitchell's blog.
 
Let me start this post off with an apology. I've been missing in action for way to long. Life has been busy. Lots of writing stuff happening, and lots of family stuff too. I shall endeavor to keep you updated on my work and my life with greater efficiency in the future.

The impetus for today's post comes from Raine Balkera  who wants to know what everyone is working on ATM. Details & conundrums, plus five bonus points for including a wee bit of your favorite scene.

What I am working on is diverse to say the very least. I'm a bit disorganized with my work. I typically have three or four stories in various stages of completion. Right now, I have book one of my small town series at my agent's for editing. I'm editing the extremely rough draft of book two. I've got three erotic novellas underway. I'm working on a novella for a box set, and a novel for an anthology. It's a wonder that the stories don't get mixed up in my head.

This excerpt is from the first of a series of erotic vignettes I'm working on. They'll be short stories that all tie together, but also stand alone. Keep in mind that it is in rough form, exactly as it was written on the first draft.

“Look, Macy, I know it isn’t something we would normally do, but I think it might be worth considering.”

“No.” Was he out of his mind?

“Just no? You aren’t even going to consider it?” Jack stared down at her, daring her to deny him. “Isn’t our marriage worth it? Aren’t I worth it?” 

His shoulders were tense, his hands fisted at his sides. The corded muscles of his arms bunched and twitched with tension. He was angry, he was disappointed in her, but she couldn’t do what he asked. There was no way in hell.

“Jack, it is insane too freaking insane. I can’t believe you would even suggest such a thing.” God, where did he get these retarded ideas? She refused to even consider it. Surely people didn’t actually do things like that? Did they? She couldn’t really be that naive, could she?

“Look,” Jack sighed. “Just think about it. I’m not asking more than that. Just consider the idea. I’m on night shift tonight. I’m heading out for dinner with Jason before our shift starts.” He gave her a pleading look. “Please, Macy. For me, for us, consider it. Because if we can’t figure out where things went wrong between us, I don’t think I can keep living like this.”

She didn’t blink, she didn’t even move. She sure as hell didn’t cry. She just stood there motionless, her entire body tensed up to control the shivers that wracked her curvy body. She stood, and watched his shoulder droop in defeat before he turned and walked away from her. Five minutes later she heard the garage door open, his jeep flare to life and tires peel as he drove away, the garage door rumbling shut behind him.

She fell to her knees, unable to stand any longer. Anger, tension, disappointment and confusion battled within her robbing her of all her strength. She knelt there her arms wrapped around herself for comfort until her knees and back ached from the strain. Unable to stand the strain any longer, she dropped to sit on the floor, pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and punched in the number of her best friend, Ashley. 

Ashley would know what to do. Ashley always had answers. But more importantly, four years ago, Ashely and Jason’s marriage had been on the rocks too but they had found a way to pull it back together and now they were happier than they had ever been.

“Ash,” Macy whispered when her friend picked up. “Come over. I have a Ben and Jerry problem.”

“How bad?” Ashley asked.

“Chunky monkey, black cherry, vanilla and butter pecan bad.”

“Give me fifteen minutes. I’ll drop the kids at Mom’s and hit the grocery store.” The phone clicked in Macy’s ear. The silence was deafening.

Was this what she faced with Jack gone? Total silence? God she couldn’t stand that. 

What the hell had gone wrong? Seven years ago they had been madly in love, now they barely spoke. They were like two ships passing in the night. Three weeks ago, Jack had moved out of their bedroom and Macy hadn’t slept since.

She crawled to the fireplace and hit the switch and it roared to life. She held her hands towards the gas flames. It wasn’t a real fireplace, but it blasted heat and warmth, and she was cold. So cold. Chilled to the bone, it felt like her heart was frozen. She couldn’t lose him. God, she couldn’t live without him. But she couldn’t do that.

She could barely think the words he had hurled at her in his disappointment. How could she even say them, let alone do it? People didn’t really do that did they? Surely it was all made-up for movies and books.

But Jack said it wasn’t. He had told her he looked into several options. 

Several options? She remembered shouting at him. She hadn’t known such a thing even existed, but Calgary had several options? Holy crap. She felt monumentally naive.

She knew the city had escorts, everything from cheap street walkers to high end escorts that earned more in one night than Macy did in a month. But she had no idea that the city boasted at least four, and her mind whispered the words, swing clubs.

God, she blushed to the roots of her hair and down to her toes just thinking of the words and Jack wanted to go to one. The idea was certifiable, insane, ludicrous and completely out of the question. But what if it were her only option to keep Jack? Then what?

She jumped to her feet and paced the room. What the hell was keeping Ashley? She pulled out her phone to call again and realized it had only been minutes since she called. Damn.

How was she going to explain this to Ashley? They had been friends for years, since grade nine, and they shared everything. But this? Sure Ashley had talked about her own marital trouble and the group they visited to get things back on track, but how could Macy approach this? Logically, she knew that every marriage had rough spots and that many couples failed to make it through. But this was crazy beyond belief.

She paced back and forth across the room, into the kitchen, through the dining room, up and down the stairs. She couldn’t stay still, she couldn’t bank the frustration and fear coursing through her. She circled the coffee table and stopped in front of the fireplace and picked up a framed photograph of her and Jack taken last year at the finish line of a fun run to raise money for cancer research.

They looked like hell, it had been nearly thirty degrees and they had run the entire twenty kilometers. They dripped sweat, their clothing hung limp and sweat sodden, their faces were red, their hair slicked back and untidy. But their faces were wreathed in smiles of happiness and pride that they had accomplished their first run together.

She stroked a finger down the image of Jack's face. Even beat and exhausted, he was gorgeous. He was easily the most handsome man she had ever met. She had fallen for him at first sight when the guys from his fire station had come to inspect the office she worked at.

Dark brown eyes, dark brown hair that was thick and lush. He was always smiling. He was ripped. Muscular and strong, his arms, legs and back were well muscled. She loved to watch those muscled bunch and flex as he worked in the yard or around the house. And that soft, welcoming look he gave her every time their eyes met just made her want to melt inside.

God, she missed those looks. He never looked at her like that anymore.

That's it for a taste of Macy and Jack.

Now, hop on over to Brenda Margriet's blog  blog to see what's up there.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Katie