A Thick Black Line - negotiating life to reach the HEA

Happily Ever After… having just walked with yet another couple on their journey as they search for everything summed up in these three little words, I’m quite astonished at what our characters have to go through to get there! And my hero and heroine in A Thick Black Line have their own fair share of “stuff” to get through, and around, and past. But they made release day (yay!!) and I’m sure they’re celebrating today along with me – though they’re laying low, having been bullied, cajoled and rewritten any number of times over the last month or so!

It never ceases to amaze me how many variations, convolutions, twists and turns have to be negotiated, and how often the characters themselves seem to get in their own way. I suppose book are like life – complicated, most of the time, with any number of the things that we’d have happily written out of the script if we’d had a say in it…

Still, it’s having “life” in books that brings them to life (no pun intended!) and helps us as readers to relate. And not just life as we see it either – I found it fascinating to discover the “life” beneath the surface, the sinister undertones in the storyline that added the suspense factor and gave the outward life a new dimension altogether. New conflicts, new questions, new catalysts… it was a wholly intriguing journey…

Here’s the blurb and a short excerpt, and you can view more at: http://www.bookstrand.com/product-athickblackline-13953-330.html

Blurb:
Bo Carmichael has drawn a thick black line around her heart, and with good reason. She has worked hard to overcome the anguish of betrayal and the devastation it wreaked in her family's lives, and she's now close to realizing her dreams. There simply isn't place in this equation for emotional entanglements, especially not with Nic Sinclaire, the only man who has the ability to breach her defenses.
From their first encounter, an impossible chemistry rages between them – a crackling heat that threatens to melt the ice surrounding her.
A bizarre twist makes Nic a constant companion and self-appointed protector. As Bo's barriers shift and crumble, she can no longer ignore the powerful emotions his proximity evokes…


“Don’t do it,” he said. Instinct told somehow him that she had started to shut down, that this might be his only chance, and though he didn’t want to push he knew that he had to.
Bo rounded on him, defensive, oddly pleading. “Don’t do what?”
“Walk away.”
Her laugh broke, short and infinitely bitter. “As if I could. Today was a case in point, wasn’t it? There are some things we just can’t seem to walk away from, no matter how hard we try.”
The enormity of it, the truth of it, hit home and she sagged, so visibly defeated that something inside him was stirred to anger. At himself. At Dario. Even at life.
“So face it.” It seemed inadequate, but was the only thing he could think of to say.
“Do you really think it’s that simple?” Bo realised that she’d raised her voice. She hadn’t meant to. She turned and moved towards the patio.
“No, it’s not.” He paced the stone terrace, his voice laced with frustration. “I know that I don’t know the whole story, but some things at least are beginning to make sense.”
“Nothing makes sense. I’ve lived it. Lived with it. Don’t you think I’ve done everything I can to actually lay this whole ugly mess to rest?” There was a faint note of desperation underlying the words, an edge of something huge and almost out of control.
“That’s maybe the problem,” he said, trying to be reasonable but somehow managing to sound harsh. He backtracked, took a slow breath. “You lived with it. Inside. Shut away. Along with that other side of you that you’re so determined not to let out. Well, like you said, today was proof that it hasn’t worked.”
He was right, but she didn’t want to admit it. But it stood out, clear and unavoidable, that he also had no intention of backing off. Weary, the fight all drained out of her, she accepted the inevitable.


Have fun everyone, and I’ll see you soon. I’m off to celebrate!
Jude
http://www.judahraine.com