Orange Blossom - Release Blitz
By Sarah
Daltry
New Adult Contemporary
Date Published: April 4, 2014
“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?
EXCERPT
He’s smiling. Not that smirk he
gets when he’s bitter but also pleased about something. It’s not the smile that
says that he knows happiness is temporary. When he lines up his Skee-ball shot,
there is a smile on his face that is pure. Genuine. It’s like taking a step
back and seeing Jack in a photograph. One from years before his life went
crazy. He is just a dorky kid playing Skee-ball and he’s so happy when he nails
the shot. He does an awkward little dance and it’s the kind of thing about Jack
that makes me love him. He’s gorgeous and sexy and aggressive yet sweet. He’s
kind and considerate of me, both sexually and in general. But I don’t love Jack
for that. I love him because there is light in the world in the space he takes
up. I know he doesn’t see it, but he’s inside himself. From the outside, all I
see is the absolute electricity and fire that fills the air around
him.
“That’s how it’s done,” he tells
me when he finishes his game, wrapping up his ridiculous stack of tickets. I’m
so going to lose, but I don’t care. He’s happy. I just almost wish I were
better at this, so we could stay here longer, so that Jack could be this part
of himself for as long as he needs.
“I think you’re perfect,” I
say.
“Because I’m good at Skee-ball? Shit, that’s
all it takes?”
I shake my head. “No, but you tell
me all the time. I don’t think I ever say it to you. I don’t like the idea of
perfection. It’s too much of a standard to live up to, but I don’t think you
even understand. It’s cheesy and probably cliché, but I just can’t imagine how
I could breathe without you. How did I exist before
this?”
He looks down, uncomfortable
because it is one thing to tell Jack he’s hot or sexy; he can handle that and
he gets arrogant and ridiculous when I tell him that. However, this part of
him, this vulnerability, he buries it so deep that drawing attention to it
makes him want to disappear. But I don’t want that. I want him to embrace it,
because it’s beautiful.
“Don’t look down,” I say and I
lift his face to look at me. His eyes explode with light, the way fireworks do
on New Year’s when the sky is like ink and then it’s suddenly on fire. I lean
in and kiss him, feeling his hands tighten on my arms and his lips opening
against mine. He’s scared. I can feel it in the way he kisses me today; he
feels himself falling and he is trying to hold on and I need to figure out how
to be steady enough to hold him. “Trust me,” I plead. “Let me take some of what
you’re feeling. I can handle it, Jack.”
He nods. “Another day. Today, I
just want to stay here, to be here with you, where it’s safe and comfortable
and my entire world is this. Where strawberries and popcorn and Skee-ball and
shitty plastic toys are the entirety of what exists.” He pauses. “I promise,
Lily. I will. Soon. But let me hide from it. Just for a little
longer?”
“Okay, but don’t hide from me,
okay?” I ask.
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.
The other titles in the Flowering
series are Forget Me Not, Lily of the Valley, Blue Rose, and Star of Bethlehem.
The final book, Ambrosia, will be out in June.
Sarah has also written Bitter
Fruits, an urban fantasy romance, and Backward Compatible, a gamer geek
romantic comedy.
Authors Links
GIVEAWAY
Signed paperback of Blue Rose and
some swag
