Thursday, November 23, 2017

In between the Earth and Sky by Heidi Hutchinson - Review and Giveaway



Today I am helping with the blog tour for In Between the Earth and Sky by Heidi Hutchinson!

 Check it out and be sure to grab your copy today!
 

Author: Heidi Hutchinson
Publication Date:  12 November 2017
Publisher: Double Blind Publishing
Series:  Standalone
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Age Recommendation: 17 and up
Rating: 5 Stars

~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~ 

Book Description:

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

Remington Rohan was not a rule follower.

Former model (though not one of the “super” kind), successful influencer and life coach. Currently paid to tell people how to achieve the best from their lives and careers.  In other words, a complete contradiction to how he preferred to live—namely, on his own terms and without input from others.

Everything about his life was going according to plan.

Until he started spending way too much time with a woman who defied his prejudices and challenged his beliefs.

Lydia Larkin was not a genius.

Gifted, clever, and stubborn. Raised on star maps and Hendrix, she was born an explorer. Temporarily tied down to a private sector science job, she knew she was biding her time before she was off to discover and build something new.

Not one to let society tell her who she was, she wasn’t about to let a professional influencer tell her she had to change to be happy.

Buckle up and brace for impact.


 



My Review:

So I think that this may turn out to be one of the weirdest reviews I have ever written because I just don't know completely what to say.  I think that this book is something magical, something beautiful. I think that this book is more than I can grasp.  I think this book is like a wild thing and as the book itself says


"You can’t claim a wild thing,” she said to Brenda. “The moment you do, a part of it dies. To keep it wild, to keep it alive, you must always keep it free. All you can do is claim yourself. And sometimes, if you’re very lucky, the wild thing will invite you to stay."

It's almost as though there is so much depth to this book that I can't quite reach it, I can't grasp it.  Do I love it, yes, but at the same time I feel confused by it and I feel like I still crave answers.  It's so deep  that I can't get deep enough to be fulfilled by it.  Honestly how do you rate a book like that.  How do you say it's 5 stars or 4 or even 3 stars when you know it is something you will never be able to label, nothing you could ever cage for long enough to determine what your true feelings are.

I can say that I wanted to climb into this book.  I wanted to be on the outside watching as the Hero and Heroine find their way, to watch what will happen not just what has happened.  I can say that I am not ready to leave them, I need to be the fly on the wall, the spirit whispering to them that they can believe in that (not a religious faith, just so there is no confusion) 'faith'.  Yet, I can also say that I had to walk away several times from the book to process, that it took me a longer than expected time to read it because it is written in a slow pace and so my reading of it was slow.  I can say that I on some level can't comprehend everything I read, that I need someone to sit down and talk this book through with me chapter by chapter.  That I didn't always understand the reasons, the complexities, and yet...yes another YET, that through all of it I loved this book.

These characters will make you think. You will either be left feeling as though everything you just read is hogwash and off or you will be left wondering why we don't all live our lives with the same freedom.  Why we let ourselves be controlled by others and the world around us instead of just living the way our heart leads.  The other thing you might question is the belief that this is a love story.  Is it?  I honestly do not know.  I think that there is definitely a story of love there, the story of loving yourself, the story of allowing someone else to love you, but this is not a traditional love story.  I am uncertain what to call it.  A motivational guide hidden inside a fictional romance? A self-help book wrapped up in a love story? A psychological thriller...okay maybe that's a stretch, but maybe not.  It is most assuredly more than what you will expect.

I can say that you will love these characters even if you can't quite fully understand them.  Lydia is the wind, she is a wild heart that is good and pure, a sprite that follows that wild heart of hers even when it means she struggles to connect to the world around her.  Remington, he is a lost boy (man), he's tried for too long to control that wild heart of his (unlike Lydia who has allowed hers to rule her) and in the process lost his center.  He is someone you would look at from the outside and want to be because it seems that he has everything and yet the truth is he has very little because he's closed his true self off from the world, he's only been giving them the piece that he thinks they deserve.  While those two are the main focus, there is also Merrick and Brenda and I kind of want their stories too, especially Merrick's.  I need to know that he finds his happiness, I need to know that they ALL find their happiness because when this book ends, while you get your HEA, I can't promise you that you will know that happiness will be where everyone lands.

This is a book you are going to want to take your time with so be prepared to shut out the world and bring a carafe of tea/coffee not just your normal cup.  You may question the book as you go along but I urge you to just keep going it's a slow read but a worthy one.  You will definitely question life when you finish but, you will know that there is something incredibly special about this book and you will be happy you didn't give up.  If you wonder how with all this I can still say without question that this is a 5 star review from me, (something I do not give out often or lightly) it is because my heart still hasn't found it's rightful place in my chest yet. Because I still haven't been able to stop thinking about the characters, that I haven't been able to stop thinking about the possibility of everything that this book is.  It is because this is a book that moved me and my own wild heart!


~ HAPPY READING ~ 

Enter Heidi’s Giveaway:


About Heidi Hutchinson:

Heidi Hutchinson was born in South Dakota and raised the exact right distance away from the Black Hills. She had an overactive imagination very early on, and wasted no time in getting most of her friends in trouble due to her unrealistic and completely ridiculous ideas. Seeing as she was so lazy and also afraid people would think she was bonkers, she didn't write down any of the story lines that played out in her daydreams.

During her high school years, she took pen to paper and filled more notebooks than she is proud of with angsty, depressing, self-deprecating poetry. This led to her writing down more things: notes, ideas, character bios, plot twists that had no plot yet to twist. After years of cleaning up her own scraps of imagination with nothing solid to hold on to, she sat down and wrote the story that had been in her head the longest. Fueled by coffee and her unwavering and perfectly normal devotion to Dave Grohl, she discovered a writer living inside of her.

She still lives in the Midwest, though not as close to the Black Hills as she would prefer, with her alarmingly handsome husband and their fearless child. They eat more pizza than God intended and she listens to her music the same way she lives: loudly.

Connect with Heidi:

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