Saving Beck by Courtney Cole - Review

 

Reminiscent of the beloved novels by Mary Kubica and Jodi Picoult comes a chilling portrayal of a son’s addiction and its harrowing effects on both him and his mother from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole. SAVING BECK is now available! Check out the tour below, and pick up your copy of SAVING BECK today!

 

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Author: Courtney Cole

Publication Date:  17 July 2018

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Series:  StandAlone

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction

Age Recommendation: 15 and Up

Rating: 5 Stars

Book Description:

There comes a time when offering your life for your child’s doesn’t work, when you realize that it’ll never be enough.

The cold needle in his warm vein was a welcome comfort to my son at first. But then it became the monster that kept us apart.

Heroin lied, and my son believed. It took him to a world where the last year didn’t happen, to a place where his father was still alive. What Beck didn’t understand was that it couldn’t bring his father back from the dead. It couldn’t take away his pain, not permanently.

You think it can’t happen to you, that your kids, your family, will never be in this situation.  I thought that too. But you’re wrong.

Step into our world, and see for yourself.  Watch my golden boy become a slave to this raging epidemic. Watch me try and save him.

Drug addiction comes with a price.  Trust me, you’re not equipped to pay it.

Don’t miss this heart wrenching, evocative, yet hopeful novel—it will leave you forever changed.

     

My Review:

This is one of  those books that's almost impossible to review.  It's poignant making it difficult to say anything negative without coming across a heartless.  Luckily I don't feel like I have any true negative feelings toward this book, except for dang-it, I don't like to cry when I read, haha.  

This is one of those book that makes you think: Would this be me?  Would I become this?  Would I react like this?  It makes you wonder how deep pain can go and how far are you willing to let it burrow into your soul.  What are you willing to do to make the pain stop?  How would you grieve? This book is a good reminder to all of us that it doesn't matter how strong you are. It's not about being weak.  It's not about the bonds that you have with family and friends.  Anxiety doesn't care. Depression doesn't care. Addiction doesn't care.  They can take anyone, anywhere, anytime, and once you're wrapped in their arms escape is a matter of life or death.  

This is a book that comes from the heart and soul of the author.  She is able to create such a realistic story because she has lived this truth, the truth of a child with an addiction.  It's hard to imagine the pain and fear that a parent goes through watching their child killing themselves in the hopes of stopping their pain and knowing that the child has to make the decision to live on their own, that we as the parent can not force them. Ms. Cole paints it vividly and heartbreakingly. Her pain and the pain of her child flow off the page and straight into your heart. You will feel in some minuscule way that you walked beside Beckett and Natalie, that you suffered with them. It's in the way Ms. Cole describes the small things that bring the book to life.  The number of times Natalie paces the hospital waiting room, the blend between reality and hallucination while Beckett struggles through addiction and sobriety.  The desperate beleif that 'your' child isn't falling apart, that everyone is is just making things up. The pain...for me it always comes back to the pain. It is in every corner of this book, even when there is happiness, the pain, regret, fear, it lingers.  

Saving Beck is a reminder that life is fragile and it only takes one moment to change it all.  What will we do with our moments?  How will we react to them and to others?  How do we change the current environment the has allowed opioid addiction to become an epidemic?  How will YOU look at the world differently now that Saving Beck has given you a small look into addition and the toll it takes on the addicted and their family. What is your truth and how willing are you to be honest about it?

Saving Beck is not a light read. It is emotional from the moment you start the dedication to well long after you close the back cover.  It's a book that will leave a little of it's pain in your heart, but I promise you that you need it there.  You need to see, to feel, to begin to understand so that when all is said and done maybe we can make a difference.

~ HAPPY (well....anyway) READING ~

     

 About Courtney Cole: Courtney Cole grew up in rural Kansas and now lives with her husband and kids in Florida, where she writes beneath palm trees and is still in love with the idea of magic and happily-ever-after. She is the author of Saving Beck.          

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Courtney Cole’s SAVING BECK – Review & Excerpt Tour Schedule:

July 18^th

★ Chiara's Book Blog ★ – Excerpt

Ramblings From This Chick – Excerpt

Suey Library – Review & Excerpt

July 19^th

Between The Lines – Review & Excerpt

Read Love Blog – Review & Excerpt

White Hot Reads – Review

July 20^th

Book Starlets – Review & Excerpt

Sinfully Wicked Book Reviews – Review & Excerpt

Whoo Gives A Hoot – Review

July 21^st

Catty Jane Book Lovers – Review & Excerpt

KDRBCK – Review & Excerpt

Reading Between the Wines Book Club – Excerpt

July 22^nd

Little Read Riding Hood – Review & Excerpt

Roxy's Reviews – Review

Simply Crystal – Review & Excerpt

July 23^rd

Brittany's Book Blog – Excerpt

Reads All the Books – Review & Excerpt

Two Books in a shelf – Review & Excerpt

July 24^th

All Things Dark & Dirty – Excerpt

Vagabonda Reads – Review & Excerpt

Written In Red Book Blog – Review

July 25^th

Book Sniffers Anonymous – Excerpt

Evermore Books – Review & Excerpt

Liezel and Angie’s Book Blog – Review

July 26^th

Becca the Bibliophile – Review & Excerpt

Just Me & My Kindle – Excerpt

Margaux – Review & Excerpt

What Is That Book About – Excerpt

July 27^th

A Literary Perusal – Review & Excerpt

Book Bitches Blog – Excerpt

Nose Stuck In A Book – Review & Excerpt

July 28^th

Audio Killed the Bookmark – Review

Books, Booze, & Brunch – Review & Excerpt

M&J's Book Blog – Review & Excerpt

Shakespeare's Wench Book Blog – Review

 

Saving Beck by Courtney Cole - Teaser Reveal

   

Reminiscent of the beloved novels by Mary Kubica and Jodi Picoult comes a chilling portrayal of a son’s addiction and its harrowing effects on both him and his mother from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole.

SAVING BECK releases July 17, 2018. Check out the teaser below, and pre-order your copy of SAVING BECK today!

   

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ Kindle ~ Nook ~ Barnes&Noble ~ iBooks ~ B-A-M ~ Kobo ~ IndieBound ~ Audible

Book Description:

There comes a time when offering your life for your child’s doesn’t work, when you realize that it’ll never be enough.

The cold needle in his warm vein was a welcome comfort to my son at first. But then it became the monster that kept us apart.

Heroin lied, and my son believed. It took him to a world where the last year didn’t happen, to a place where his father was still alive. What Beck didn’t understand was that it couldn’t bring his father back from the dead. It couldn’t take away his pain, not permanently.

You think it can’t happen to you, that your kids, your family, will never be in this situation.  I thought that too. But you’re wrong.

Step into our world, and see for yourself.  Watch my golden boy become a slave to this raging epidemic. Watch me try and save him.

Drug addiction comes with a price.  Trust me, you’re not equipped to pay it.

Don’t miss this heart wrenching, evocative, yet hopeful novel—it will leave you forever changed.

     

  

About Courtney Cole: Courtney Cole grew up in rural Kansas and now lives with her husband and kids in Florida, where she writes beneath palm trees and is still in love with the idea of magic and happily-ever-after. She is the author of Saving Beck.        

Website ~ Twitter ~ 

Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads

 

The Wright Mistake by K.A. Linde - Review

 

     

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Author: K.A. Linde

Publication Date:  8 August 2017

Publisher:  Self-Published

Series:  Wright, book 3

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Age Recommendation: 17 and up

Rating: 4 Stars

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

Book Description:

A new stand alone enemies-to-lovers romance by USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde...

I spent six weeks screwing Austin Wright’s brains out and all I got was this broken heart.

He can’t be trusted. Not with my body or my heart. Yet, two years have passed and I still crave him like an addict needing a fix.

The last time we tried this, it nearly ruined me. I know I should run and never look back. But his dark haunted eyes and razor blade smile speak to my soul. His touch sets my body on fire. And we all know what happens when you light gasoline. Someone is bound to get burned.

A second chance might destroy us both.

Because everyone knows two wrongs don’t make a Wright.

   

   

My Review:

If you have read any of the other books in the Wright series you have been waiting for this book, you have also known that this book would be an emotional one that would take it's toll on your wine or tea socks and your tissue boxes.  I have to say even though I was prepared I was still not prepared enough.  The emotions that come out of this book are palatable, they're ugly, they're hard.  Yes, The Wright Mistake has all the laughter and romance you expect from this series, but it has some truly difficult moments too and not just for our hero who is more lost little boy than man, (emotionally anyway) for a good part of this story, but for the entire Wright clan.  

"Not caring about someone would mean forgetting them, and we both know that neither of us are forgettable."

"I wish I could forget you."

The Wright Mistake is an almost second chance romance.  It is but the couple had only been together six weeks previously and while they're relationship was explosive during that time to call it a true second chance romance doesn't seem quite right.  Their earlier time together was based on lust and mutual attraction, when these two comeback together it's a story of discovery and healing.  Julia absolutely got her heart broken the first time around but that was based more on the idea of the relationship, on what was hoped for instead of what was really there so in that sense I just want to shout out RE-DO and almost forget that they had that first six weeks.  

I really enjoyed these two characters individually and together.  I loved Julia's spirit and tenacity.  I adored Austin for his soul. A soul that is broken and abused but that shines through with love for his family even while he tries to dim it through his addiction.  Austin is a functioning alcoholic who is clearly depressed and lost.  He craves love and has a need to punish himself for things the world that he can't control.  It was clear to me that through every thing men his denial he is crying out for someone to pick him up and make him okay.  I have been quite sad while we waited to get to his book watching his family, knowing they saw his problems and chose to essentially ignore them.  While I love that he ultimately worked things out on his own, and that they stood with him ( I always knew they would) I wish they had been more forceful in trying to get him to that point sooner.  Perhaps that is my naivety however because as we all know the addict has to want to help themselves if anything is going to be accomplished successfully.  

Together Julia and Austin are fire and ice.  They burn of the pages, but until they can come together in honesty and understanding their moments of scorching heat are quickly doused with the cold reality of mistrust and secrets.  

I will say that this one, The Wright Mistake, is my favorite so far in this series and I know that leaves you scratching your head at my 4 star rating.  There is a reason for that and one I can't get into deeply due to spoilers.  I will say that something occurs in this book that I am unsure was necessary.  Now that's easy for me to say as the reader, I get that.  As the author this was the direction K.A. Linde's characters took her, this is what they spoke, but it saddened me, (in an already very sad book) even seeing it coming from a mile away when a new introduction was made. There was only one thing that could happen but I wish it hadn't.  I wish the characters could have been happy where they were, that we could have been happy.  I......ugh, I have so much to say about this one thing that sort of drowns out everything else for me in the story and yet I can't really say any of it.  So what I will say is go read this book then come back here and talk to me.  Let me know what you think, I see this as a great future debate and there will be a lot of conflicting emotions on that particular portion of the story.  \

I loved Austin and Julia's story.  It will an emotional and thought provoking journey.  We know the Wright's aren't perfect but Austin's story will open our eyes to exactly how flawed and how, human this family really is.  Sure they are all hot, sexy, rich, fabulous book boyfriends and girlfriends but they are just 'humans' looking for the same thing every human wants, love, family, friendship.  It's wonderful to watch them get it while overcoming histories, challenges, and heartaches.  

I would not call this book a stand-alone even though I don't feel like you would be lost if this is the first one you pick up in the series.  I say it isn't a stand-alone because I think you need to see Austin for who he is fully and you can only get that by seeing him in his brother's stories.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this entire series to date and if you are a contemporary romance fan this series should be at the top of your TBR pile.  You will not regret shoving some others down a bit lower to make room for the Wright series!  

~ HAPPY READING ~ 

    

  

K.A. Linde is the USA Today bestselling author of more than fifteen novels including the Avoiding series and the Record series. She has a Masters degree in political science from the University of Georgia, was the head campaign worker for the 2012 presidential campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as the head coach of the Duke University dance team. She loves reading fantasy novels, geeking out over Star Wars, binge-watching Supernatural, and dancing in her spare time. She currently lives in Lubbock, Texas, with her husband and two super adorable puppies.

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