Ellesea Loves Reading: 07/13/15

Monday, 13 July 2015

Review: Discovering Delilah by Melissa Foster

Discovering Delilah
Harborside Nights # 2

By: Melissa Foster

Releasing July 9th, 2015

World Literary Press

Discovering Delilah

Harborside Nights Series

In DISCOVERING DELILAH…

After the death of her parents on the day of her college graduation, Delilah Armstrong thought she could finally follow her heart and come out to her closest friends, but the guilt of going against her parents’ beliefs haunts her. The feelings she has for her best friend, Ashley, are stronger than anything she’s felt before, but Delilah has never even kissed a girl, and fear stops her at every turn.

Ashley Carver promised herself that she would never again date another girl who wasn’t out, but that was before she met intoxicatingly sweet and sexy Delilah.

When another girl offers to teach Delilah the ropes, it changes Delilah’s whole world and gives her the courage to go after the only girl she really wants. But coming out isn’t as easy as Delilah imagined, and moving past her parents’ death and the feelings of guilt she is left with is even harder. The intense passion between Ashley and Delilah is too strong to deny, but coming together means risking everything.

Discovering Delilah is an edgy, evocative, romantic story of friendship, family, and the courage to love.

After reading Catching Cassidy, the standout character besides the protagonists was Delilah Armstrong, so Discovering Delilah is an eagerly anticipated second book in the Harborside Nights series for myself.

All throughout her teens and college, Delilah has been living a lie. Being brought up by conservative minded parents she's been unable to live her life as she sees fit, so had concealed her sexuality to them. After finding the strength to come out to her parents just before her college graduation, she is left devastated by their tragic death less than twenty-four hours later, leaving her reeling in despair. With the support from her brother Wyatt, the two of them relocate to Harborside where their parents surprisingly ran and owned the Taproom in this small liberal-minded community. A perfect place to start living life again?

When her new friend reveals that she has feeling for her, Ashley can't believe her luck. Their close friendship already means so much to her and wants their relationship to be so much more. However, Ashley's had her heart broken once before and is wary about getting involved with someone who hasn't “come-out.” Ashley want to be open about her feelings and not have them hidden away. Will she change her mind?

The author has done a fabulous job of making the the reader “feel” all the angst, tension and emotion felt by Delilah as she not only comes to terms with her parents' death but her sexuality too. Some of this was covered in the first book in the series and I do think that the reader will gain an even better understanding of the depth of Delilah's inhibitions and issues by reading Catching Cassidy first.

Then we have Ashley's perspective too! She's comfortable living as a lesbian and has a supportive family behind her. Her concerns are relationship related, she's experienced and understandably hurt when Delilah turns to someone else for help. Delilah knows she isn't attracted to men, but has never actively pursued her feelings towards women. In her inexperienced eyes the reason is genuine, but hurtful to the woman who has her heart. Watching Delilah break out of her shell and gain confidence is both heartbreaking and heartwarming as these two beautiful women work through their individual concerns to tentatively build a loving relationship.

This is the first F/F novel I have read, although I've previously enjoyed M/M books, especially when they are as beautifully written as this one. I'm loving this Harborside Nights series so far as the plots are edgier than Melissa's other book series'. I'm looking forward to reading more about the lives of other Harborside residents in the future.

4.5 stars

***arc generously received in exchange for an honest review***

Link to Follow Tour: Here

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Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes contemporary romance, new adult, contemporary women’s fiction, suspense, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Her books have been recommended by USA Today’s book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the World Literary Café and Fostering Success. When she’s not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success. Melissa has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine.

Melissa hosts an Aspiring Authors contest for children and has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Melissa lives in Maryland with her family.

Visit Melissa on social media. Melissa enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups, and welcomes an invitation to your event.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Spotlight and Excerpt: Loving Ean by Elle Christensen

Laila
All of my life, I dreamt of my own fairy tale romance.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my soul mate was a lifelong friend.
Ean is everything I want and everything I need.
But, my romance has become a fractured fairy tale.
Ean has pulled away and let his pain engulf him, leaving no room for me.
I want to heal him and bring him back to me.
But, if he won’t let me, I will move on.
I will find another destiny.

Ean
Laila is the best part of me, the light in my soul.
She is my destiny.
I want to give her all that I am, all that I have.
But, the guilt and pain from my mistake has ruined me
I am not worthy of her and I will not drag her down into my Hell.
My love for her is forever.
But, she deserves some one who isn’t broken
So, I’ll watch her walk away, into the arms of another.

*Recommended for ages 18+ due to language and sexual content

If Taran wants to square off with me, I’ve got no objection. I was raised to respect women and I would never hit one, but this is no woman. She’s pure evil with tits. I’ve got no problem beating the shit out of that. I feel the revulsion building inside me, I want to make her pay for what she has taken from me and the fate she has doomed Rònan to. Off to my right, I hear a grunt and then see Elden’s guy go flying into a tree trunk so hard it cracks. He’s not unconscious though and he gets up just as Elden reaches him and lands a straight punch to his sternum. Ouch. Then he grabs him around the neck into a choke hold and compressing his jugular to disrupt blood flow until he passes out. When Elden releases him, he falls in a heap onto the dewy grass.
Douche number two down.

Focusing back one hundred percent of Taran, I decide to move this along, it’s getting tedious. A tree branch elongates behind her and then a little wind whips it across her backside. Yeah, that’s going to leave a nasty mark. She screams in pain and anger, her knees almost buckling. Her eyes are wild now and exactly what I was hoping for. She’s going to lose her control and get careless. Then of course, there is the rising sun that is high enough in the sky to be flooding most of the clearing with light.

Her eyes flicker to the pond behind me but she won’t find a solution there. The water is too hot for her to use and wind would only dilute the steam before it reaches me. I’m practically sneering at her when I pull apart some of the roots and branches making an opening for her to see the boiling water, bubbling and popping. Stop being a cocky asshole. I see no reason to listen to Jiminy Cricket. Instead, I decide to taunt her a little more, “Taran, you’re out of your mind if you think you can get the best of me. Besides, I’m getting bored, so would you mind telling me what the point of all of this is? It’s not like I can redeem Rònan and take him away from you.”

She growls in frustration and takes a step closer to me, but I stand firm, refusing to give her an inch. The wild look in her eyes has officially crossed into psychotic territory and when she whips out a jagged knife, I fight not to roll my eyes. The handle is metal. I can manipulate elements to create heat. Put it together and what do you get? Sweeny Todd is about to get schooled.

The molecules surrounding the metal move faster and heat up, in turn warming the knife to a point where it begins to sear her skin. Fae don’t do well with metals because of their ability to heat it. It’s yet another thing that humans have built upon until folklore stated that the iron is fatal to the fae. What bullshit.

Loving Ean

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Protecting Shaylee

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I’m a lover of all things books, a hopeless romantic, and have always had a passion for writing. Between being a sappy romantic, my love of an HEA, my crazy imagination, and ok, let’s be real, my dirty mind, I fell easily into writing romance.

I’m a huge baseball fan and yet, a complete girly, girl. I’m an obsessive reader and have a slight (hahaha! Slight? Yeah, right) addiction to signed books.

I’m married to my very own book boyfriend, an alpha male with a sexy, sweet side. He is the best inspiration, my biggest supporter, and the love of my life. He is also incredibly patient and understanding about the fact that he has to fight the voices in my head for my attention.

I hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Links:

www.ellechristensenauthor.com

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorElleChristensen

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https://twitter.com/AuthorElleC

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10228232.Elle_Christensen

https://instagram.com/authorellec/

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