Ellesea Loves Reading: Blog Tour Stop: Anything More Than Now by Rebecca Paula

Monday 1 February 2016

Blog Tour Stop: Anything More Than Now by Rebecca Paula

Reagan Landry is months away from college graduation, but instead of excitement, she’s frozen by the fear of letting go — of her ex-boyfriend, of the comfortable life she created for herself in Portland, of the years-long search for her older sister who abandoned her as a homeless teen. When she’s finally forced to decide what’s next, Reagan is met with another complication — her ex’s best friend, Noah Burke, who seems determined that she embraces what could be instead of what has been.

Drunkenly hooking up with his best friend’s ex, Reagan, is a mistake, but being secretly in love with her is so much worse when things seem one-sided. A disenchanted frat boy about to fail out of college, Noah has been living out someone else’s dream after a horrible accident five years earlier. Just when he thinks he’s lost any chance he has with Reagan, she surprises him by agreeing to spend the summer together at his family’s ranch in Montana.

And suddenly what started out as a complication between them becomes serious...until the past starts ripping apart their future.

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Reagan

He rounds the table and sits beside me, reading over what I’ve underlined with my red pen. His thumb plays over the lip of his coffee cup, his brows drawn in focus. And again, I’m left questioning all my life decisions.

My face warms, and I shift in my seat. “Did you remember to bring the money?”

He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a folded envelope. My name is scribbled across the front. I fight back the urge to trace the long swoop to the capital R, giving my name more significance then it deserves.

“Poetry is language, Rea,” he continues, pulling me away from the money on the table. “That’s why you read it and it makes you feel something. Words and language I think are two different concepts. It’s why there are great poets and shitty ones. They can take the ordinary in this world and make it…”

I roll my eyes. So maybe he’s not a realist, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have pegged him as a romantic. “I’m a lit major and I think you just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.”

“That’s a first. Usually it’s my shoes.” I elbow him, and he laughs. “You don’t understand though, do you?”

“I get it just fine. But I’m talking about your paper. Your argument has nothing to do with what the actual mechanics of poetry mean to the modern reader.”

Noah thinks about what I said, tapping his pen over the tabletop to a jittery beat. When he doesn’t say anything, I take a sip of coffee and focus on reading his revised paper again. His hand stops mine as I circle back on a sentence, about to comment on his annoying habit of relying on dangling modifiers.

“Why did you decide on Portland?”

“I like the rain,” I admit without pause. It has something to do with the way he drops his voice to a husky whisper, how his thumb skims the back of my hand in a slow, burning sweep. It’s a move that shows interest, that shows he’s invested…it’s beyond a flirtatious touch. And if I’m honest, it leaves me with a knot in my stomach.

“Didn’t you grow up in Florida? It doesn’t rain there?”

I’ve decided that we’re really good at reading between the lines. I’ve also decided that when he looks at me—and I mean looks—wherever I go in my head to push people away crumbles. And then it’s just me and him, those burning eyes of his searching for an answer he trusts I have hidden away.

“It’s temporary there. Here it’s…”

He licks his lips, intent. “What? The rain’s like what here?”

I lean close, closer to him, closer to his mouth. “It’s promised. It’s a sure thing. And it lasts.”

“There’s your poetry, Rea.”

Rebecca writes smart, emotional New Adult and historical romances featuring flawed characters struggling to find their place in the world, from Paris to Portland. She’s a lover of rainy days, an unabashed anglophile, and a devote Earl Grey tea drinker. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their very spoiled cat, Bella. A wanderlust connoisseur, Rebecca can be caught daydreaming about her next travel adventure when not writing.
She is the author of EVERLY AFTER, BETWEEN EVERYTHING AND US, and the upcoming releases ETIQUETTE WITH THE DEVIL, A PROPER SCANDAL, and ANYTHING MORE THAN NOW.

Rebecca loves hearing from readers and writers. You can follow her on Twitter @beckapaula or find out more about her and her books at www.rebeccapaula.com.