Blog Tour – When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal (Author Guest Post)

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whenwebelievedinmermaids

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Published: July 16, 2019

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Genre(s): Women’s Fiction

Format: Paperback: 352 pages

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Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

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From the author of The Art of Inheriting Secrets comes an emotional new tale of two sisters, an ocean of lies, and a search for the truth.

Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news…

Josie Bianci was killed years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a few heart-wrenching seconds to upend Kit’s world. Live coverage of a club fire in Auckland has captured the image of a woman stumbling through the smoke and debris. Her resemblance to Josie is unbelievable. And unmistakable. With it comes a flood of emotions—grief, loss, and anger—that Kit finally has a chance to put to rest: by finding the sister who’s been living a lie.

After arriving in New Zealand, Kit begins her journey with the memories of the past: of days spent on the beach with Josie. Of a lost teenage boy who’d become part of their family. And of a trauma that has haunted Kit and Josie their entire lives.

Now, if two sisters are to reunite, it can only be by unearthing long-buried secrets and facing a devastating truth that has kept them apart far too long. To regain their relationship, they may have to lose everything.

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How far would you go to change your life?  

I’ve always been fascinated by the ways people deal with trauma and change.  It’s a cornerstone in nearly all of my books—who gets through trauma? How do they do it?

I once met a woman who had discovered that her husband was having an affair with a secretary in his office. She marched into the office, met the woman face to face, and kissed her.  “I just wanted you to know what I tasted like,” she said.

The thing is, it had been ten years since that moment. She was long divorced and sitting with a man who clearly adored her, but she had never really left the past behind. She was still stuck there.

How do you really leave the past behind?  How do you escape a life you’re mired in? A life that doesn’t serve you?  A life that will almost certainly kill you?

That’s the central question in new book, When We Believed in Mermaids.  Sisters Kit and Josie have lived through a sometimes idyllic, sometimes horrific childhood, and each of them have to find ways to make a life after they’ve lost everything.  Kit devotes herself to her studies and to surfing with a goal of becoming an ER doctor.  Josie…takes a different route.  One seems like the right answer, and the other is shocking, but what does it really take to make a new self?  To start a new life?

I hope you’ll surf along with Kit and Josie on the beaches outside of Santa Cruz and Auckland, as they twirl with their dog on the sand and learn each other’s secrets after decades of silence.  It was a book I loved writing and offer to you with so much love.

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barbaraoneal.jpgBarbara O’Neal is the author of twelve novels of women’s fiction, including The Art of Inheriting SecretsHow to Bake a Perfect Life, and The All You Can Dream Buffet. Her award-winning books have been published in more than a dozen countries, including France, England, Poland, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Brazil. She lives in the beautiful city of Colorado Springs with her beloved, a British endurance athlete who vows he’ll never lose his accent.

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Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Instagram Tour

Thursday, August 1st: @hothanjama

Friday, August 2nd: @girlsinbooks

Friday, August 2nd: @readingbetweenthe_wines

Saturday, August 3rd: @readwithjamie

Saturday, August 3rd: @_ebl_inc_

Sunday, August 4th: @my_book_journey_

Monday, August 5th: @pieladybooks

Tuesday, August 6th: @dropandgivemenerdy

Tuesday, August 6th: @mermaid_ginger

Wednesday, August 7th: @jessicamap

Thursday, August 8th: @kimberleewilliams_realestate

Thursday, August 8th: @booktimistic

Friday, August 9th: @jennblogsbooks

Saturday, August 10th: @wherethereadergrows

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Review Tour

Monday, July 15th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Monday, July 15th: @simplykelina

Tuesday, July 16th: Kendra Loves Books

Wednesday, July 17th: Reading Reality

Thursday, July 18th: Literary Quicksand

Monday, July 22nd: Palmer’s Page Turners

Tuesday, July 23rd: Erica Robyn Reads

Thursday, July 25th: Jathan & Heather

Friday, July 26th: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Monday, July 29th: Sincerely Karen Jo – author guest post

Wednesday, July 31st: Cheryl’s Book Nook and @beastreader

Thursday, August 1st: Amy’s Book-et List

Friday, August 2nd: Not in Jersey

Friday, August 2nd: Lori’s Reading Corner – author guest post

Monday, August 5th: Broken Teepee

Wednesday, August 7th: Girl Who Reads

Thursday, August 8th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Friday, August 9th: Kahakai Kitchen

Monday, August 12th: Openly Bookish

Tuesday, August 13th: Treestand Book Reviews

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Thanks for stopping by loves! Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to add this book on your TBR and follow the rest of the tour.

sincerelykjologo

Blog Tour – Defying Gravity by K.K Allen

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Their greatest risk was the one they never took …

Defying Gravity, an all-new emotional sports romance from USA Today bestselling author K.K. Allen is available now!

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It was an accidental spring fling three years ago—one week spent in the mountains of Big Sur and no one was the wiser. Ignore the fact that Tobias James was my neighbor and my best friend’s older brother. Or that upon our return his hoop dreams were waiting for him, robbing us of any potential future we could have shared.

Now, I’m fulfilling my own dreams in L.A. and my biggest dream of all is about to come true. The last thing I expected was for my past and my present to collide.

Not now. Not here. Not him.

But he struts back into my life like he never even left. Unfortunately, I’ll never forget what happened after he did.

The ball is in my court, but Tobias isn’t below stealing—my power, my resolve, my heart… When he wants a second chance to reignite our connection, my answer is simple. We can’t.

Not unless we defy the rules our dreams were built on and risk everything.

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Defying Gravity - AN

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Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2SxkXDg

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/DefyingGravityKK

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Download the FREE prequel, Falling from Gravity, today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LYORiC

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/FallingfromGravity

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“Where can we find the best view in Los Angeles?”

I had to think about that one. Every trail I’d hiked in the area ended with a gorgeous view, but I didn’t think a hike was what he’d had in mind. That gave me an idea. “Griffith Observatory has some nice views. Not sure how parking is this time of night.” I was still thinking. “Or there’s always Canyon Lake Drive.”

The look he gave me next wrapped a string around my heart and tugged gently. “Somewhere you haven’t been with a dude.”

Forcing back my smile, I grabbed his phone. “Drive. I’ll program the directions so I can enjoy the ride.”

I tried to ignore the pleased look on his face when I blushed at his request, but it was almost impossible to ignore him when I handed back his phone and my fingers accidentally brushed his. Our eyes connected on a beat, the electricity so charged between us that I felt the vibration throughout my body.

We rode the rest of the way in silence, like we both knew the conversation to come was a big one. Besides that, neither of us was a fan of small talk. Maybe that was why we’d always gotten along so well. We preferred hours of comfortable silence to awkward conversation. It made each moment we were together meaningful.

“Almost there,” he said once we were on Western Canyon Drive. “Where should I park?”

“You’ll keep going up the hill. Park on West Observatory Road. You’ll see the line of cars. I usually find a spot up close, but—” I made a face as I looked around his truck. “My car is three times smaller than this.” I grinned at him. “You might want to park about a half mile away.”

He chuckled. I didn’t understand why until he continued driving past where I recommended and almost reached the top of the hill, when he slowed. Just then, like fucking magic, a large truck was pulling out of a parallel parking spot, leaving it vacant.

“You are kidding me.”

He laughed again and parked with ease. Growing up in Malibu didn’t give us many opportunities for parallel parking, but I was certain he’d had his fair share of chances to get it right in Chicago.

I hopped out of the truck just as he made it to my side. “So impatient to hang out with me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Keep dreaming, James.”

He rolled his head back, grinning. “You realize there are women out there dreaming about a night just like this, right?”

I hoped he could feel the heat of my glare. “You don’t say.”

His lips pressed together like he was biting back a smile, then he took my hand in his and tugged me forward. “Let’s move. We have to make it before sunset.”

This time, silence didn’t fill our gaps. It dissipated with the first view we encountered before ever reaching the observatory.

“Wow.” I tugged away from him and walked to the balcony of the outlook.

As I stared out over trees and rock mountains, I had an epiphany. Taking Tobias here conveyed an unspoken promise that I’d never shared the same space with another man. I hadn’t even questioned the intimacy of what that meant, because it felt natural, just like everything with Tobias, even when the world was trying to pull us apart.

My choice had always been Tobias, even when he wasn’t around for me to choose. My heart still belonged to him.

A breeze whooshed by, tossing my hair. I breathed into the wind as it continued to beat against me, like the week hadn’t been enough for me to endure. And then strong arms wrapped around me from behind as my insides softened to putty. It had been only a week of knowing Tobias was back in town to stay, and I already knew I was in trouble.

Neither of us dared a word as he held me there, the hills of LA a beautiful sight before us, but it was his touch, his breath, his nearness that stole my focus. We’d never even made it to the observatory, but I knew what his mission was in wanting to take me somewhere with a view.

It was reminiscent of the one we’d shared in Big Sur, and I couldn’t ignore the rush of those memories that surfaced in the moment.

We stood in silence for a long time while Tobias held all of me—physically, emotionally, and metaphorically. His presence grounded me in a way that only my soul could feel. He owned me. All it took was the admission, and for the first time in a very long time, I felt at peace.

Once upon a time, Tobias had called me his moon. His rock. His strength. The one he reached for when the waters got rough. As risky as it was to admit it, I still wanted that to be true.

“Should we keep going?”

I knew Tobias was referring to the observatory, but my response was to a different interpretation of the question.

“Yes.”

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abouttheauthor

K.K. Allen is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author and interdisciplinary arts and sciences graduate from the University of Washington who writes heartfelt contemporary romance stories that are as real as they are inspiring. K.K. is a Hawaiian girl who was raised in Seattle, and currently resides in central Florida. She works full time as a digital producer for a leading online educational institution and is the mother to a ridiculously handsome little dude who owns her heart.

K.K.’s publishing journey began in June 2014 with the YA Contemporary Fantasy trilogy, The Summer Solstice. In 2016, K.K. published her first Contemporary Romance, Up in the Treehouse, which went on to win the Romantic Times 2016 Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best New Adult Book of the Year. With K.K.’s love for inspirational and coming-of-age stories involving heartfelt narratives and honest emotions, you can be assured to always be surprised by what K.K. releases next.

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Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IcBh8V

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkkallen/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KKAllen_Author

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kkallen_author/

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2KNgUkz

BookBub: http://bit.ly/2X9wbm5

Website: http://www.kk-allen.com/

Stay up to date with K.K. by joining her mailing list: http://bit.ly/2J4ixcq

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sincerelykjologo