BLOG TOUR: The Last Hour by Charles Sheehan-Miles

 

Title: The Last Hour (Thompson Sisters)

Author:  Charles Sheehan-Miles

Release date: April 19, 2013

Age Group: Adult

Genre: Contemporary

Tour organized by: AToMR Tours

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble

Book Description

Twenty-seven year old Carrie Thompson-Sherman has the life she always wanted: her PhD, a prestigious fellowship, and an amazing husband.

Her life begins to unravel as a jealous colleague puts her fellowship in jeopardy and a haunting secret Ray Sherman carried home from Afghanistan comes to light.

Hounded by a federal investigation and the ensuing media feeding frenzy, Carrie and Ray desperately lean on each other, until a disastrous accident puts both Ray and her sister's lives at risk.

In the last hour, Carrie and Ray will each find themselves faced with a choice.

A choice that will change everything.

Rating:   

My POV

Move over Nicolas Sparks! This book was so moving and heartbreaking and beautiful. I can't even count how many times I cried for these characters. I cried for their love of each other, their love of their friends and siblings, their situations and the extremely difficult decisions they both have to make.

Carrie Thompson has a pretty good life. She has a great career, a wonderful mentor, and a financially stabled life. But, what she is missing is someone to share her life with. This is not such a big deal to her since she is working so hard on her career but she finally takes notice once she meets Ray Sherman.

Sergeant Ray Sherman is back in the US after serving a horrific tour in Afghanistan. As luck would have it he meets Carrie by way of Dylan, a fellow soldier he toured with. He has no immediate plans for the future since he just got back and may be called up for a situation that happened over seas but he never thought love was in the cards for him. Meeting Carrie has been more than what he ever expected and even though he knows it’s not the right time he can’t help but follow his heart.

As lies, accusations, and tragedy make their lives a living hell Ray has second thoughts about staying together because of how his situation is effecting their relationship. Carrie on the other hand is not giving up a chance at true love not matter what it cost her. These two face down many life altering obstacles and it seems that they may have dodged all their bullets until the accident.

I LOVED these two main characters. They both deserved so much happiness for all that they have been put through. And you know what drove me nuts most in this book. The anticipation. The hope. The praying that everything will turn out ok. Hoping that they get their happily ever after. Because they both deserved it.

Highly emotional, devastating but wonderful. Hopeful and loving. This book will rip your heart out. Gawd just thinking back while writing this review makes me weepy. This is the best book of the series yet and I can't wait to see what the other sisters up to.

Other Books in the Series

 My Recommended Reading Order and Review Links
A Song For Julia
Just Remember To Breathe
The Last Hour
Please keep in mind that this series really does not have a reading order and each book can be read as a stand alone but after reading these books I have come the conclusion that I would have been better informed about the all the characters in this series if I would have reading the books in the order above.

About the Author

Charles Sheehan-Miles has been a soldier, computer programmer, short-order cook and non-profit executive. He is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, including the indie bestsellers Just Remember to Breathe and Republic: A Novel of America's Future.

Charles Sheehan-Miles | Facebook | Twitter

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BOOK BLAST: Overexposed by Adrianne James + GIVEAWAY!

Overexposed by Adrianne James

Young Adult

May 24th 2013 by Star Bound Books

In the tiny town of Willowspring, just about nothing ever happens except for layoffs, hockey games, and your average melodramatic teenage angst.

But that was before.

Vi, Ashley, and Macy are just trying to make it through the school year without one more humiliation when they team up for a simple photography assignment: create a story through a series of photographs. Can't be too much trouble, right?

Wrong.

The shutterbugs happen upon Willowspring High School's darkest secret. When everything around them starts to crumble after trying to do the right thing, their only hope is to stick together.

Buy links:  Amazon ~ Smashwords

When the door opened to the alley behind the rink, I realized two things. One, it was freaking colder outside than it was in the bleachers by the ice, and two, Brianna Jones (A.K.A Bra stuffer) was already out there.

The three of us walked out as if it was perfectly normal to be there but Brianna didn’t even notice us. We walked to the opposite side of the alley and huddled together. We hoped it would look like we were keeping warm, but we were trying to hide both the cameras.

Watching Brianna was rather dull. She was just standing there, talking on her cell phone and it wasn’t even anything remotely interesting. We took pictures anyway, because like Mr. Bennett said, you need the before, during, and after to tell a story with photographs.

“Look! She is checking that car’s doors! That isn’t her car, is it?” The quiet clicking of the shutters on our cameras was almost deafening to me. I swore each click was louder and louder as we watched Brianna try to break into a car.

Finally, the last door she tried, the back passenger side, was open. She slipped in and a second later, the dark car had a red glow inside. She climbed back out, shut the door, and walked over to the wall, smoking a stolen cigarette.

“She just broke into someone’s car for a cigarette? Seriously?” Ashley was just as flabbergasted as the rest of us. Why would anyone risk committing a crime for a smoke? “Oh! She is moving again!”

Click, click, click. I took more and more pictures. I hated that they were all from the same angle, but spys have to do what they have to do to keep from being caught, all the while still getting the images.

Brianna walked back to the car and put the cigarette out on the hood. Lucky for whoever owned it there was a layer of snow to put it out before it could burn the paint. Then she leaned over and used the mirror. She pursed her lips, showed her teeth to check those, then she lifted her head slightly.

“What is she doing?” I whispered.

“I’m not sure.” Macy said breaking away from the group. “I am going over there, different angle.” Before I could stop her, she had gone back across the alley to the other side. She was braver than I was. Ashley watched her closely before turning back to me.

“Let me take some. I promise I won’t hurt Jilly.” I knew I had to hand it over. I promised her she could use it. Even knowing that, it didn’t make it any easier.

“Okay. Here.” I took the strap from around my neck and quickly placed it around hers. The minute the fabric was firmly against her skin, she took off, too. “Ash, what are you doing?” I whisper yelled to her.

She just put a finger over her mouth to shush me and she got even closer to the car than Macy had. I figured that made me look out so I opened my eyes and ears and tried to make sure my best friends didn’t get caught.

I looked over my shoulder to check the door to make sure we were still alone when all of a sudden I heard a scream.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH! GIVE ME THAT CAMERA NOW!” When I turned back to see what was going on (although I was pretty sure that either Macy or Ashley had been caught by Brianna) I saw my girls running towards me, with Brianna not far behind.

“Run!” Ash and Macy yelled through giggles. I turned and headed to the door and held it open for them. As soon as they passed through I closed it and the three of us went straight out the front door and to Macy’s truck.

“What on earth just happened?” I asked when I caught my breath. Ashley handed Jilly back to me and I flipped it on. The minute I pressed the play images button I began to laugh. The first one was of Brianna screaming at the camera. I pressed the next button and then it was a picture of her finger in her mouth. The next one was a picture of her finger in her nose.

I died laughing. Brianna Jones was a booger eater. I bet her boyfriend would love to know that.

“Oh, Ashley, you are amazing!” Then the truck erupted in laughter and because Macy’s dad had given her a twenty to get food at the overly expensive rink, we headed to the diner for some hot cocoa and French fries for half the cost. Who said teenagers were irresponsible with money?

Growing up, Adrianne couldn't get her hands on enough books to satisfy her need for the make believe. If she finished a novel and didn't have a new one ready and waiting for her, she began to create her own tales of magic and wonder. Now, as an adult, books still make up majority of her free time, and now her tales get written down to be shared with the world.

During the day, Adrianne uses her camera to capture life's stories for clients of all ages and at night, after her two children are tucked in bed; she devotes herself to her written work. Adrianne is living the life she always wanted, surrounded by art and beauty, the written word and a loving family.

As a young adult and new adult author, Adrianne James has plans to bring stories of growing characters, a little romance, and perhaps a little magic and mythology down the line for her readers to enjoy.

Website † Facebook † Twitter † GoodReads

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My POV: Just Remeber To Breathe by Charles Sheehan-Miles

Paperback, 280 pages

Published November 12th 2012 by Cincinnatus Press

Alex Thompson’s life is following the script. A pre-law student at Columbia University, she’s focused on her grades, her life and her future. The last thing she needs is to reconnect with the boy who broke her heart.

Dylan Paris comes home from Afghanistan severely injured and knows that the one thing he cannot do is drag Alex into the mess he’s made of his life.

When Dylan and Alex are assigned to the same work study program and are forced to work side by side, they have to make new ground rules to keep from killing each other.

Only problem is, they keep breaking the rules.

The first rule is to never, ever talk about how they fell in love.

Rating:  

My POV

It is difficult to overcome your past and face your fears especially if you have seen the things Dylan Paris has on his tour in Afghanistan. Since getting back home and trying to get on with his life the one thing he really didn’t want to deal with right away was Alexandra Thompson.

Dylan is a wounded war vet back in the US. It’s not easy but he is meeting all his challenges head on in order to move forward and get better. His list of issues and challenges are: rehabbing his shredded leg, PTSD, mental blocks, overcoming his past and last but not least coming to terms with how he still feels about Alex. Now that he is back in the states he decides the best thing to do is to attend college and get his degree since he now has the mean to do it. As fate would have it he runs into Alexandra “Alex” his ex on the first day of class. As expected things are extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant.

Alexandra has always did the smart thing. Listen to her parents, never got into trouble, made good grades. Her parents always had a great deal of influence on her decisions but who he loved was something not even she could control. Falling for bad boy Dylan Paris at a seventeen was easy and natural and no one could have helped it. But no one could have prepared her for the heartache and pain of such strong love between such two different people.

Passionate. Emotional. Real. You could see from the very beginning that these two belonged together even if they weren’t from the same social class. At seventeen they had an innocent and wonderful love affair while attending an overseas school program for three months. Afraid of dealing with disappointment Dylan decides not to take their long distant relationship to the next level since they are now back home and feels it will be safer if they don’t take it too seriously.  But it’s too late for either of them. You can lie to yourself all you want but your heart knows the truth. Once after a fight he decides it is time for a major change and enlist in the Army. Once there they find a way to reconnect and keep in constant contact. He is sent off to war overseas and in one Skype conversations with her he sees something he will never forget. Instantly cutting all ties with her he is determine to forget about her. Soon after his unit is ambushed and he is forever damaged.  

Now that they have reconnected once again will either of them find it in their heart for forgive and forget or will their past mistake keep them from having a life together?

I love this series! The Thompson sisters are awesome, smart, beautiful and don’t take crap from anyone. I was so happy to read Alex’s story and can’t wait to read how the rest of the sister’s lives work out. Charles Sheehan-Miles has made it to my must read author list and I will definitely keep my eye out for more of his work.

Other Books in the Series

My Recommended Reading Order and Review Links

A Song For Julia

Just Remember To Breathe

The Last Hour

Please keep in mind that this series really does not have a reading order and each book can be read as a stand alone but after reading these books I have come the conclusion that I would have been better informed about the all the characters in this series if I would have reading the books in the order above.

About the Author

Charles Sheehan-Miles has been a soldier, computer programmer, short-order cook and non-profit executive. He is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, including the indie bestsellers Just Remember to Breathe and Republic: A Novel of America's Future.

Charles Sheehan-Miles | Facebook | Twitter