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Synopsis:
Counting Stars is an emotionally charged romance about love and loss – and learning to live after everything you’ve lived for has died.
I was with him for six years. Derek was my life, my future, and my dream come true. We had it all – the house, the cars, rings on our fingers, and we were even discussing a baby. Derek was my high school sweetheart, my lover, and my best friend.
Derek is dead.
At only twenty-two years old I am a widow. I’ve spent the last year of my life filtering through self-help books – searching for a way to heal the remnants of my heart.
I am broken.
It is my incessant searching that leads me to booking a month long trip with The Donnelley’s Wild Land Tour’s. I was supposed to tour with Gracie – but she is incapacitated and she’s left me in Logan’s care. If I could, I would turn and walk away from this tour. But I can’t. This is my last chance at learning to live again.
Logan doesn’t know I’m broken. When he looks at me, I feel strong again. I feel alive. He pushes me to learn new things, to experience new ways, and to fight. Logan, in all his bluntness has taught me to fight for what I want and what I believe in. I don’t know how it happened, but Logan picked up the pieces of my heart and helped me to rebuild it. In him, I’ve found acceptance in the hardest thing I had to face.
We all have a path, and for me, my path has been beautifully painful. I was fated; both blessed and cursed, to love two men with the entirety of my heart. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a day, because the pain of the lost life I had with Derek led me to the beautiful present I cherish with Logan.
***This novel does NOT end in a cliffhanger. It is a heartwarming romance for everyone who loves a happy ending. This is the first of four novels – each novel will feature a different Donnelley Brother. This can be read as a stand-alone!
DeAnna's Review:
**5 Stars**
How sweet is this book!! This is the second book I have read from this author. I was so excited when she asked me to read an advance copy! Her stories are always so powerful and emotional. I seriously stayed up all night to finish this one.
Twenty-three year old, Reese James had her life mapped out until an unexpected tragedy completely changed everything. Almost a year later, she’s ready to move on, but is not really sure what she wants to do with her life now. She had been eyeing this ad, for Wild Land Tours, online for a about two weeks before she decided to respond to it and eventually sign up for. Reese is ready to figure out who she is now and hopefully create a new plan for her life in the process and she thinks this adventure will be the perfect way to do it.
On this journey, Reese meets thirty-one year old, Logan Donnelly. Unaware at the time, she will be sharing her month long trip with him. Reese is not very fond of Logan when they first meet. He’s rude and obnoxious towards her, but what she doesn’t know is that deep down he is hiding a whole lot of hurt as well. So how is this month long trip going to play out for them? Can they help lead each other on the path of healing or will they come back even more damaged?
This was another stunning, realistic story from Alannah. I love how relatable her characters are. It was so easy to feel the sadness Reese was feeling every time she spoke or when we were reading her thoughts. Whenever Logan spoke, you could always hear the underlying sadness in his words. Logan and Reese had an immediate connection which allowed them to trust each other and be honest with each other about the things that have happened to them and brought them to where they are. It was seriously so beautiful to watch them help to heal each other. I wasn’t sure which way this book was going to go, as far as what was going to develop between the two. I’m so glad it went the way a different way than I was expecting. Logan turned out to be an amazing character! Nothing like you’ve read in so many of the hugely popular romance novels. He was realistic all around.
Alannah is a hidden gem in the author world. Readers don’t know what they are missing. I’m highly recommending this book and, as always, looking forward to more from this author!
About the Author:
I live in Alberta, Canada, where the weather is forever changing (without warning). I am engaged to be married in August 2015 to my high school sweetheart and love of my life. There are no children in my life as of right now, but we do have a handful of rambunctious cats (four) and a testy, rescued Shepard/Husky, who take up a lot of my time.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve adored the written word. English was always my favorite class and that may be biased because I can’t count to save my life, so math was a horror! I remember the very first novel I ever read, Shocking Pink by Erica Spindler. It was the most interesting of the covers on my mom’s bookshelf (probably because it was pink) and I was way too young to be reading that novel. But I fell in love. From there, I read almost everything from V.C. Andrews.
My writing started out as poetry, which then evolved to songs, and later into novels. I was never one for the short stories as I found it too difficult to pack everything I imagined into something so small. I now have fourteen novels published independently. I write both novels for young adults and novels for adults – all romance.
Despite my favorite younger reading material, I now adore writing and reading all things romance.
Author Links:
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAlannahCarbonneau
TWITTER: @Alannahbooks
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6964910.Alannah_Carbonneau
WEBSITE: www.alannahcarbonneau.com
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