We are thrilled to celebrate the Release Day of Elizabeth Lee's New Adult Romantic Suspense novel WHERE THERE'S SMOKE!!! You don't want to miss it!
About WHERE THERE’S SMOKE:
There is something to be said for letting go. Ryland Roberts knows that better than anyone. He'd let go of his ambitions, of his family and—most of all—of her. He'd perfected the art of putting his past behind him and accepted the fact that the town he wanted to leave in his rearview was the place where he was going to live out his days. But sometimes the past doesn't just go away. Sometimes it comes back to haunt you.
Piper Jameson convinced herself that she left for all the right reasons. She'd saved people by leaving—made sure that they weren't tainted by her rebellious ways. When her little sister asks her to come home and say goodbye to their ailing mother, she's forced to see that things aren't always as they seem. The people who she'd left behind might not have been saved at all.
In the amount of time it takes a bullet to travel from point A to point B, Piper and Ryland will have to put their feelings for each other aside and make a choice. Forced on the run with Piper's sister, they begin to understand that the future they thought was gone was never really lost.
Globug's Review
I remember my first love in high-school being a fierce love. But I also remember my feelings of insecurity being just as strong. I think that's why I relate to Piper Jameson.
In high school Piper had a reputation of being a trouble maker. Ryland saw more. He was drawn to her from the moment he laid eyes on her. Piper never expected to amount to much. Having a verbally abusive and controlling step father only made her feelings of inadequacy worse. Not to mention he practically ran the small town as Chief of police. There was no way she could ever imagine being what Ryland needed.
Ryland was smart and driven. He had dreams of college and a career. It didn't take long after he started spending time with Piper to help with her homework for him to realize his dreams had to include Piper. It didn't matter that the small town wouldn't understand their relationship. In one night they made promises of love and of a future together and then lost it all.
It's true that people find it easier to believe the awful things others will say about you over the good. That was Piper's biggest mistake. Thinking the people she loved would be better off without her, her step father runs her out of town. Unfortunately it's what leads to the people she loves the most being hurt beyond her worst nightmare.
After six years Piper returns home to say goodbye to her ailing mother only to find her first love never got to follow his dreams because he was trying to save her and her sister is hiding a dark secret. Though her step father gets what he deserves, Piper and Ryland have a lot to overcome before they can consider a future together. Piper still struggles with her self worth. Ryland is everything a girl could hope to find in a man. He loves Piper so completely but after being hurt so badly when she left town he has doubts about her feelings for him. They also make her sister Hadley's safety their first priority.
These two are constantly trying to put the other person first. They prove their love for one another over and over throughout the story. In the end they are finally able to put their love first and a happy ending is just the beginning of a dream future together. There's still so much of the story about Piper's little sister that will put cracks in your heart. I'm hoping in the next book titled There's Fire that Hadley will find what she needs to heal the cracks in her heart.
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE Excerpt:
I stretched my arm
out and placed a hand on the cool concrete, the grit and dirt sticking to my
palm. Such a contrast to the warmth I felt with
Ryland firmly pressed up against me. The curves of my backside fit perfectly
against his long, lean frame, our skin heating up the chill around
us.
The fall weather had descended
upon our small Midwestern town almost overnight. It seemed like only a week or
two ago we had been wearing shorts and flip-flops. Now it was jeans and
jackets. Well, actually, now it was nothing.
I felt my cheeks heat as I
thought about what we had just done. I wasn't embarrassed. Far from it. In
fact, I'd never felt more sure about anything in my entire life as I was about
what had just happened with Ry.
“That was incredible,” he
whispered against my neck as he traced lazy circles on my shoulder with his
fingertips.
“Yeah,” I breathed, rolling onto
my back to look up at him. The soft glow of an outdoor utility light crept
through the open side of the airplane hangar, barely lighting up the space.
“Never imagined our first time being on a blanket spread out on a cold, hard
floor, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
“Me too. Let’s get on that then,”
he said with a wicked grin before he pressed his lips to mine. Propping himself
on one arm—his hand resting against the side of his head—he snaked his free hand
under one of the flannel blankets he'd commandeered from an airplane parked
beside us.
I liked this side of him. The
side that wasn't perfect and calculated. The side that just did, said, and felt
what he wanted. He was literally feeling his way up my body—his hands smooth
and rough all at the same time—sending all of my teenage hormones spiraling out
of control. We were living in the moment, which was exactly where I preferred
to be.
“You know how much I love you,
right?” His face became very serious, almost concerned.
“I wanted tonight to be special.
I thought we'd go back to my house after we looked at the planes. My parents
are gone and...” He was back in his head, thinking about his meticulously
thought-out evening. Doubting his ability to be perfect. He did this
sometimes—overanalyzed things. “It didn't go exactly as I planned,
but—”
“It was perfect,” I assured him.
“Plans, schmans.” I pulled his face to mine, giggling, my lips barely grazing
his. “And I love you, too.”
That was the thing about Ryland—I
saw a side of him that no one else saw. I could probably say the same for him
about me. Until him, I’d never felt like I was going to amount to much, but he
believed in me, even when I didn't—which was most of the time. When I was with
him, I didn't feel like I needed to do everything in my power to piss people
off. He made me want to stay in this Godforsaken town with a family that
ignored my existence. They ignored it until I did something wrong—which was
about ninety percent of the time. Then my stepfather made sure to let me just
how worthless I was.
“So do you feel like a rebel?” I
asked. “This being your first breaking and entering and all.”
It had been his idea to sneak on
to the airfield—something that was much more in my wheelhouse than his. I was
the one who usually threw caution to the wind. He was the good boy. The
straight-A student. The doting son.
“Oh yeah.” He laughed. “I'm a
regular badass. Nothing like walking through an open gate to an abandoned
shed.” He cast his arm out sarcastically in the vacant space above our heads.
Nothing but sheet metal and wooden beams. A handful of airplanes were parked
around us with a smattering of fuel cans, tools, and parachutes hanging from the
walls. “I'm not sure we
actually broke into anything.
More like casually strolled
in.”
We lived in a town where people
left their front doors unlocked. The kind of town where everyone knew everyone
and all of their business. Truitville. It was a place with a minimal crime
rate. I think that night, that's what we’d both thought: What's the worst
that could happen?
“So what's next then,
Clyde? Wanna rob a bank?”
About Elizabeth Lee:
When I'm not writing or playing the part of wife and mother, you can find me dancing back-up for Beyonce, singing back-up for Miranda, or sunning myself on the beach with a drink in hand. Here's the thing about being born and raised in a small town—you have a very vivid imagination! Now, I channel it all to create stories where the girl always ends up with the right guy, first kisses are magical, and a happy ending is just that!
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