Blurb:
They say there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Not everyone will grieve in this order, nor will everyone go through every stage. It’s during the stage of denial when Alex Hart meets Andrew Foster. He takes her one-step closer to acceptance: the stage when new, meaningful relationships are formed. The stage when the realization occurs that this is now the new state of normal.
Just when Alex thinks she is on her way to healing, she enters the bargaining phase. That’s the phase where you wonder what you could have done differently. You wonder “what if?” Specifically, what if the ones you loved hadn’t left you?
Leaving…this is what makes heading off to war so difficult and frightening for Alex. She knows all too well what it’s like to be the one on the losing end of life, which is why she’s made it her personal mission in life to save as many lives as possible. The extreme high she gets from treating trauma victims turns into Alex’s own form of therapy, or so she thinks.
They say there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Not everyone will grieve in this order, nor will everyone go through every stage. It’s during the stage of denial when Alex Hart meets Andrew Foster. He takes her one-step closer to acceptance: the stage when new, meaningful relationships are formed. The stage when the realization occurs that this is now the new state of normal.
Just when Alex thinks she is on her way to healing, she enters the bargaining phase. That’s the phase where you wonder what you could have done differently. You wonder “what if?” Specifically, what if the ones you loved hadn’t left you?
Leaving…this is what makes heading off to war so difficult and frightening for Alex. She knows all too well what it’s like to be the one on the losing end of life, which is why she’s made it her personal mission in life to save as many lives as possible. The extreme high she gets from treating trauma victims turns into Alex’s own form of therapy, or so she thinks.
When faced with her world being turned upside down, Alex may just find that her true therapy is in the one who has always saved her.
Review by Janeane - ARC received for honest review.
Wow - just wow!!
Skipping Stones is a story of love, loss, heartache and family - but most importantly, first and enduring love.
When Alex is 15, she devastatingly loses both parents within a few days of each other. She is not dealing well with the grief, how can she cope losing her family so suddenly? Her life as she knew it is lost, and she loses her sense of who she is.
When Drew falls into her life just days after her mother's death, she has found the one person who can take away the hurt, who can help her grieve the loss she is feeling to her core. In their short time together, they fall hopelessly and irrevocably in love.
Drew is compassionate, sweet, caring, funny. How can Alex not fall in love? It is not that he just helps calm her, keep the hurt away. It is as if he can see into her soul.
When Drew suddenly leaves without word, Alex's heart, which was already broken, is completely shattered. I have to admit I did do a bit of
Left with nothing but her schooling and her Papa and Memaw, Alex does all she can to forget Drew, but no matter how hard she tries, there is no shaking him. He will always be her love.
I spent a lot of the book thinking 'Was Drew real or was he just a figment, something/someone Alex needed to get through her grief?"
Years down the track, Drew once again appears in Alex's life when she needs him - or did he?
I absolutely adored Alex's relationship with her memaw and especially her Papa. They completely doted on each other, this not even changing as Alex moves into adulthood and pursues her career. This does not mean she does not love her memaw as much, but her relationship with Papa is just special.
Skipping Stones is a heartbreaking, gutwrenching read. It takes a special kind of author who can write a story about such tragedy and weave such a wonderful love story into the fabric of it. JB McGee is an author who has done this splendidly. So different from other stories she has released, but just as wonderful.
But word of advice - DO NOT read Skipping Stones without a box of tissues handy.
