Not The One is a full length standalone adult romance
My name is Reyna Miracle.
Even though a part of my name is Miracle, there’s nothing miraculous about me.
My body portrays the tales of my life.
Every feeling, every heartbreak, every emotion.
Marked. Inked. Stained.
A walking canvas of my messed up truth.
But there’s one confession I can’t put in a
tattoo.
A confession that will kill me to tell, but my best friend died before I had the chance.
Now I’m left with him.
The only one who can hold me in the night and squeeze that spot on my neck that feels like my lifeline between sanity and chaos.
But we don’t work together.
We’re absolute poison for each other.
We’re a stifling, suffocating, sickness of darkness.
But I feel safe...because I’ve made an art of pushing people away.
Now he’s pushing back…
And making me believe...
Making me wonder...
Maybe, just maybe...
I could be the one.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble |
Kobo | iTunes
Kobo | iTunes
ARC received for an honest review
I have read
all of Ms Daws London Lovers series, so I was excited to read Not The One.
You can read
this as a standalone, as they characters from the previous books play only
minor secondary roles in Not The One - but I would still go back and read the
others!
I knew from
reading the synopsis that this was going to be a darker book than the LL
series, but wow! It was so much more!
Reyna and
Liam's story is not an easy one to read. It is highly emotional, taking you
to the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, all within one rollercoaster of
a story. As well as a story of love, it is a story of sadness, regret and
guilt. Self loathing. But also of self discovery and learning to
love oneself.
It is not a
hearts and flowers kind of story. It is darker, grittier than all
that. If you don't shed a tear at least once whilst reading, you are
stronger than I am.
I felt a
deep connection with Reyna. I have felt the self loathing, self doubt,
the I am not good enough.
But all I
wanted was for Reyna to find her way out of her mind and find her HEA.
I adored
that we got more of the other couples from the other books, and that my
favourite ginger, Frank, got a bigger part to play. I loved how this
interweaved itself into the previous stories (but not so much that you have to
have read them).
Thank you Ms
Daws for a beautiful, heartfelt story. I can't wait for what you give us
next.
“Christ, I hardly recognized you,” he seethes, the angry bulge in his jaw bone ticking violently. He grabs my arm firmly and pulls me off the concrete steps and into a covered archway away from all the other happy students. “What the fuck, Rey?”
“What are you talking about?” I ask in utter confusion.
He reaches beneath my chin, grabs the zipper and yanks it down harshly. I shove his hands away as my robe is yanked open.
“Fuck, Rey! You’re skin and bones!” Liam’s face is tortured and sickly. Dark circles reside under his eyes but he still looks gorgeous as ever.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Grabbing the edges of my robe, I cover myself back up, protectively. I’m wearing a short blue shift dress that used to hug every one of my curves but now hangs on me like a potato sack. I know I’ve lost some weight since Marisa but I’m not about to let him scold me like a child over it. “I’m a twenty-five-year-old adult, Liam. I don’t need you chastising me over this.”
“Rey,” he says my name on a sigh. “How can you expect me
to ignore this?” His eyes are pleading and pained as they flash between my eyes and my mouth in utter agony.
“I’m not your concern!” I push back my dark hair and squeeze the back of my neck to try to gain some of my control back.
“You made that perfectly clear when you shoved me out of your dorm room. Fuck. How did we get this so utterly wrong?”
“Just leave it, Liam.”
“No.” He grabs my shoulders and turns me to face him.
“Don’t you miss me? At all? I miss you like crazy. I feel like I’m mourning two deaths instead of one. It’s like you died on me two weeks ago. And now I see you today and it makes me sick to my stomach that I’ve left you the way I did!” His eyes are shimmering with tears and pain, only adding to the self-loathing I’ve developed the past fourteen days.
My eyes are dead and cold, my voice flat and unaffected. “I told you I wanted nothing to do with you, Liam. I meant it.”
“You’re lying to me. Again!” he roars, angrily punching the concrete wall beside my head.
Q: Readers are calling Not The One a “painfully
beautiful love story.” Why is that? What was the writing process like?
A: Writing this book was terrifying. I’ve never been so far
outside my comfort zone with any other book. This storyline literally terrified me and I got pretty
depressed during the process. It was crazy hard, but crazy cathartic. It feels good to sink into those dark
corners sometimes. It makes finding the light that much more magical.
Q: What inspired this story?
A: Well, Reyna was a character in my London Lovers Series that I
couldn’t get out of my head. I had an idea for an interesting backstory for her…a
mother/daughter dynamic that I’d never read before but could relate to because of some of my
own personal struggles. I needed to know more about her, so I wrote it.
Q: But this book isn’t a London Lovers Series
novel, correct?
A: Correct. I’m calling it a spinoff. A cross-pollination so to
speak. There are characters from my London Lovers, but it reads best as a total
standalone.
Q: Who the heck is Frank? And how did you create him?
A: LOL! Ohhh, Frank and Beans. He is my London Lovers secondary standout. He’s a fantastical redheaded gay Brit that everyone needs in their life. Magically, he fit into Not The One like it was meant to be. Frank is the comedic lightness that this story needed, but he’s so much more. He’s special.
A: LOL! Ohhh, Frank and Beans. He is my London Lovers secondary standout. He’s a fantastical redheaded gay Brit that everyone needs in their life. Magically, he fit into Not The One like it was meant to be. Frank is the comedic lightness that this story needed, but he’s so much more. He’s special.
Q: Will he get a story?
A: He is my most requested story.
That’s not an answer.
LOL…Let me be “frank” when I tell you…it is a distinct possibility. ;)
That’s not an answer.
LOL…Let me be “frank” when I tell you…it is a distinct possibility. ;)
Q: Who designed your cover? It’s stunning!
A: I’m so glad you like it because I did! LOL. My sister in law
took the photos. We do all of my covers together. We both come armed with cameras and click away
until our models can’t take anymore. But I always end up using my sister-in-laws pictures for the
cover. I just like to see through the lens instead of my eyes. But I do all my own layout and designing in
Photoshop.
Q: And the cover models?
A: All of my covers have just normal people. I never shoot models. The cover models on Not The One are just a couple of local hairdressers that my sister-in-law knew! It’s funny…I had met the girl a couple of times and talked with her briefly about her incredible ink and through the writing process, her tattoos fit my story perfectly. It was kind of chilling.
A: All of my covers have just normal people. I never shoot models. The cover models on Not The One are just a couple of local hairdressers that my sister-in-law knew! It’s funny…I had met the girl a couple of times and talked with her briefly about her incredible ink and through the writing process, her tattoos fit my story perfectly. It was kind of chilling.
Q: So what’s next for
you?
A: I’m pretty sure I’ll be continuing on this London path
for a couple more stories. Without revealing any spoilers, I’m really hoping readers will be
interested in one of the characters’ HEA. I’d love to write his story next. And
then…finally, Frank and Beans. :)
Amy Daws is a commercial producer and lives in South Dakota with her husband
and daughter. The long-awaited birth of Lorelei is what inspired her passion for writing. Amy is a lover of
all things British and her award-nominated romantic comedy series, The London Lovers Series, is
centered around Americans in London. It's emotional and self-deprecating with lots of humor
sprinkled in. On most nights, you can find Amy and her family dancing to Strawberry Shortcake’s
theme song or stuffing themselves inside children’s-sized playhouses because there is nothing
they wouldn’t do for their little miracle.
