Tuesday 26 September 2017

✪ THE BEAUTIFUL NOW ✪ M. Leighton ✪

© Bianca Janeane





• 26 September 2017
• standalone YA/NA/Adult love story

★★★★★
5 Stars

Dane James worked my stepfather’s fields. He was the boy next door. 
 
Strong.
 
Hardworking.
 
Forbidden.
 
From the moment we met, we were star-crossed lovers
always wanting, never having. We loved each other for most of our lives, but right from the beginning Destiny had other plans.  She knew we would fall in love.  She knew we would fall apart.  Over and over again, like the curse of a recurring nightmare.  Or the hope of a familiar dream.  
 
Our past was tumultuous.
  Our future was bleak.  But the one thing we always had was the beautiful now.
 
Until that was taken from us, too.




This is a story that takes us from 1984 all the way to today. Well, no, not today. The today of the book is 2004.☺
And that's where we start ... in 2004. Brinkley is 32 years old and she's driving back to her hometown of Shepherd's Mill, South Carolina with her 14 year old daughter Celina.
Celina is sick and Brinkley wants to move back home to be closer to the new treatment at Duke.
Home never felt like home though. Her mom married this creepy and snobby rich guy Alton when Brinkley was 12.
Suddenly she had to be one of 'them' - the rich people in town. A town where everything is about how much money you have - what car you drive - who your friends are.
But the only real friend Brinkley found in that town was Dane. The one guy she was not allowed to see. The foreman's son working on Alton's huge farm.
He was her everything. He was the one guy who would drive ten thousand miles if she called him in the middle of the night. But they were never allowed to be anything. So they only were friends who met in the fields at night.
The years went by - they never talked much - never at all at school. But they were still everything to each other.
Until they were 17.
But this story doesn't end with them happily ever after-ish leaving this stupid town together like they were always hoping they would ....

What will happen with Brinkley & Dane?
Will there be a HEA?
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT! ☺



Ugh, Michelle. This was another one of those mega-moving and sad books. About a love story that seems so hopeless before we even start reading!
AND I LOVED IT!
I started reading - or rather - before I even started reading, I already knew I wanted Brinkley and Dane to hurry the F up and get to their Happily Ever After. But after reading the blurb I was so afraid there would be no HEA for them. Grrrrr... I hate that.



But of course I started reading - and I kept on reading. I couldn't stop.
It was all so heartbreakingly sad and beautiful and sweet and frustrating and I just could not stop. But I also didn't want to pick the kindle up again when I came back from doing something else. I was too afraid that it was all too hopeless for our darlings. But of course I kept on reading.
I'm not gonna spoil anything for you.
Just know that I loved it and that it's such a beautiful and heartbreakingly moving love story.
A mix of young adult and new adult and adult and I usually hate going back in time in books! But of course we needed to know what happened to Brinkley and Dane back then.
BEAUTIFUL BOOK! Beautiful characters. A lot of heartache and sadness. Lots of pain and healing and ALL THE FEELS!
But also a lot of hope - especially by this blogger - for a happily ever after ... but will there be one??? It doesn't look very promising ... BUT KEEP ON READING!!! DON'T GIVE UP! ☺

THE BEAUTIFUL NOW was such a heartbreakingly beautiful second-chance love story!
Please run to your nearest amazon for some tissues and for your own Dane! This one is MINE!!!!!



If I had to mention something that I didn't like? Maybe I would've loved it more if the time apart wouldn't have been so long. 15 years is so effing long. Poor Dane. Seven years would've been enough in my opinion. But even that would've been too long. Brinkley could've been a bit stronger or braver back then - she should've gone back for Dane. If I'm being honest - she shouldn't have left the way she did at all, but pfff - it's understandable, but I would've wanted her to come back sooo much sooner.
Oh, another thing... Dane's name. Every time his full name was written in the book (which was a lot!) I kind of turned into a dyslexic person. I don't know what it is about the words DANE JAMES that my brain can't comprehend. I always said James Dean or something else in my head. Very weird! ☺
BUT I STILL LOVED THE BOOK SO MUCH!



↓ Links to the book & Author ↓
  
  




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Stalking Michelle:


 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, M. Leighton, is a native of Ohio. She relocated to the warmer climates of the South, where she can be near the water all summer and miss the snow all winter. Possessed of an overactive imagination from early in her childhood, Michelle finally found an acceptable outlet for her fantastical visions: literary fiction. Having written over a dozen novels, these days Michelle enjoys letting her mind wander to more romantic settings with sexy Southern guys, much like the one she married and the ones you'll find in her latest books. When her thoughts aren't roaming in that direction, she'll be riding wild horses, skiing the slopes of Aspen or scuba diving with a hot rock star, all without leaving the cozy comfort of her office.

About Michelle: I love coffee and chocolate, even more so when they are combined. I'm convinced that one day they could be the basis for world peace. I also love the color red and am seriously considering dying my hair.