Saturday, June 1, 2013

EVER ENOUGH by STACY BOREL


Summary:

What happens when the man you thought was the one, ends up being the one that got away?
When Finley breaks her heart on graduation night, eighteen year old Emilyn is left alone to pick up the pieces of her life. After muddling through the next ten years-including immersing herself in a lifeless marriage-she is brought to her knees when she encounters Finley at her high school reunion. Long ago buried emotions and feelings bubble to the surface and when Finley kisses her, Emilyn flees the scene. Arriving home to find her husband in the arms of another woman, Emilyn is forced to return to her hometown and start again. But is it possible to start afresh when the past just won’t seem to let you go?
Finley has spent the ten years since high school focused on his career. As a songwriter, he has never had a problem getting women. But when he realizes that the woman he let go a decade ago could be his happy ever after, he decides to do whatever it takes to get her back. But are some hurdles too great to overcome?




Review:
 
Stacy knocked her debut novel right out of the park! From the very moment that I started the book, I was not able to put the book down! This book was an absolute roller coaster of emotions; it made me laugh, frustrated, angry, happy, and it even had me ugly crying at some parts! Stacy does a wonderful job in describing the emotions that the characters felt through all the situations that they were faced with. I felt as if I was right there with them going through it too.

Emilyn had always seen herself as a very plain person, so when Finley broke her heart on graduation night she felt as if it was coming; she didn’t think she was good enough for him. Her heart belonged to only one person and that night had broken her forever. After falling into a slight depression, she slowly picked up the pieces enough to start living again. She met Weston, a lawyer, who was able to give her everything and slowly a part of her life back. But as time went on, she started to feel more alone. West was putting more time into his work, and more time away from her. Was it her? Did she do something to make him pull away? Slowly, her insecurities were coming back.

Harper has been Emilyn’s rock and best friend since high school. She is very outspoken compared to Emilyn’s quiet self. Harper will tell you how it is; whether you like it or not. She has always been the one to stand up for Emilyn and get her through her tough times. I have always wanted to have a friend like Harper on my side. Harper is the only reason Emilyn is going to their ten year high school reunion. She is dreading the reunion because she knows that once she sees Finley, the feelings that she has tucked away deep into her heart, will surface.

Even after ten years, not a day goes by that Finley doesn’t think of Emilyn. Yes, he has been with other women since then, but each one of them has just been a means to satisfy his sex cravings. Seeing Emilyn for the first in ten years, the feelings he had for her started to arise. She was more beautiful than the last time he saw her. He just needed to talk to her, see how she was, touch her, hold her, make sure she was happy and alright.  When he finally gets her alone, she runs; and runs far away.

Not wanting to depend on her parents, she plans to start her life on her own; but Harper takes her in. Emilyn has always been a stubborn person who refuses help from anyone, but I also feel she has no backbone and cannot stand up for herself. In this book Emilyn is challenged constantly, with one situation right after another. She cannot seem to catch a break; yet Harper is the one constant she can depend on. The way she handles each one of these situations can make or break her; however, it can also make her a much stronger person if she lets it.

After seeing Emilyn, Finley realizes that there is no one else for him in this world but her. He will do anything and everything in his power to not let her go again. He wants to make her completely happy; even if that means just being her friend.

Will Emilyn be able to put her pride aside and ask for help when she needs it the most? Will Finley be able to just be friends with Emilyn if that’s all she can give? Will Emilyn be able to get past the hurt and move on from her past? Will she be able to put her walls down and let Finley in again, risking her heart breaking?

This was a great book to show that there are second chances to true love. If you truly love one another, you will find your way back to each other. The situations that the characters were faced with were pretty close to real life situations; which helped to strengthen them to become a much stronger person. Great job Stacy! Looking forward to your second book!


Interview:


On behalf of The Naughty and Nice Book Blog, Heather, Liz, and I, would like to welcome Stacy Borel, author of Ever Enough. After reading your book, I had a few questions that had me wondering and thought other readers had some questions as well. Readers, please be advised there are spoilers in this interview.

After reading the book, it appears that Emilyn didn’t have a backbone. Can you explain why she is this way? Did you create her this way so we could see her grow as a character?

        Yes, I did. What I want my readers to know and understand about Emilyn is that she may appear “weak” but at a closer glance, she was actually quite strong. I know that through the majority of the book, some may have wanted to throw their e-readers, or was wondering what in the heck I was doing writing her responses the way that I did. It’s very simple for me. I built characters around her that were strong already. She was lost when Finn left her, and she really didn’t understand the direction that her life needed to take in order for her to keep moving forward. It’s not the say that West was an easy answer for her, but he was able to show her a new way of living without Finn. A way that she would be able to keep moving one foot in front of the other while that emptiness was still inside. After the story was complete, I see now that some of my readers would like to see West go down in flames. (haha!) Frankly I never thought about that. I knew I wanted Finn to get a crack at him for what he did to Em, but I suppose thinking about it now, West never really had any horrible repercussions for his actions. That may end up being something that I mention in the next book. Anyway, all of this is to say that Em did grow and she was strong but strong in her own way. Towards the end of the book when she was at her absolute lowest, she realized that she needed to go and be alone. She needed to be independent and not have those around her stick up for her, or take care of the mess that had become her life. She needed to stand on her own two feet, even if that meant leaving Finn behind and they both had expressed that they loved each other. I don’t know about you, but that’s strength to me. Walking away is a very hard thing to do, especially when you know how bad it is going to hurt. 

Harper and Kyler and BFFs people wish to have in their lives. Do you have either a Harper or Kyler in yours?

        I definitely do have a best friend. As much as I love my husband and children and other family, my life would be a bit boring without my best friend in it. (Sorry honey!)

Do you have an inspiration for Harper and Kyler? If so, who?

        For Harper, she is 100% based off of my actual real life best friend. She is a fellow military wife and we have been living in the same place together for the past 2 yrs. I’ve posted some photos of her on my author page before so my readers can see what she really looks like. She is Harper through and through. I know everyone loved her, and it’s easy to see why. Parts of the book are actually real interaction my best friend and I have had, and also some of the conversation is things we say to each other. For example, the part where Kyler walks up at the bar after seeing Em and Harper for the first time and calls them scissor sisters… my besties husband and a few of the guys out at my husband’s base call us that. It’s just a long running joke. Or her and I would go to the gym, and while we’d work out, we’d see a cute guy and go “holy crap that’s a nice back.” (I’m giggling to myself) It’s just stupid things that best friends say while together that makes her special to me.

        As far as Kyler goes, that’s a great question. Hmmm…I’d have to say that he is a combination of all the guys out at my husband’s station. They are all very funny and have typical ‘single guy’ behavior. So I suppose I took all of them and rolled them into one character named Kyler.

You created the book so that Emilyn faced all or majority of the tough situations, why is that?

        I wanted no lose ends in my story. I had no intentions of writing a book that had a cliffhanger, and I tried my hardest to write a book that held most of the things that I personally love when reading a book. As a reader myself, it makes me nuts sometimes when I’m left to guess what happened to this or that aspect of a book. Leaving something up to the reader can be awesome, but there are some books out there that leave me shaking my head going “what in the hell was that?” I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. Em needed to hit on every issue that was brought up because to me that made her complete. And once again, I’m pointing out that this also made Em strong as a character.

A lot of the situations that arose in the book were pretty intense real life situations. How hard were they to write?

        Honestly… it was about half and half for me. It wasn’t hard for me to write about Em losing the baby or dealing with a cheating husband. Those were things that I knew some of my readers would be able to connect with, but I didn’t personally struggle writing them.

        BUT, when I wrote about the heartache Em with through after Finn left, and then having the make the hard choice of moving on without him, those emotions and the actual feeling I was trying to convey were extremely difficult for me. A tear or two may have been shed while no one was looking…

Are there any characters in the book that are just like you?

 This is the question that I was hoping would be asked. My answer is a big fat resounding YES!!! Emilyn is me through and through (which is probably why I stick up for her so much. Ha!) Emilyn was my easiest character to write because everything from her personality to the way that I describe her emotions is me. They are mine. I imagine that some are asking, “So are you saying you are a weak or have no backbone?” Ummm… yes and no. Haha
My entire life I have always hated to have any sort of conflict going on around me. No matter if I was directly involved or not, I didn’t like it and I would do anything I could to make it better. The best way I can describe it is by saying, if everyone around me is okay and happy, then I am happy. If just one person isn’t happy, it throws my whole world in a tailspin. Weird, but true story. I will always avoid conflict, and I have NEVER been able to hold a grudge. If someone or something is bothering me, just like Em does, I just don’t confront it or I walk around it like it isn’t a big deal. Maybe this will give my readers some insight into Emilyn, and my own personal need/necessity to have my very own Harper there to back me up and help me speak.

Is there any significance to writing about second chance love and reconnecting at a high school reunion?

        No, not really. But I knew that most women (and some men) would understand high school love. I’d like to believe that all of us at one point or another have wondered where our lives would be if we ended up with our high school sweethearts (unless of course you are with yours) and or how it would be if we ever ran into them again. That’s pretty much where this story got its start, and I just rolled with it.

Was there a time in the book where you felt that Finley should just give in to Emilyn and let her go?

        No, never. If I did, I have no idea where I could have even taken this story.

What was the point having Emilyn waste many years of her life with Weston knowing she could never fully love him?

        Emilyn was sort of in limbo. She accepted West because he was the first one to come along after Finn had left. She never expected West to go from the doting husband to a complete dickhead a few years later. I wanted to show that as people we sometimes just accept our lot in life and keep moving forward with the way things are simply because we think we deserve to live with the hand we were dealt. This is what Em did. I didn’t feel that she was any different than some who might be living with a man that she could see moving away from her but stuck with it because it was life.

If Emilyn knew her marriage was starting to strain, why didn’t she try a little harder to entice him? They had all this money, she could have used it to pamper herself instead of shopping at chain stores like Target and Walmart.

        Ultimately I don’t think Em wanted to try harder in her marriage. She accepted things the way that they were and she didn’t think she deserved any better. At some point, she realized that West helped her along, which I believe she will be forever grateful for, but she never had a passionate love for him.
        And I have to laugh a bit about Em’s shopping habits. I like to say that I’m soooo not a girls girl. I have girly habits, but shopping isn’t one of them. I wrote Em this way because I don’t understand the desire to have name brand things, when cheaper items can be just as nice. I’ve never splurged on that designer handbag, and I could care less about the shoes I’m wearing. I did let Em have a nice car because let’s face it, a hot car makes me feel good. Haha! But because I wrote Em with my same tendencies, I wanted to portray her as showing that she could care less about the things that money could buy. (Inserting an important detail: There is a stipulation… always pay good money on your hair. That is all.)

Describe Harper and Kyler’s love/hate relationship?  We all know Kyler is in love with her. Why can’t see seem to commit?

        I don’t want to go into too much detail with this because it will give away some important parts for the next book. Kyler definitely does love Harper. But that have a very hard road in front of them. Maybe even a bit tougher than Em and Finn did.

When you were at the point in writing where Emilyn was about to lose the baby, where you at any time going to make it a happy ending? Why did you write in the way you did?

        I’m not really sure how to answer this question. Em and Finn were always going to have a happy ending. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t give them one. I certainly love a darker book, but not with their story. After everything Em had been through, I think she deserved it.

Now that we’ve cleared the air about some book questions that I had, let’s get to know a little more about you.

What made you decide that you wanted to write a book?

        I wanted to challenge myself. Like most writers, I’ve always loved writing and it’s something that I do decently at. As I went along in the process, I realized just how much it felt right, and that I wanted to keep doing it. Writing has been one of the most difficult and rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life.

Who is your favorite author?

        Ohhhhh, the ever favorite author question. I have a ton at the tippy top of my list, but my ultimate favorite will always been Colleen Hoover. I’m convinced she writes magic!

What is your favorite book?

        Same answer as the last question. My favorite book will always been Slammed. But I have quite a few that are tied for second place. Crow’s Row, Thoughtless series, Fifty Shades, Black Dagger series, Easy…. Need I go on?

Did your storyline come from a real life experience or just in your head?

        98% of it was made up. What was real were the emotions. I had two pretty harsh break ups around my high school time. I dredged up those feelings to try and help me write this book.

How do you de-stress?

        Is it sad for me to say Facebook? My husband is always griping at me for being on my phone or computer. But also find contentment from just sitting in the same room with my husband and kids, or having my bestie around and we catch up on all of our CW shows. Vampire Diaries is the shit!

How do you juggle being a mother, wife and author?

        It’s something that I’m still learning how to do. It’s not as easy as some might think. Since I’m promoting a book without a publishing house or agent behind me, I have to spend a good amount of time online pushing my book and making sure as many people see it as I can. It requires a lot of my time. Fortunately my husband has been wonderful and sees when I need something without me having to ask. He takes care of not only the kids, but me as well. He’s good like that!

What is your writing process?

        After writing this book I’ve learned that I can’t just write a little bit and then get up and not come back to it for a few days. I lose things in my thought process. The best way for me to write is to sit down and be completely involved and consumed by my book and my characters. Once I start writing my next book, there will be no getting up and letting it go for a day or two. I will be writing everyday as much as I can until it is done. And deadlines are the best thing for me. Nothing kicks your ass into gear better than a deadline with your editor. Haha

Who inspires you?

        To sound completely cliché, my kids. Before I started writing I’ve been a stay at home mom/wife for the past 9yrs and attending college part time. I was working towards my nursing degree so I could eventually go in to labor and delivery. The military lifestyle has made it very difficult for me to complete and having my two kids have put some kinks in the plan, but I want them to know that they can do anything they set their mind to. I also never want them to settle for less than what I think they deserve. Their dad and I will always stand behind them in their choices and steer them when their path goes astray. They are why I do the things I do.

 Any other thoughts or concerns or anything else you want to add??

        The only other thing I want is for my readers to look forward to Kyler and Harpers book. BUT I want to give a little warning. They were a very bubbly happy part of Ever Enough, but we are going to be diving in to their lives and they are no longer the supporting characters. As much as I love their humor and wit, I want the readers to expect to see a grittier side to them both. I will always include humor in my writing because it’s what I enjoy, but Harper and Ky’s book is going to be a bit darker than Ever Enough was. Just some food for thought!!


Stacy, on behalf of my partners, I would like to take this time to thank you for taking the time in sharing with us. You have clarified some questions that I had lingering. I do look forward to reading Harper and Kyler’s story. 


***GIVEAWAY***
If you had a chance to meet one character in a book, who would it be and from what book?



ONE CLICK 
"EVER ENOUGH" 
BY STACY BOREL


6 comments:

  1. I would love to meet Travis Maddox from Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster!

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  2. Gideon Cross from the Crossfire Series by Sylvia Day.

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  3. Travis Maddox from Jamie McGuire's Beautiful & Walking Disasters is high on my list - as well as Dean Harrison from Anne Rainey's Naked Games, but I think that Master Cullen from Cherise Sinclair's Shadowlands series breaks the mold for the top spot on my list.

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  4. Sooo hard to choose...only one??? Christian Grey from Fifty shades of Grey...yep I would love to meet him :)

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  5. I would like to meet Christian Grey from Fifty Shades as well :p

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