Yes I just can’t leave you alone today 🙂 but we have a fabulous visit with Con Riley for her newest release Recovery, Con answers our question about the Salvage series, she brings along an incredible Giveaway and I will graciously let you read my review 😉 so enjoy yourself and click that Rafflecopter link <3 ~Pixie~
Recovery
(Salvage 02)
by
Con Riley
San Diego is a city of second chances for Jamie Carlson. His new career as a photographer is taking off, and with the support of a loving surrogate family, he’s finally putting his party years behind him. The Bailey family helped him solve his drinking problem, but there’s no easy solution to staying sober now that Belle Bailey’s dying. Her last wish is a challenge Jamie can’t overcome without help.
Solving problems is Daniel Priest’s specialty. More than twenty years older than Jamie, he’s successful and experienced. He makes his living resolving corporate crises—but his personal life has been far from perfect. Now that his marriage is over, Daniel’s determined to make up for lost time. One night with Jamie isn’t nearly enough for him.
Daniel’s honest offer of help is more than Jamie expects from a one-time hookup. Even so, fulfilling Belle’s last wish is a tall order. Repairing her damaged family as she requests proves difficult when Jamie has to face his own past as well.
Jamie could risk his hard-won recovery by admitting why he hit rock bottom in the first place. If he wants a future with Daniel, he’ll have to address those reasons head-on.
Buy links
Dreamspinner Press http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_642
Amazon US http://www.amazon.com/Con-Riley/e/B00F8GT35O/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4?qid=1400667170&sr=8-4
Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Con-Riley/e/B00F8GT35O/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
What research went into this series? (Salvage and Recovery)
I write books set in America from the viewpoint of male characters. Their lives are very different compared to my British female experience. Here are a few of the steps I took while researching the Salvage Series to ensure readers heard Gabe Cooper and Jamie Carlson’s voices rather than mine.
I focus on concepts rather than facts. For example, most of us can identify with family issues. However, how many readers know exactly how a salvage yard operates? Focusing on family dynamics means the technicalities of operating a salvage yard fade into the background.
I create strong mental images. I get to know a location via Google maps streetview before I search websites like Tumblr and Flickr for more personal insight into an area. Bringing a location to life means describing what people do there as well as what an area looks like. It’s easy to research local events online, helping me to add bold splashes of local color between the black lines of type on my PC screen.
Draw information from local newspapers. Reading beyond the headlines can set the scene for entire chapters. For example, it’s no coincidence that Gabe Cooper in Salvage ends up rethinking his stance on his local community after attending an art show. I knew it would have impact on him because the real letters I read in his local newspaper, from the families of veterans who benefited from an art show, told me how it had impacted them.
Be honest about real-life experiences. San Diego is the setting for Recovery, and it was easy to write about after spending time there in 2012. From the colors in the sky at sunset to the sight of whole buildings draped in convention advertising, it was the simplest research ever. The emotional content of Recovery, and Jamie’s journey from loss to love, was a whole lot harder to write down.
Like all the research I’ve done over the last five years, digging deep, and putting in that extra effort, was absolutely worth it.
Con Riley
About Con
Con Riley lives on the wild and rugged Devonshire coast, with her head in the clouds, and her feet in the Atlantic Ocean.
Injury curtailed her enjoyment of outdoor pursuits, so writing fiction now fills her free time instead. Love, loss, and redemption shape her romance stories, and her characters are flawed in ways that makes them live and breathe.
When not people watching, or wrangling her own boy band of teen sons, she spends time staring at the sea from her kitchen window. If you see her, don’t disturb her—she’s probably thinking up new plots.
Author Links: Read more: http://conriley.com
Tweet more: https://twitter.com/con_riley
Talk more: con.riley.fiction@gmail.com
Giveaway!
(Just click the link below)
Every book in Con Riley’s backlog!
Con Riley Rafflecopter giveaway!
(Ends 27th May 2014)
Review
Title: Recovery
Series: Salvage Stories 02
Author: Con Riley
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (220pgs)
ISBN: 978-1-62798-678-6
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (19th May 2014)
Heat Level: Low – Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: San Diego is a city of second chances for Jamie Carlson. His new career as a photographer is taking off, and with the support of a loving surrogate family, he’s finally putting his party years behind him. The Bailey family helped him solve his drinking problem, but there’s no easy solution to staying sober now that Belle Bailey’s dying. Her last wish is a challenge Jamie can’t overcome without help.
Solving problems is Daniel Priest’s specialty. More than twenty years older than Jamie, he’s successful and experienced. He makes his living resolving corporate crises—but his personal life has been far from perfect. Now that his marriage is over, Daniel’s determined to make up for lost time. One night with Jamie isn’t nearly enough for him.
Daniel’s honest offer of help is more than Jamie expects from a one-time hookup. Even so, fulfilling Belle’s last wish is a tall order. Repairing her damaged family as she requests proves difficult when Jamie has to face his own past as well. Jamie could risk his hard-won recovery by admitting why he hit rock bottom in the first place. If he wants a future with Daniel, he’ll have to address those reasons head-on.
Purchase Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4978
Review: This story is part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone. Jamie has found love and support from a surrogate family as he worked hard to fight his addition to alcohol but staying sober is difficult as Belle Bailey, his surrogate mother, begins to lose her fight against cancer. Daniel is still getting used to being ‘out’ after the end of his thirty year marriage and spending just one night with Jamie isn’t enough for him, Daniel offers his support as Jamie helps to fulfill Belle’s last request. Can Jamie help to mend Belle’s fractured family and can Daniel really support Jamie through the coming devastation?
Ah this is a beautiful story that drags you into the Bailey family as Jamie documents the last weeks of Belle’s life, helps to bring her family together and discovers love for himself. Jamie has stayed off the booze for a year but getting through every day is still a struggle especially with the worry and fear for his surrogate mother Belle, when he meets Daniel he doesn’t expect anything but a one off encounter but is pleasantly surprised by the friendship that strikes up between them. Daniel had hidden the truth about himself from the outside world but now is finally out and single, seeing Jamie’s photographs has him intrigued and he is attracted to the younger man. These two have a relationship that is based on more than just a passing fancy, Daniel proves to be a man who can be supportive and compassionate and Jamie is a man who has managed to turn his life around and can be a rock even while he struggles with temptation.
I really did enjoy this story because it was much more than just the usual romance, because while there is a relationship that forms between Daniel and Jamie a lot of the focus of the story is on Belle, Alex and Owen as Jamie helps to mend the broken relationship between father and son. Daniel and Jamie do make a wonderful couple and it would have been nice to see more of them together without the pressure of outside influences, but it was still nice to see how they interacted during a time of stress. This is a beautifully written story and all the characters will pull at your heart strings as you are dragged into their lives.
Jamie is a character that you come to love as you see everything he has gone through and his determination to get through every day without a drink. With Daniel you admire his open heart as he offers all the help he can to Jamie, but we don’t get to know him as well as we could have even though he was very open about his life and what he wants. Owen, Alex and Belle your heart goes out to, Belle’s determination and spirit is incredible while Owen has his own issues with his father, Alex, to get through and Alex tries to reconnect with his son… it was a pleasure to witness their incredible story through Jamie’s eyes.
I recommend this to those who love men overcoming their demons, love and support, discovering love, finding happiness and a wonderful ending.
Very interesting to see how much research goes into creating a story. I would love to read this series. Thanks for the giveaway!
You are asking for a plot bunny, is that where we give you some sort of idea for a book? Ok, try this out. I am from Louisiana so I am thinking of two men (being partners for a while now like 5 or 6 years) living in the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area around the time of Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005 and if you didn’t know one month later we were hit by Hurricane Rita in September of 2005. So maybe your MC’s were involved in some type of rescue operations like Coast Guard and Police. One of the guys goes missing, body never recovered. His partner goes on an all out search but can’t find anything. After maybe 6 months, he almost gives up, thinking he died, but he actually finds him. But he has amnesia. So they have to meet and work towards building a new relationship but eventually he does remember more towards the end of the book. Shows how true soulmates were meant to be together. Thanks for this awesome giveaway, you are a new author for me and your books sound really good.
lacombejc at suddenlink dot net