Favorite excerpts from my novel, This Much Is True

Some favorite excerpts from my novel, This Much Is True, as part of the Xpresso Blog Tour this past week and next.

From Chapter Five – Linc’s POV

So here I am, imbibing in a few beers and trying to appear normal and avoid all the supposed fan-girls, if at all possible; and then, there she is—the girl from Valentine’s Day. I’m just staring at her—the raven-haired girl across the room—remembering Valentine’s Day and the horrible circumstances under which we first met and immediately having trouble remembering all my set rules for not getting involved with anyone. Ever.

At one point, I catch her green-eyed gaze, and she looks right through me. I actually shiver at the unspoken admission that she doesn’t remember me at all. I find myself suffering with this crushing disappointment as if I’ve been hit squarely in the chest by a baseball. What dumb luck is it that she’s shown up at this party, and that she doesn’t even remember me?

She surveys the room with a disdainful look and takes one long, slow pull of her drink from a red plastic cup. I watch her slender throat move up and down as she swallows. My body reacts to all of her in a single instant.

Man, I want her bad. Just like that. At the very least, I want to know her name before I leave here tonight.

I watch her for so long that I can tell when the vodka-spiked punch actually hits her system. She sways ever so slightly now and leans further up against the far wall as if that alone is the only thing still holding her up.

My conscience surges with guilt that I should have gone over to her sooner, but still directs me toward her before I actually think about what I’m doing. I’m not sure where this urgent need to protect her comes from. Perhaps I’m spurred on by a few of these guys partying it up right next to her that seem to have taken notice of the swaying, dark-haired girl at about the same time I start to make my way across to her. Still, I’m determined to be the one that saves her again, even if she doesn’t remember me from the first time we met more than three months ago on Valentine’s Day.

Blogged at A Life Bound by Books and a Confessions of A Book Addict

Excerpt

From Chapter 30 – Tally’s POV

Marla announces she wants babies. Three babies in five years. She looks at me. I start to feel nauseous and must turn a little white. I look away from her and allow myself to think all these nasty thoughts. Three babies in five years with Charlie? Are you fucking kidding me? That doesn’t add up on any girl’s wish list. Charlie Masterson. A father? Say it isn’t so.

Yet she lays out this family plan the way you’d say, “After yoga, I’ll go to Lia’s for the mani-special and then wax on about hairstyles and hemlines until dinner.”

If I were gifted at making long-term plans, which by now we all know I’m not, and if I was at all hopeful, which we all know that I can never be, although it crosses my mind that it’s entirely possible these are all just huge, fucking, temporary setbacks and nothing more, even though it’s been going on for over three years now, since Holly died, and I met Lincoln Presley. Events that could be construed as somehow inevitably related. Yes, perhaps there’s an expiration date on the said pursuit of unhappiness. Perhaps, things will eventually go my way after I actually discover what that way is supposed to be.