Becky Doughty
(The Fallout Series, #1)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: November 2nd 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Anica Tomlin, business major, has just learned that the man she’s been planning her future around, her Global Finance professor, already has a beautiful wife and family. Ani cashes in her graduation gift to herself a little early—a trip to Tuscany—but from the moment she boards the wrong train in Pisa, her plans for solitude and self-indulgence begin to unravel around her.
When a bicycle accident thrusts Ani into the skilled hands of the dashing Dr. Cosimo Lazzaro, she reluctantly accepts his invitation to recover in his family’s country villa, perched on a hilltop surrounded by the Lazzaro olive groves. But it’s been a black year for olive growers all over Italy, and generations of tradition are being put to the test like never before.
Ani is swept up in the drama of life in Tuscany, the convergence of old and new, and the passions that drive people to pursue the desires of their hearts. Just as Ani begins to get her feet under her again, an unexpected turn of events leaves her doubting the very existence of happily-ever-after, unless she can learn to trust the desires of her own heart.
Although All the Way to Heaven is a stand-alone novel, it is the first book in The Fallout Series, a collection of sweet contemporary romances that follow characters featured in the first book.
EXCERPT:
Seven AM in Lucca, and the quaint medieval town was
teeming with life, fueled by a caffeine-and-Mediterranean-air-induced high. Bicycle bells
jingle-jangled, and boisterous greetings volleyed from one side of the narrow streets to
the other. School children laughed and called out to comrades as they scurried off to
class.
“Why is everyone so happy?” I pulled a lumpy pillow over my head, but I could find no entry back into the anesthetizing arms of sleep.
My first morning in this enchanted place, and I felt more like a forgotten princess in a tower than a girl on a much-anticipated trip to Italy.
I hadn’t expected to fall asleep right away, but after a hot shower and a bowl of the packaged soup my mom had slipped into my luggage before they drove me to the airport, fatigue settled its heavy cloak around my shoulders. Crawling between the crisp sheets that smelled of bleach and lavender, I was disquieted by the unfamiliar stillness of a town that collectively slept at night. My world was round-the-clock, where the freeway slowed, but never stopped, businesses stayed open twenty-four hours a day, and people lived in shifts, as though afraid the earth might cease turning on its axis the moment no one was looking. But sleep, I did, like a stone, in spite of the tears that made it impossible to breathe through my nose.
Morning, however, had arrived with a vengeance, the stillness before dawn exploding into a cacophony of sound as unfamiliar to me as last night’s stillness. Cobbled streets bordered by tall, ancient stone buildings made shouts and laughter echo and reverberate, each sound amplified. Everything felt so close, but no one here seemed to mind. Like an orchestra tuning its instruments before a performance, each noise outside the window was finding its perfect pitch in the symphony entitled, “A Day in the Life of Lucca.”
“Why is everyone so happy?” I pulled a lumpy pillow over my head, but I could find no entry back into the anesthetizing arms of sleep.
My first morning in this enchanted place, and I felt more like a forgotten princess in a tower than a girl on a much-anticipated trip to Italy.
I hadn’t expected to fall asleep right away, but after a hot shower and a bowl of the packaged soup my mom had slipped into my luggage before they drove me to the airport, fatigue settled its heavy cloak around my shoulders. Crawling between the crisp sheets that smelled of bleach and lavender, I was disquieted by the unfamiliar stillness of a town that collectively slept at night. My world was round-the-clock, where the freeway slowed, but never stopped, businesses stayed open twenty-four hours a day, and people lived in shifts, as though afraid the earth might cease turning on its axis the moment no one was looking. But sleep, I did, like a stone, in spite of the tears that made it impossible to breathe through my nose.
Morning, however, had arrived with a vengeance, the stillness before dawn exploding into a cacophony of sound as unfamiliar to me as last night’s stillness. Cobbled streets bordered by tall, ancient stone buildings made shouts and laughter echo and reverberate, each sound amplified. Everything felt so close, but no one here seemed to mind. Like an orchestra tuning its instruments before a performance, each noise outside the window was finding its perfect pitch in the symphony entitled, “A Day in the Life of Lucca.”
**I was fortunate enough to review this one. You can see my review here.**
Ten Trivial Truths About Becky Doughty
1. I’m part chameleon. Not because I can change colors on demand (which would be AWESOME!), but because I can move my eyes independently of each other. It gives me a serious eye-strain headache, but it’s entertaining. I may post a video one day….
2. I live in Southern California, but I can’t stand the sun. It burns my eyes and makes my skin turn glittery–er, I mean, red. I should live somewhere like Ireland or Scotland where it rains a lot. Or Forks.
3. Speaking of Ireland, I ran The Dublin Marathon in Dublin, Ireland, in the year 2000. That was my “epic millennial triumph” for the turn of the millennium. It rained the whole 26.2 miles. Chafing and blisters commenced.
4. I am adopted. It’s pretty cool. I come from nowhere, anywhere, and everywhere. I’m pretty much a superhero.
5. Speaking of being adopted, one of my favorite pastimes is people-watching. In airports, and
waiting rooms, etc., I pretend to read, but really, I look for people who might be my long-lost
birth relatives, then I write reunion scenes in my head. Someday, I might publish those reunion stories.
6. I still read aloud to our 20-something year-old married children after dinner during our weekly Family Night. We like all things Middle Earth, Otherworld, Time-travel, and non-Muggle. We keep it real, baby.
7. I have a secret that I can’t tell you.
8. My children have some incredible tattoos.
9. Book stuff: I love to read historical and dystopian fiction, but I usually write contemporary fiction. I keep threatening to put out a nonfiction book…but I kinda like the whole…ahem… ‘creative license’ thing with fiction. Baby, I was BORN TO LIE! (Bumper sticker, anyone?)
10. I grew up in the boonies, so we had no television. But a supporter sent a shipment of all the Nancy Drew books ever published to us for Christmas one year. No, I wasn’t Nancy. I was George.
1. I’m part chameleon. Not because I can change colors on demand (which would be AWESOME!), but because I can move my eyes independently of each other. It gives me a serious eye-strain headache, but it’s entertaining. I may post a video one day….
2. I live in Southern California, but I can’t stand the sun. It burns my eyes and makes my skin turn glittery–er, I mean, red. I should live somewhere like Ireland or Scotland where it rains a lot. Or Forks.
3. Speaking of Ireland, I ran The Dublin Marathon in Dublin, Ireland, in the year 2000. That was my “epic millennial triumph” for the turn of the millennium. It rained the whole 26.2 miles. Chafing and blisters commenced.
4. I am adopted. It’s pretty cool. I come from nowhere, anywhere, and everywhere. I’m pretty much a superhero.
5. Speaking of being adopted, one of my favorite pastimes is people-watching. In airports, and
waiting rooms, etc., I pretend to read, but really, I look for people who might be my long-lost
birth relatives, then I write reunion scenes in my head. Someday, I might publish those reunion stories.
6. I still read aloud to our 20-something year-old married children after dinner during our weekly Family Night. We like all things Middle Earth, Otherworld, Time-travel, and non-Muggle. We keep it real, baby.
7. I have a secret that I can’t tell you.
8. My children have some incredible tattoos.
9. Book stuff: I love to read historical and dystopian fiction, but I usually write contemporary fiction. I keep threatening to put out a nonfiction book…but I kinda like the whole…ahem… ‘creative license’ thing with fiction. Baby, I was BORN TO LIE! (Bumper sticker, anyone?)
10. I grew up in the boonies, so we had no television. But a supporter sent a shipment of all the Nancy Drew books ever published to us for Christmas one year. No, I wasn’t Nancy. I was George.
**Is it just me, or is anyone else dying to know the answer to #7?**
Author Bio:
Becky Doughty is the author of the best-selling Elderberry Croft series, The Gustafson Girls series, Waters Fall, and more. She’s also the voice behind BraveHeart Audiobooks. She writes Women’s Fiction with strong elements of romance, as well as Young Adult and New Adult Fiction. Becky’s favorite people are edge-dwellers, those who live on that fine line where hope and despair meet, where love is the only answer and grace becomes truly amazing. Becky is married to her champion of more than 25 years. They have three children, two of whom are grown and starting families of their own, and they all live within a few miles of each other in Southern California. They share their lives with too many animals, a large vegetable garden, and a strange underground concrete room they’re certain was built for dark and sinister purposes….
I am so excited to read this book. I love to see women overcome cheating, lying boyfriends.
ReplyDeleteI hope you love it!
DeleteI love romances and strong female characters. Thanks for the chance!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! This one is soooo good!
DeleteI love strong women characters. Thank you for sharing and congrats on the new release.
ReplyDeleteStrong woman are great! I hope you like it--good luck!
DeleteI like your outlook on things.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Sandra!
Delete