REVIEW: Moving On (+$50 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Moving On

Author: Annette Bower

Series: N/A

Pages: 185

Date Published: September 29th 2014

Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing

Format: Kindle

Genre: Romance

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:
Anna is a mysterious young widow who just moved to Regina Beach. The residents of the small town know everyone’s business and they are very keen on discovering Anna’s secrets. She meets Nick, a Sergeant in the Canadian Army, until a horrific accident sent him home to recover from his injuries sustained in an IED explosion. He helps Anna feel safe and comfortable in her new environment, just as he has always done for his men in strange, dangerous places. Meanwhile, he focuses on preparing for his future physical endurance test to prove that he is capable of returning to active duty.

Because Anna doesn’t talk about her past and Nick doesn’t talk about his future, she is shocked to discover that his greatest wish is to return to active duty. Afraid of getting hurt, she won’t love a man who may die on the job again. Intellectually, she knows that all life cycles end, but emotionally, she doesn’t know if she has the strength to support Nick.

~My Thoughts~

It's a horrible, terrible thing to lose one's husband. What's even worse is trying to put back the pieces of your life afterward. You miss your loved one, and you can't stand the stares, sympathy, and avoidance from friends and family that you used to love being with. That's what it's like for Anna after her hubby is taken from her. In her struggle, she leaves home for Regina Beach, hoping to get some time away and perspective on her life. 

Her first night there, perhaps by fate's design, she meets Nick and feels an instant sense of camaraderie with the military amputee. As Anna starts to rebuild herself and her life, she finds that talking to Nick, as he does the same with his life, helps her move on quicker than she thought humanly possible. 

Nick and Anna were an unusual couple in my book. Sure there are widow to new love stories, and military love stories, and many different kinds in between, but this was something new to me. Anna, still reeling from her husband's death, surely has abandonment issues and is still in the grips of a deep sadness. Nick wants to be career military and that is a very noble thing, yet is perhaps exactly the opposite of what Anna needs. It was really emotional to see them dig through their feelings for each other, and decide what they really want out of life. 

Give Moving On a shot if you are looking for a good, easy read with lots of emotion and feels all around. This is a true romance, where the plot is mostly around the relationships (including some hilarious neighbors) and while other plot points come into play, expect a ton of introspective moments, sweet kisses, and a healthy dose of angst to get us through :) 

~Try an Excerpt!~

Anna Jenkins pushed her foot on the brake as her hatchback picked up speed on the hill. The posted speed limit for the Town of Regina Beach was thirty miles per hour. She passed old cottages with verandas and gravel driveways surrounded by blossoming lilac bushes that were tucked in among new homes with steel doors and trees with spring green leaves shading designer interlocking block paths. Her doubts about moving to a small town washed in her fatigued mind like the waves pushing and pulling along the shore of Last Mountain Lake, that expanse of blue where the road she was on ended. Just past noon and no one was on the street.

After scanning street signs, she turned west on Fairchild and followed a natural curve onto Green Avenue, creeping along until she found the address that was etched in her memory. Regina Beach would be her safe haven. A place where no one knew that her fiancé had died a week before their wedding. It was her sorrow and she was tired of sharing it with those who seemed to want to keep it alive like some macabre game where they could report to their friends and family. I saw her today and she looks awful. I just didn’t know what to say but if you ask me, Murray wouldn’t look twice, never mind proposing, if he saw her now.

She hadn’t overheard anyone say these words, but she had her suspicions.

~Meet Annette!~ 

Annette Bower explores women’s roles in families, in communities and women’s emotions at the beginning and end of love in her home office in Regina, SK.

Her short stories are published in magazines and anthologies in Canada, United States, and United Kingdom and most recently in the Lake Winnipeg Writers Journal, Voices V 14/1.

She pursues the writing craft in workshops through the SWG conferences, Writing with Style, Banff Centre for the Arts, Surrey International Writers Conference, and Romance Writers of America Conferences. She is attending the Novel Colloquium at Sage Hill Writing Experience in July, 2014.

Her women’s fiction novel, Woman of Substance, is published by Soul Mate Publishing. Her novel Moving On re-released electronically by Soul Mate Publishing in October 2014. 

Web page: www.annettebower.com

Blog: www.annettebower.com/blog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MovingOnAPrairieRomance?ref=hl

https://www.facebook.com/annette.bower1author 

Annette will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Kobo or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon or Kobo or B/N GC to a randomly drawn host.

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