Drowning by Rachel Firasek
Publication date: October 26th 2013
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult
Publication date: October 26th 2013
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult
Synopsis:
*Drowning is a New Adult Contemporary Romance suited for 18+ due to some violence, language, and sexual content*
“I dare you.”
Those words would change adrenaline junkie, Alice Harrison’s life forever. She’s a party girl that doesn’t believe in love until she meets a man that only writes about it.
Seth James escaped his overbearing father and moved into one of the James family’s vacant condos, hoping to create the music he loves in peace. But the fragile calm he’s envisioned shatters when a tiny woman with a world full of energy bounces out of the elevator and nearly takes him out.
With the patience of a saint, Seth seeks the dark that keeps Alice from enjoying life. He challenges her to exorcise the demons in her past in order to discover the true meaning of love. But when the walls fall down, the hidden deceptions will bare the ugly truth about a woman drowning in sorrow and a man who may not know how to be her hero.
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“I dare you.”
Those words would change adrenaline junkie, Alice Harrison’s life forever. She’s a party girl that doesn’t believe in love until she meets a man that only writes about it.
Seth James escaped his overbearing father and moved into one of the James family’s vacant condos, hoping to create the music he loves in peace. But the fragile calm he’s envisioned shatters when a tiny woman with a world full of energy bounces out of the elevator and nearly takes him out.
With the patience of a saint, Seth seeks the dark that keeps Alice from enjoying life. He challenges her to exorcise the demons in her past in order to discover the true meaning of love. But when the walls fall down, the hidden deceptions will bare the ugly truth about a woman drowning in sorrow and a man who may not know how to be her hero.
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Excerpt
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Excerpt
In the hall, arms laden with musical equipment, four large and totally hot guys fill the space—Seth James leading the pack. He stops, drops the cymbal dangling from an index finger, and stares. His too bright gaze travels down my scantily, and very sweaty, clad body and back up. When our eyes meet, he grins. “Come to help?”
“No.” I have no idea what makes me do it, but I snatch his cymbal off the floor and carry it into his apartment. I’m asking for trouble, but can’t seem to stop myself. They follow me inside, jaws still slack. Okay, so I’m cute, but not worthy of jaws dropping. I plop it down on his couch and rush back to the door. Taking on Seth doesn’t scare me, but a crew of hotties is a little much.
His strong fingers wrap around my shoulder before I make it through the walkway. It’s not controlling or holding me back. His hand is simply resting on me. “Hey, thanks. I’m sorry if we…uh…interrupted your day.”
His words sound sincere and slightly slurred, and I can’t find it in my heart to be bitchy to the first guy in a long time that has only shown me kindness. I sigh and pivot to face him. “It’s not me I’m worried about. My sister is asleep.”
He glances at his watch and frowns.
“She’s recovering from an accident. So, if you don’t mind, keep it down in the halls.”
He leans forward. “Will do and I’m sorry.”
When he enters my personal space, my heart speeds up. His eyes stare into mine. I feel this incredible connection, like he knows my pain. Like he can see my guilt.
The distance between us seems to be shrinking, and I’m not sure if it’s me shuffling closer or him.
He snags the zipper on my jacket and runs it up and down. “Is she going to be okay?”
I pluck at a button on his shirt and glance up. “Eventually.”
His friends form a half-moon circle around him and gape at me. I flick a glance at each of them. They all have a very different style of dress, which only raises more questions about the man in front of me. “Am I the first girl they’ve ever seen?”
Blondie, with the coal lined eyes, on the left snickers. “In Seth’s apartment? Hell, yes.”
Seth elbows him, but grins.
The tall guy in a kind of hot-nerd ensemble leans over and shakes my hand. “Deacon. Would you like a beer?”
I eye the leering men again. “It looks like you started without me, and I’m not into gang-bangs.” I disengage the overlong hand play with the nerd and back away from the group. “G., I’ll catch you later.”
“Hey, wait. I’ll walk you back over.”
The hotties chuckle, high-five, and rib Seth as we walk toward the hall. He shuts the door to their gazes and catches my hand before I can cross back to my apartment. “Hey, are you going to tell me your name?”
“Nah, this is more fun.”
“Why?”
“I think you’re used to having your way.”
He smiles. “Maybe.” He leans against his door and crosses his arms. His smile slips into a smug grin I’d seen on so many rich boys in this city. He thinks he has me. “I’d like to have my way with you.”
He’s quite the talker when he’s sauced. Good to know. It’s nice to see his thoughts. “That’s the beer talking.” I step close, arch up on tip-toe, and tap a finger to his slightly parted lips. “A few hours ago, you didn’t have much to say. I’m okay with keeping this awkward tension between us. It’s all we’ll ever have.”
He scowls at that and twists the knob back to his apartment. “Whatever.”
Mission accomplished. I’d succeeded in pissing him off. If he stayed mad at me, then we could squash this weird attraction that we obviously both feel.
I grin. “Bye, G.”
His brows dip low, and I shove the door behind me, sagging against it. My breath swooshes out from between my clenched teeth. Damn, he is going to be trouble. I feel it all the way to my pinky toe.
A soft knock against my back drives home the point. I twirl and open the door before he disturbs Molly—or maybe because I’m not ready to share him with her yet. “What?”
He tucks a hand into the waistband of my shorts and hauls me into the hall, pulling my door shut behind me. “Where did you get that?” His gaze lingers on the small bump decorating my forehead.
I reach up and touch the sore knot. “Oh, I fell.”
“How?” He raises his free hand and traces the swelling.
I don’t even feel the careful prodding. No, my concentration is solely focused on the fingers tucked inside my shorts and only inches away from becoming way too familiar with me. “Um…I was doing yoga when you guys came down the hall.”
“And?” He tugs me closer. His thumb rakes a small path below my belly button.
Oh my. “Uh…I fell out of…of…my pose and banged my head on the floor.”
His eyes darken and those beautiful lips part. I want to snake my tongue across the bottom one to find out if it is as soft as it looks.
He winces and lowers his eyes to mine. “So this is my fault?”
I grab onto his wandering hand and pull it free of my shorts. If I didn’t, I’d be asking him for a wall orgasm in less than two minutes and random teasing and fleeing was a no go for me now. “No. It was an accident. Lighten up, G.”
“I don’t want to cause you pain.”
Wow, that feels like a loaded proclamation. “Okay. Well, keep the noise down, and we should be good.”
He drops the hand that had been rubbing away my bruise. Funny, I’d totally forgotten it. “I don’t want to cause you pain. It’s a personal thing.” A deep shudder races over him, and for some reason, I don’t think he is with me anymore.
“You didn’t. I’m fine.” I lift a hand and cup the side of his face, bringing his gaze to mine. It is the gentlest moment I’ve ever had with a man, and we’ve just met. “I’m not sure what this is, but I think I should go inside.”
He glances down the corridor, takes a deep breath, and nods. “Yes, you should.”
“Go play with your friends. Be men or whatever that means, and I’ll go back to my yoga.” I was going to need it after this.
He groans and drops his head back, his hint of an Adam’s Apple bobbing down the column of his neck, begging for my tongue to taste him there. “Did you have to bring that back to mind?”
I grin. “What? Me all hot and sweaty in contorted positions? Do you like that?”
He groans, and one side of his mouth slants up. “I have things to do and don’t need no-named neighbors distracting me.”
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About The Author
Rachel Firasek spends her days daydreaming of stories and her nights putting the ideas to ink. She has spent a dull life following the rules, meeting deadlines, and toeing the line, but in her made up worlds, she can let the wild side loose. Her wonderful husband and three children support her love of the written word and only ask for the occasional American Idol or Swamp People quality hour.
She has a philosophy about love. It must devastate or it isn’t truly worth loving. She hopes that you all find your devastating love and cling to it with all your heart!
She has a philosophy about love. It must devastate or it isn’t truly worth loving. She hopes that you all find your devastating love and cling to it with all your heart!
Links:
Website: http://www.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
The White Light at the End of the Tunnel
One of my Facebook friends asked me a really great question, and I thought it’d make a great blog post. So, we’ll see.
“…give background on the white light at the end of the tunnel that drove you to push the book to get finished when you had so much going on.”
Well, so here goes. Drowning was created in my car, driving down I-35, the winter of 2011. I know, that’s so long ago. I was finishing the last of a paranormal series and needed a switch. So, I let the characters percolate.
In January 2012, I found a knot on my neck. After a couple of doctor’s appointments, a biopsy, several more doctor’s appointments, being incorrectly diagnosed and treated for whooping cough, I discovered I needed surgery. It’s now October 2012. Surgery was a success, and I was left without a thyroid. Two weeks later, I found out I had stage III thyroid cancer and would need RAI (radioactive iodine treatment.)
I had roughly 30 days from the time I found out I had cancer to the date of my treatment. And it was NANOWRIMO time. For any of you that don’t know. Every November, writers all over the world go crazy and try to kick out a 50K novel in a month.
I didn’t really know that much about my cancer or how crappy my quality of life was about to be for the next few months, but I knew that I wasn’t going to sit around and mope. So, I wrote a novel…well, most of it. I worked on Drowning until my treatment, and as soon as they let me out of quarantine and I quite glowing (joking, but only barely) I got back to the book.
I’ve been through several scans this year, and they always beat me down a bit, but I’m well on the road to recovery. And I’ll be a writing beast for a while. Writing is my white light. It’s what kept me sane when most would have lost it. It’s what brings me back from the depression that have the C word can give you.
So…that’s been my last two years of producing this book. Not that exciting, but certainly filled with emotion. And because of this, I’ll always be just a little bit more in love with this book than any others.
To have a chance at winning an eCopy of Drowning, I’d love to know what brings you back from the dark. Is it your kids? Hubby? Knitting? Please feel free to share. Let’s get some good conversation going.
Author interview
What do you hope readers take away from Drowning?
Author interview
Can you tell readers a little bit about yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?Rachel: I’m a thirty-ish Texas native who corals two teens and husband that puts all of my heroes to shame. I have a sprawling spread of Mesquite trees and sheep in a hidden country community of Central Texas. I’m a switch. Sometimes I like paranormal, horror, or just a sweet romance, but it’s always romance. When I stumbled upon NA Contemporary romances, I just knew I’d found a home
When and why did you begin writing?
Rachel: I started writing when I was a teen, but lost time and interest in my early twenties. When I hit thirty I decided to dig back in and to try to make a go of this gig.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Rachel: A writer or an author? I’ve always been a writer, but I considered myself an author when I signed the contract on my first sale, Piper’ s Fury.
Tell us your latest news?
Rachel: Well, you know that I have Drowning out. But…prior to Drowning, I worked with two great authors to write and produce a Halloween Anthology that ended up hitting best seller lists! I think that’s pretty awesome news. Oh, and I’m still going to try to make it to RT14! Who else is going?
What inspired you to write your first book?
Rachel: Well, my first book ever was a 98 page short story due for an assignment in my 9th grade English class. It was a historical fantasy with a heroine named Amethyst (that of course had purple eyes, because that’s what color eyes I wanted) and a white steed. Now the horse didn’t belong to the knight, oh no, that was Amethyst’s ride that she used to save the knight who was locked in a tower. Yes, there was even a touch of the feminist in me back then.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Rachel: Almost all of my stories have a “get over yourself” theme. I’ll explain: When things happen in our lives that are difficult to overcome, we have two options: Get over it and move on, or wallow in whatever pity party that’s happening at the moment. I want to find the way to dig out of the party even when everything seems to want to keep you there. So, mostly that’s my themes.
What books have most influenced your life most?
Rachel: I read for entertainment, not for self-growth so I don’t know that any book has had a huge impact. I write for my therapy, but I do know that even though everyone moans and groans about the Twilight series, I’ve read it 8 times. Take away the creepy age gap, the dead and alive elements, and the weird lack of parenting, and it’s a truly innocent story meant to make us fall in love with romance again.
What are three things that always make you smile?
Rachel: My hubby, my kids, and my happy readers…notice—I said happy.
Just for fun, who would you single out as your number one celebrity crush, and what would you like most to do with/to them?
Rachel: Johnny Depp. I adore his versatility. I'd have him dress up as Sweeny Todd and sing and dance with me in a ratty bakery. *cackles maniacally*
If you could live a day in the world of someone else's story, whose would you choose, and why?What do you hope readers take away from Drowning?
Rachel: I want them to be moved. I want them to be jerked out of their comfy beds with soft pillows in the middle of the night and remember that sometimes, somewhere, there’s a child doing the same thing…only it’s not a nightmare they’re living through—it’s their life. I want everyone to realize that we’re all a pile of mistakes waiting to happen. It’s okay to take a wrong turn as long as you find the right way home. But most importantly, I want everyone to know that love does conquer all when the will is strong.
What do you love most about your hero?
Rachel: I love that he’s a little messed up. He makes bad calls and doesn’t always fit the typical hero profile…but then again, most of my heroes don’t. Oh… and he plays drums…and is damn hot…and he writes music…should I keep going?
What about your heroine:
Rachel: Alice? Let me tell you… There’s not one thing that I don’t love about Alice. She’s so twisted. She’s a tease. She’s a strong person. She’s weak. She’s humble. She’s hot. She’s. Just. Like. You. &. Me.
Why did you create Drowning?
Rachel: It’s not often that I’ve stepped out of the box. But, my very first editor told me once to take the dark inside me and turn it into something. Well…that’s what I did. No, I’m not Alice…but I’m close. I know that pain…that terror…and I know what it’s like to overcome it…as much as anyone that’s lived through abuse can. (No, E. Harrison is not my father. I promise. But there was someone like him in my life once.)
What’s next?
Rachel: Well, I’m working on book 2. Burning and hope to have it out Spring of 2014. I’m also working on a new Contemp NA titled Something After. It’s not quite as dark as Drowning, but almost as twisted—if not more so.
Rachel, this book sounds amazing I cant wait to read it. I want to tell you about my own personal - white light at the end of the tunnel. On the 5th November 2012 I was told I had a polypodial tumour in my bowel and they was treating it as cancer. As A mum this is the worst moment anyone not just mums dreads. Especially since they told me it had been there a long time, my thought were if they were going to tell me it was to late and I was going to have to tell my 3 children goodbye. Thankfully it was benign, and it was removed. My white light at the end of the tunnel is my kids, my husband and reading, after worrying about the kids I thought oh no I wont be able to read anymore ha, reading is my escapism .
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