Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Blog Tour, Review and Giveaway: The Edge of You by Theresa DaLayne




The Edge of You by Theresa DaLayne
Published by: Bloomsbury Spark
Publication date: September 25th 2014
Genres: New Adult, Romance


Synopsis:
He left home to escape. She made a new life out of guilt. Neither one expected to find love—but not even the Arctic can cool this steamy romance.
Maya knows she’s doing the right thing by moving to Alaska with her parents, but that doesn’t mean she has to be happy about it. Forced to give up a scholarship to a prestigious art school, she relocates to a Podunk town with one college the size of her high school cafeteria, all to help hold her family together after the death of her little sister. But a fresh start can only do so much.

Jake doesn’t like handouts and he certainly doesn’t need any distractions. Working on a salmon boat in Kodiak, Alaska is the only way to pay for his mother’s surgery back in the lower forty-eight. Juggling college courses and constant worry about his mother’s health, Jake couldn’t imagine anything else fitting into his life. That is, until he meets Maya, the sexy Californian artist who tints his world in technicolor.

But when Maya’s family starts to crumble and Jake’s mom takes a turn for the worse, will they drag each other down, or can they find what they were missing all along?

In this new adult romance, Theresa DaLayne paints a swoon-worthy story about life under the midnight sun, following your heart, and learning to live on the edge.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22512074-the-edge-of-you?from_search=true

http://amzn.to/1BvT3qthttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-edge-of-you-theresa-dalayne/1120219585?ean=9781619637801



What happened affected us all Maya.  It ruined all of our lives. Not just yours."

The Edge of You by Theresa DaLayne is a story about finding your niche in life after tragedy.  The story of Maya and Jake will warm your heart and have you hoping that they will both have the happily ever after that they both desperately wish for.  I rate this book 3.5 stars and recommend that other read this amazing story!

The story opens with Maya leaving the only home that she has ever known in California, her art scholarship at a prestigious institute and moving to Kodiak, Alaska with her parents in the hope of starting over after the death of her little sister Grace.  Although Maya is old enough to be on her own, she is worried that her sister's death will continue to break her family apart and she carries the weight of keeping everyone together on her shoulders.  Moving to the incredibly small town of Kodiak is the last thing that she wants to do, but the guilt she has over Grace's drowning has her packing her bags along with her parents for what they hope is a fresh start. 

Jake has struggled his entire life to pick himself up and be better than the trailer park that he was raised in by his single mother.  Staying in Kodiak to work on a fishing boat while attending classes online and at the small University on the island, he has no time for a life, no time for a relationship beyond family ties.  His yearning for something more for his life has him worrying and working non-stop to achieve what he believes is the unattainable.  Along with all of these stresses that he places on himself, he worries for his mother who lives in Washington State, who is sick and lives with her deadbeat boyfriend.

Jake and Maya meet in an art class, one Maya was looking forward to as an escape from the distress she is feeling at home with her father working  non-stop at the Coast Guard base and her mother secretly drinking again behind the closed doors of her room.  Maya being a forward California girl at heart, befriends Jake as she knows no one on the island and is extremely lonely and homesick.  The friendship begins to blossom into something so much more, something Maya seems to embrace but Jake questions at every turn.

It is only when Jake struggles to find another job after the fishing boat he worked on burns to the ground and his mother is fighting for her life, needing a surgery that they cannot afford that everything seems to take a turn for the worse.  He doesn't know how he will leave Maya to return to Washington, to the loser he believes he is, in order to care for his mother without breaking both of their hearts in the process.

All of the struggles that Maya and Jake face are completely relatable to the reader, and it is the way that the author writes them that sucks you into this story, yearning for more, hoping for more for both of them.

"Maybe he had already found what made him feel alive.  Maybe he didn't need to keep looking because maybe, just maybe, she was already in his arms."


Theresa DaLayne is a north-south-east-western kind of girl with a quirky personality to match her nomad life. Born in California, she migrated to three different cities in Washington State, a tiny island in Alaska, North Carolina, and finally to the suburbs of Ohio where she currently lives with her husband, three kids, vegetarian cat, and her ungrateful fish.

Always on the lookout for a new story, Theresa is a shameless eavesdropper and will take anyone who provides inspiration and mold them into a character without a second thought. She enjoys writing both paranormal and contemporary stories, considering her mind wanders between worlds of fantasy while she’s forced to live in the real world, very much against her will.

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