Asylum by Betsy Adams (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

 

 

Asylum

by

 Betsy Adams

 

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GENRE:   Contemporary Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

Adela is an immigration judge from one of San Diego’s wealthiest Mexican-American families. She was raised to believe she has nothing in common with the asylum seekers in her courtroom. Paul left behind his life as a Manhattan lawyer to volunteer at the border. He has lost faith in the system, but not those who still turn to it for justice. Adela and Paul come to the Tijuana/San Diego border searching, but neither one knowing exactly what for—until they find each other. Against the backdrop of the “Remain in Mexico” policy and restrictions on asylum, Adela and Paul fight for love in a system that seems determined to destroy it.

 

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EXCERPT

 

 

Judge Adela Fernandez was curious about the new lawyer in her courtroom.  It wasn’t what he said, or the high school Spanish she overheard from the bench.  No, that didn’t impress her. 

           

It was what he didn’t say.  The way he listened to his client, the young man at his side with caramel skin several shades lighter than Adela’s.  How he leaned in and his client didn’t back away.  There was trust between them, that rarest of resources at the border these days. 

 

Adela had never seen this kind of trust in the eyes of an asylum seeker.  More common were blank, numb stares, or terrified eyes searching for answers.  Those were the eyes she saw every day in her courtroom, and every night as she closed her own and tried to sleep.

 

It took time to build trust, time that the “Remain in Mexico” policy did not allow.  This policy effectively ended legal representation for asylum seekers by forcing them to wait in Mexican border towns as their cases crawled through the U.S. legal system.  Tens of thousands of migrants from all over the world were stuck in makeshift refugee camps, preyed upon by local cartels.  Lawyers stayed away.  Except this one, apparently.  

 

“DHS Docket Number 19-24231.”  The clerk’s announcement drew Adela out of her thoughts.    

 

“Thank you, Gabe,” Adela said, glancing at the case file. 

 

The lawyer’s name was Paul Carter, and he was the attorney of record for Adela’s first asylum case that afternoon.  His client was Jorge Sanchez, a twenty-six year old asylum seeker from El Salvador.  His collared shirt was way too loose and clearly borrowed for the occasion.  Adela’s eyes lingered on the backpack at his feet.  It held everything Jorge would carry with him into his new life, if she granted his asylum claim.

 

 

 

 

Buy links:

 

E-book on sale for $.99 for a limited time (please check price before purchasing)

Amazon link (Kindle)

 

Amazon link (print)

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

 

Betsy Adams is a pen name adopted to honor two smart, romantic women - Betsy Ross and Abigail Adams.

 

Betsy Ross chose love over her Quaker religion and her family. At the age of twenty-one, she eloped with fellow upholstery apprentice and non-Quaker John Ross. After their union, Betsy’s family and the Quaker community cut all ties with her. In her eighty-four years, Betsy was married three times and ran a successful upholstery business. There is much more to Betsy Ross than sewing the first American flag. Someone make a biopic, please!

The love between Abigail and John Adams is legendary, and documented in over 1,000 intimate and cerebral letters. In 1776, Abigail famously told her husband that the new nation must “remember the ladies,” but in the pages of their letters, these two lovers were equals in their passion for each other and ideas.

 

Betsy Adams lives with her family in a coastal town on Long Island (New York). She is the creator of the Americans in Love romance series. In these novella-length books, couples divided by the issues of our day try to find their happily ever after.

 

Links:

Website

 

Instagram:  @americansinlove

 

Facebook Page

 

Reedsy Discovery Page

 

Goodreads Page

 

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GIVEAWAY

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

The tour dates can be found here

  

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My review:

4.5 stars

 

 

Asylum by Betsy Adams is part of the ‘Americans in Love’ series and follows the path that Judge Adela Fernandez takes after her life intersects with lawyer Paul Carter as he pleads the cases of the asylum seekers he’s representing. Their personal attraction is overshadowed by the risks to their respective professional lives. As they decide what goals to pursue, danger escalates, and they must decide what is truly important…even if destruction follows.

 

This contemporary romance is both touching and horrifying, because it sheds light on a challenging and heartbreaking situation. The vivid depictions of the frustrating catch-22 that faces those who are fleeing for their lives only to be met with a bewildering and dehumanizing gauntlet while trying to immigrate to the U.S. draws one into the story even as it inspires one to remember the importance of empathy. There are citations and insights presented at the end of the story that explain that the multiple frightening episodes in the story are based on fact, which is even more alarming. I think this story is thought-provoking and emotional, and I am more enlightened after having read it.

 

 

A copy of this story was provided for review