Better To Have Loved by Christy Jackson Nicholas (Excerpt, review and GIVEAWAY) GFT

Better To Have Loved
by Christy Nicholas

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GENRE: Women's Fiction/Romance

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BLURB:

Based on a true story.


In 1967, Julie was searching for adventure. What she found was herself, alone and pregnant, in a foreign country.

In 1985, Kristen was searching for her father. But did he want to be found?

Follow these two young women in a tale of a 30 year search for true love.

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EXCERPT

1967, East Grinstead, England

Juggling her large battered suitcase and her portfolio over her back, Julie trudged up the gravel driveway to the huge manor house. Her feet were terribly unhappy with the long trip from the bus stop, and the portfolio kept catching the wind, threatening to make her into a kite’s tail with each gust.

Saint Hill Manor was palatial. Perhaps it was indeed a palace.

She could count at least twenty windows in the façade. How many rooms did it have? Certainly there were dozens of people shuffling in and out of the place. It was like a beehive of activity.

“You! Girl! Have you checked in yet?” A gruff voice with a London accent called out above the din.

Julie turned around to find an older man with a fringe of white hair around his head pointing a clipboard at her.

“I… no, I don’t know where—“

“Over here, quickly now. What’s your name?” He started flipping through the pages, looking up at her when she didn’t immediately supply him with information.

“Jensen. Julie Jensen. From Detroit.” She put down her suitcase and portfolio while he searched for her name. The wind picked up, tossing her thick chestnut-brown curls into her face. With disgust, she pulled them back out of her eyes and repaired the ponytail loosened by travel.

She looked again at the grand house. Would she be in one of the upper rooms? Perhaps with a view across the extensive gardens? She smiled at the idea of waking up to such a view each morning.

“Aha! Found you. You’re down in Hayward’s Heath. Just a half mile down the path there. It used to be servant’s quarters. You’re in Unit C. Next!” He dismissed her and looked to an Indian woman in a bright blue sari.


Amazon link

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Christy Nicholas, also known as Green Dragon, has her hands in many crafts, including writing, digital art, beaded jewelry, writing, and photography. In real life, she's a CPA, but having grown up with art all around her (her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are/were all artists), it sort of infected her, as it were. She loves to draw and to create things. She says it's more of an obsession than a hobby. She likes looking up into the sky and seeing a beautiful sunset, or seeing a fragrant blossom or a dramatic seaside. She takes a picture or creates a piece of jewelry as her way of sharing this serenity, this joy, this beauty with others. Sometimes this sharing requires explanation - and thus she writes. Combine this love of beauty with a bit of financial sense and you get an art business. She does local art and craft shows, as well as sending her art to various science fiction conventions throughout the country and abroad.

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GIVEAWAY


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The tour dates can be found here

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My review:
  
3.75 out of 5 stars

Better to Have Loved by Christy Jackson Nicholas is a story centering around a young artist, Julie, and her adventures during the late 60s, interspersed with the saga of a young girl, Kirsten, and her persistent search for her never-met father. Julie’s career as an employee of a church takes her to several countries and across the United States and she encounters several individuals who will change her life forever. Kirsten has her own journey to undertake and must decide whether she can live with the results she has or if it is worthwhile to continue.

 

The title refers to a well-known phrase by Tennyson and this story indeed prompts one to contemplate the truth of the maxim.  Julie’s travels are intriguingly described by the author, particularly the laid-back psychedelic culture of San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury, and one gets a glimpse of multiple countries throughout the story.  I am not a big fan of flashbacks and it was disconcerting to me to shift between Kirsten and Julie’s stories, plus I was a bit puzzled about the church Julie worked with and how and why it was so pervasive and needed a publicity department.  It was disappointing to me that there was not more depth to most of the other characters as the majority of the story is in Julie's point of view. There are several particularly heart-wrenching events that are covered, and one has to admire Julie’s courage in living her life as she pleased but I was not impressed by Paul, despite the ultimate outcome of their relationship.  

Learning that the story is a homage to the author’s parents and that there are distinctly autobiographical elements to the tale makes it a little uncomfortable to critique these characters but I can truly say that I admire the courage and tenacity displayed by both Julie and Kirsten and salute their real-life models for being willing to share their story with the world.  I think this story will be appreciated by those who enjoy memoirs as well as those who would like to read about an intrepid woman who was not afraid to open up her heart to others and experience new cultures and new and sometimes risky adventures.

  A copy of this title was provided to me for review

Grace Revealed: A Memoir by Greg Archer (VNBtM, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY)

I have the pleasure of a guest post...

From Greg Archer, author of Grace Revealed: A Memoir

We are never handed a “Growth Manual” when we enter this life. We often learn by observation and tend to integrate things from there—or try to. Often, we’re left spending a good portion of our adult lives trying to decipher what the hell happened to us before we arrived at this curious new place of WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME?

If we had had been provided a Growth Manual, we could possibly sit more comfortably knowing—even in the midst of great uncertainty—that when it comes to growth—real growth and personal development—comfort rarely factors into the mix. That comes later. And then … there is more lessons to learn; more opportunities for growth.

I bring all this up at the moment because, well, it all came up when I was proposed a recent question: “What scares you the most or makes you the happiest about writing?”

What an opportunity to dive deep with that one.

What scares me the most about writing is that the notion that the “high” that typically comes from it will not nor will ever be available—ever again. At all. Nothing. Zip.

There have been so many moments during my writing time when that connection to something larger than the Me I think I know is so evident that that Me seems to take a backseat to, well, Me. It becomes the curious observer as to what is taking place—which is the act of creation. Many creatives note that they feel as if they are a kind of “vessel” from which creativity can flow through. I relate to that very much and once sparked by an idea, off and creating—and writing—I go. This does not only apply to writing however—many people experience this when they are living in their Flow. (Isn’t that why we’re often reminded to “go with the flow?”)

In any case, with writing, I notice there is sometimes a fear of never arriving at that moment of ‘ah-ha” ever again—as if it was just this one-time occurrence.

One trip to the Smorgasbord line. “That was all you get. No more!”

That is all the Universe has to offer. Move along now.

I am so often proven wrong.

Which brings me to what makes me most happiest—that high that typically accompanies that free fall into the creative portals where there is no time / space.

In terms of my latest book, Grace Revealed: a memoir … I believe that the most frightening thing about moving through that was the intense emotion that came with creating it. It was unlike any other writing and creative journey I ever experienced. Had it been fiction, I still may have been effected by the family’s story arc—think Spielberg film—however the fact that I was exploring and uncovering my Polish family’s nearly forgotten odyssey—and the odyssey of nearly one million Polish people, in fact—during Stalin’s mass deportations of Polish people during the early 1940s, sent me deeply into the past and into a tale of survival that was both mesmerizing and haunting. Additionally, there was this great push from within to bring justice to the story of the Polish people who were sent to the Gulags, and who later became refugees traveling throughout Southern Russia, Uzbekistan, Tehran and later, Karachi, India, before finding refuge in Eastern Africa, and other portals around the world during that time.

With today’s feverish growth of interest in ancestry and genealogy, I have found at recent book events that readers are more deeply interested in their heritage than ever before. The desire to know where they came from; what happened before them … is undeniably strong. Often fierce. Have you noticed it, too?

I have told people to “go there; explore, ask questions” from their family members; that they may learn so much more about them—and themselves—than they ever imagined.

Which brings us full circle. Growth. It makes sense that we are often never told that when it comes to real growth, real transformation, that it is often not comfortable. Who would sign up for such a thing? And yet, at some point during our lives, we are given major opportunities—as I had been given to step deeply into my family’s past—to shed the armor we are wearing, forget what we think we know about ourselves and free fall into a kind of abyss, trusting that on the other side, we’ll find our footing again on softer pastures, where the scenery looks entirely different.


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Grace Revealed: A Memoir

by Greg Archer

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BLURB:

GREG ARCHER is an author, cultural moderator, award-winning journalist, television host and motivational speaker. His latest book, Grace Revealed: a memoir, goes from glitz to the Gulags as the popular entertainment reporter takes a step back from Hollywood to explore his Polish family’s mesmerizing tale surviving Joseph Stalin’s mass deportation of Poles during the 1940s. What he uncovers along the way fuels his mission to not only expose the nearly forgotten odyssey that befell nearly 2 million Poles 75 years ago, but to also expose the ripple effects that remain today.

“Powerful, touching and heartfelt.”—The Huffington Post

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EXCERPT


How had my family served me by example?

As I slipped into the front seat of my very low-resting Mazda Miata, cursing the fact that despite nearly a decade of Bikram Yoga, middle age was beginning to have its way with my Polish hips, I thanked the Universe for the interview. And, seeing that I had arrived at such a dramatic turning point—bored; how could you be bored?—I naturally asked for a sign on what I needed to do.

The broken picture frames flashed before my eyes.

I had been given a sign months ago. How many more signs did I need to receive? The message was clear: “Look at your family; look at their past.”

What? Did I want a much more flashy sign? Something like, “Hey, you’re going to be on the receiving end of buckets of cash if you turn right instead of left at the next traffic light?

Yes. Yes I did want that sign.

Still, when The Powers That Be instruct you to do something, you must do it. I had avoided doing what I was told and now I was weary, tired, listless and unhappy.

I turned the key in the ignition and sighed in frustration.

How the hell did I get here?

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:


GREG ARCHER
Author, Journalist, Cultural Moderator, More …



GREG ARCHER’s work covering agents of change, history, travel and the entertainment industry have appeared in The Huffington Post, Oprah Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, The Advocate, Bust, Palm Springs Life, VIA Magazine, Jetset Extra and on variety of cable television outlets. A four-time recipient of the Best Writer Award in a popular San Francisco Bay Area Readers' Poll, he shines the light on change agents near and far, and other under-reported issues in society. His splits his time between his hometown of Chicago, and Palm Springs.


Website
Grace Revealed: A Memoir SITE
Grace Revealed: A Memoir on Facebook
TWITTER @Greg_Archer


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GIVEAWAY

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Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here