Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Blog Tour: The Way Life Turns by April Kelley & Bronwyn Heeley (Guest Post, Review + Giveaway)


TITLE: The Way Life Turns
SERIES: A BonyDee Press Challenge
AUTHOR(s): April Kelley & Bronwyn Heeley
PUBLISHED: February 19 2016
PUBLISHER: BonyDee Press
COVER ARTIST: Bronwyn Heeley
WORD COUNT: 20133
CATEGORY/TAG: contemporary romance
HEAT LEVEL: 4
COUPLING: male male


BUY LINKS


BLURB
What happens when two men are in very different places in their relationship?
Almost from the start of their relationship, Jonah was in love with Scott. Scott doesn’t share that same sentiment. Jonah finds out exact how Scott feels about him the hard way, when he sees Scott in a compromising position with someone else. How they react becomes the challenge two authors have set out to solve. Will there be forgiveness or misery as Jonah reacts to what Scott has done?
EXCERPT
He had his head down and didn’t lift it when he heard a horn beep. That was a common enough sound in the city and didn’t necessarily mean it was meant for him.
It wasn’t until he heard his name shouted that he looked up. Scott had the window down on the passenger’s side of the car.
“What are you doing, babe? Need a ride somewhere?” Scott asked.
Jonah hesitated. The only thing that was going through his mind was the picture of Scott with his condom-covered cock waving around like a damned flag as he tried to explain himself.
How were they supposed to come back from that? It seemed impossible to start dating again. If Jonah could erase what happened from his memory than he would, but it played like a fucking tape recorder in his mind and made him look at Scott differently now.
“Naw, I’d rather walk,” Jonah said. He watched as Scott’s window went up. He sighed and turned, walking away from his ex-whatever-the-hell-they-were. Ex-friend probably described them best. After all, they’d been friends for several years, from school years, before they decided to start dating. Why the hell they decided to date was anyone’s guess. Jonah was stupid to have even started something with Scott because now he’d lost one of his best friends just as he was starting to fall in love with him.
“Wait up, Babe,” Scott said from behind him, right before a car door slammed shut. He thought their little morning after encounter was finished. Seeing Scott so soon after what Jonah was starting to refer to as the incident was too soon.
Jonah stopped long enough for Scott to catch up with him.
“I was coming to your apartment to see you,” Scott said as he walked beside him. Scott held his hand out, silently asking Jonah if he could hold his hand. Jonah shook his head and shoved his hands even further in his pockets. Scott sighed.
“I wasn’t home.”
Scott didn’t say anything for the longest time. The silence was uncomfortable as they turned the corner toward the small café.
“I thought we could talk this morning. Clear up this mess we created,” Scott said as they got to the café.
“The mess you created, you mean.”
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie in exchange for a fair and honest review. ***

 Jonah and Scott recently started dating, although they've been interested in each other since high school. However, they are at very different stages in their relationship, as evidenced when Jonah finds Scott cheating on him at Jonah's sister's house. Would they be able to get past this or would they relationship be torn forever? 

 This book provides us with two very different takes on how this scenario could go. One of them is perhaps a bit more realistic, the other more fictionalized, but they were both enjoyable. I have to admit I probably liked the first version better, mostly because both Jonah and Scott made more of an effort to work through their issues. On the second one, I think Jonah took too much of the blame upon himself, for me to really like him, but even so, all's well that ends well. 

 Both versions are well-written, although I felt the first one flowed a bit better and the characters were a bit more relatable. Still, it was pretty neat to see how two authors could have such a different view regarding the same situation. Recommendable!

 Rating: 3.5 Stars! 



One night April and I (Bronwyn) were chatting, like we do almost every night. I can’t remember anymore how it came up, but it did. I think it had a lot to do with me starting to write YA and going through all my old manuscripts.
You see, I saw this book once, it was an accordion book, it was one story written two ways, a female MC on one side, the you flipped it and read it the other way and it was the male MC. And I loved it. I even had an idea straight away, “what if it was about cheating” but more…what if both side were written by two different authors. Only I didn’t know anyone back then and so it sat in a thought bubble in the back of my mind until this day.
If you’ve read one of the earlier guest posts you’ll understand how the conversation actually went, but that doesn’t matter, what mattered was that we got pumped, this idea, sparked with us both and so we had to write it out.
And hey if it gave us an idea of how co-writing a book would turn out then that was even better.
Sadly it’s shown us that we can’t, other than if we wanted to write a massive fantasy where she’s a human and I’m a dragon. Our writing styles are way too different for us to ever be able to write a book together. On the plus side when we do our next one (which is already in the making) we already know what works for us and what doesn’t so things will run a lot smoother.


Either way, I started excited about this one and I still am. I’m excited about the topic, though it’s cheating so I know straight away not everyone’s going to read it, but I think it works. I think it’s cheating only in the mind of Jonah in a way that you’ll understand. They weren’t officially dating, and I know, ‘but still’, if we lose readers for this one it’s better to know that now than when you read it, right.
I love April’s version, I love my own, I think they work well together and separately. For those of you who don’t like reading the same thing over, you don’t have to worry she’s writing the time straight after the event I’m two months later. We’ve even made sure not to add similar events into our stories. Tho, in saying this, it was entirely accidental. As I’d not read hers when I wrote mine. We spoke while writing and we in the end they are completely different, not only because of our writing, but because we are different people and how we interpreted the story shows as we wrote them

Anyway, hope I perked our interest and not ruined any chances of you reading it. *uncomfortable chuckle*

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
April Kelley

Living in Southwest Michigan, April resides with her husband and two kids. She has been an avid reader for several years. Ever since she wrote her first story at the age of ten, the characters in her head still won't stop telling their stories. If April isn't reading or writing, she can be found
outside playing with the animals or taking a long walk in the woods. If you wish to contact her, email authoraprilkelley@gmail.com. Please visit her website at authoraprilkelley.com
Bronwyn Heeley

I'll show you mine, if you'll show me yours... da da da da dum, author of MM romance
Serious I wanna know.
Email me at beeheeley@gmail.com
or on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/beeheeley
GIVEAWAY
A backlist book of winner choice from both authors' collection

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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