This is the Wonder by Tracey Ward
Publication date: February 19th 2015
Genres: Comedy, New Adult, Romance
Synopsis: From the moment I saw him – all blue eyes and American pie – I knew I’d never be the same.Determined to escape the pressure of her impending graduation, Wren Porter chooses to take a semester in Europe. She’s there to study, party, and hide from the question that’s haunting her – What’s next?At least that’s the plan until one night in Munich when she meets Jax, an American soldier stationed overseas. He’s charming, he’s handsome, and in one small act of kindness he becomes Wren’s own personal hero. Suddenly the two are swept up in a mad romance that will cross countries, break laws, and leave them both breathless.But Jax has questions about his own future and when reality comes calling their bond is put to the test. Are they only meant to have the nights they shared together in Europe, or could they be so much more?Could they be the future they’ve both been looking for?
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Excerpt :
Outside the pub is dark and cold, the wind coming off the Thames taking form in a swirling fog that lines the walkway leading to the bridge. Tall lampposts pepper the trail, their iron bases gothic and thick, coated in black paint that makes them look menacing and strange. The rain clings to them, obscuring the large yellow glowing globes at their tops and giving the world an underwater feeling, a thickness and body to the air.
We walk slowly not speaking much. We pass people who nod and wish us a good evening and at some point Jax takes my hand in his, pulling me in to walk so close to him that our bundled up bodies brush against each other with each step. I like the feeling. Of both him next to me and the clench of his cold fingers on my skin.
Wordlessly he leads me to the large stone railing that runs along the river and we stand side by side, our hands still grasped, and we watch boats traverse up and down the dark waters. It’s getting colder and I take a half step closer to him, burrowing into his side. He releases my hand and slowly lifts his arm, wrapping it around my shoulder lightly as though asking permission. I give it by stepping even closer, tucking in under his arm and resting my head in the curve between his shoulder and neck.
We stand there like that until my hands begin to go numb and the boats are few and far between. Until his grip on my shoulder tightens and his pulse pounds against my temple, wild and erratic. Until I lift my head to look up into his fathomless blue eyes and my heart misses a beat, then stumbles forward in double time. Until his face lowers, mine rises, and our lips meet in a flicker flame moment of heat sparking and burning soft and low in the cold London air.
The cold pushes us from the streets to our hotel room and I nervously lay down with him on one of the double beds in our room. I kiss him slowly, my mouth lingering over his lips and my hands staying still on his arms, reminding myself and him to take it slow. That this is our first kiss and I want to savor it. I’m afraid of how far he’ll try to take it. Of that awful moment when the perfection of where we are slips away from us and a boundary has to be formed.
But Jax never wanders. He never pushes, and eventually the kissing turns to holding and I’m in his arms in the dark and he’s pulling a blanket up over us. He’s brushing his mouth over the top of my head and whispering goodnight, and I’m lit up like the moon. I’m glowing and hovering high above the earth, untouchable. Unreachable. Enveloped in the infinite span of space and time with nothing but the beat of his heart, the pull of his breaths, to hold me down.
AUTHOR BIO:"I don't write romances, I write relationships. One is pretty and perfect and all consuming. The other is real."
I was born in Eugene, Oregon and studied English Literature at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!) I love writing all kinds of genres from YA Dystopian to New Adult Romance, the common themes between them all being strong character development and a good dose of humor.
My husband, son, and snuggly pitbull are my world.
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Looks like a great read would love to read.
ReplyDeleteIt does!
DeleteI enjoyed the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt was really good!
DeleteI like the sound of this.
ReplyDeleteMe too :)
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