Hello, people! Today we have for you a Book Blitz post hosted by Asli @ Yah Gotta Read This for author Sarah Dlatry's book, Star of Bethlehem. Look below for all the book details, a short and sweet excerpt and the cute cover!
BOOK INFO:
Title: Star of Bethlehem (Flowering
holiday novella)
Author: Sarah Daltry
Release Date: 11/18/2013
Publisher: SDE Press
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Jack isn’t a rock star.
He’s not the leader of a MC. He isn’t a billionaire. Lily’s not the daughter of
a mob boss, or a stripper, or a virgin with a BDSM fascination. They’re just
regular college kids, who somehow found each other in the middle of all the
crap and chaos of growing up.
“With you, Jack, it was the first
time I ever felt real. It was the first time anyone looked at me and saw
substance. It was the first time I wanted to make someone see me.”
Jack and
Lily have navigated his past, her desire to move on from her family’s demands
of her, his depression, and her loneliness. Now, on New Year’s Eve, they have
an entire year laid out ahead of them. First, though, Jack needs to meet Lily’s
family, to be welcomed into her life. It’s intimidating, but with a sweater
that is way too hot and his grandmother’s ugly car, he arrives at Lily’s
gleaming house on a hill, ready to open himself up completely to her.
Inside
the perfect, sparkling house, Lily waits for the boy she has come to love. But
Lily’s house and family are a lot like her – shiny and pretty on the outside,
with a sad emptiness on the interior. Lily wants to give Jack the one thing he
has always dreamed of – family and love – but can she keep him from seeing how
hollow a lot of the picture perfect life he fantasizes about really is?
This is
a novella length work that follows Forget
Me Not and Lily of the Valley.
EXCERPT:
I take his hand and pull him down beside me on my
bed. I feel so complete in his arms, as if nothing can go wrong when he holds
me. It’s all the other stuff. The world, people, pressure. Maybe it’s a little
fear that things just ended with Derek. That one day, as quickly as I fell for
Jack, I also fell out of love with Derek. I don’t have enough experience to
know if that’s normal. What if it happens again?
“What? Tell me,” Jack whispers.
“Have you ever felt like your entire life is some
surrealist’s joke? That you think you’re in control of it, while really, you’re
probably just…”
“A melting clock?” he finishes and laughs. I look at
him, disappointed that I can’t explain it, but also relieved that he doesn’t
care.
“All the fucking time,” he says. “I know you’re
scared. I know I’m scared. But I seem
to remember you telling me that I should remember what matters. I made you a
promise, princess. Yes, your house intimidates me. Your life intimidates me. Hell, loving you intimidates me. But I’m in
this. I’m here. Present. Entirely. I’m looking only forward. And all I see is
you.”
“Take the damn book,” I tell him. “I just wanted to
show you that I have faith in us. It was a conscious decision to give you
something that was a very special gift to me, to tell you that I trust you with
it, because I trust you to be there. Long term.”
He takes me in his arms and kisses me. I decide I won’t
stop him if he goes further, but he doesn’t. Our bodies crackle with the energy
between us, but as much as the sex thrills me, Jack does so much more for my
mind than his body could even do. I can’t believe how alive I feel when he’s
near me. Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s desperate. But I want him here in
my life; I want him with me, because I love being this aware.
I speak against his cheek, while his hands slowly
explore my body. It’s sensual but not sexual. He’s studying me like a work of
art. “I don’t want to fall out of love with you. I thought Derek was all I ever
wanted. I don’t want to be in the same place with you a year from now.”
“You won’t be,” he tells me.
“How do you know?”
He kisses along my face, brushing his lips against
my cheek, my forehead, my nose, but never reaching my mouth. “I don’t know how.
But I do.”
I love that he can put aside his doubts to ease my
own. I know Jack’s had so much trouble in his life, and the fact that he can
comfort me, when my problems are so petty and stupid in the scheme of things,
is one more thing I love so much. “I know I’m shallow. But I don’t want to be,
Jack.”
“You’re not shallow. You’re not empty. Anything you
think of yourself – it’s crazy. If you want to talk about surreal, it’s the
fact that you think you’re less than something. Maybe you didn’t get shit on
the same way I did in high school, but clearly, people have underestimated you.
They missed out on you. And you have every right to be hurt. But, Lily? No one
will ever hurt you again.”
I smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry I’m being so moody. It’s
probably hormones or something. I think I’m just frustrated.”
“Yeah?” He laughs. “Well… I mean… I can help you
relieve some of that.”
He’s on top of me and I don’t care that it wasn’t exactly
what I meant. I don’t care that someone could walk in. Someone probably will walk in, since eventually they’ll
come looking, but I don’t care at all. I want to belong to Jack, and I don’t
know any other way to do so.
STAR OF BETHLEHEM PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON / AMAZON UK / SMASHWORDS / APPLE / BARNES AND NOBLE / ALL ROMANCE
For more about Jack and Lily’s story
check out Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley by Sarah Daltry-
FORGET ME NOT PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON / AMAZON UK / APPLE / SMASHWORDS / BARNES & NOBLE / KOBO / SONY / ALL ROMANCE / PAPERBACK
LILY OF THE VALLEY PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON / AMAZON UK / APPLE / SMASHWORDS / BARNES & NOBLE / KOBO / ALL ROMANCE / PAPERBACK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sarah
Daltry writes erotica and romance that ranges from sweet to steamy. She moves
around a lot and has trouble committing to things. Lily of the Valley is her
third full length novel, although she also has several story collections and
two novellas available. Her other novels are Forget Me Not, the story that
tells Lily’s version of events, and Bitter Fruits, which was available shortly,
but is now in the contract phase with a major publisher. When Sarah isn’t writing,
she tends to waste a lot of time checking Facebook for pictures of cats,
shooting virtual zombies, and simply staring out the window.
AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Thank you for stopping by and happy reading!
