I am excited to showcase a great debut novel from Meg Farrell. A Place to Stand is an incredible story filled with emotion, passion, loss, hurt, and love. Don’t miss out on this awesome book! Check out more about A Place to Stand, a couple of teasers, Tina’s Thoughts, and an excerpt!
Title: A Place to Stand
Author: Meg Farrell
Release Date: July 2014
Rhae Peters is happily married to her best friend, Ryan, who loves her more than anything in this world. Her life comes crashing down when the worst thing imaginable happens — Ryan is killed in an accident. Rhae is faced with figuring out how to continue living without him. He is all she has ever known. Adding insult to injury, she learns that Ryan was keeping secrets. The revelation causes her to question everything about their marriage.
With her life in turmoil, Rhae wants to start over and forget everything about Ryan, and the life she thought they had. She builds a coping mechanism out of her friends and family, including her neighbor Cade. Chivalrous and overwhelmingly handsome, Rhae feels the hand of propriety holding her back from pursuing more with him, despite all the clues that let her know he’s willing.
Rhae and Cade are broken in their own ways, and must help each other overcome the pasts and secrets that haunt them.
You can purchase your copy today at Amazon!
This book was incredible. It has everything I expected and so much more. This story evoked so many different emotions from me and I was actually crying (my roommates thought something was seriously wrong with me). A Place to Stand begins with Rhae grieving the sudden death of her husband. We see a catatonic woman who is trying to grieve and survive the loss of the only man she has ever loved. He was her high school sweet heart and they were married young, experiencing all the firsts of life together. As she processes her life after Ryan’s death, she makes some startling discoveries about her late husband that makes her questions everything they shared. Deciding to put her own person to the forefront and focus on who she is and what she wants, Rhae embarks on a journey of self discovery, learning how to heal and let the anger and sadness go, knowing that the events of the past months will forever change who she is.
My favorite aspect of this entire book is Rhae. Granted she is the primary character but she is fabulous. Rhae is able to wake up and deal with her grief. She takes what life throws in her face and makes the best of it. The book has many aspects of family, love, a second chance, but it focuses on the transformation of Rhae once tragedy strikes in so many facets. She feels deeply. She literally feels every emotion possible in her grief and you experience it all in a deep and powerful way. She shuts down completely; she feels the pain; she yells and screams at the world. She feels the anger and betrayal. She experiences the stirrings of new love and a second chance. She is shattered into a million pieces multiple times, yet she soldiers on. She is a heroine that I admire greatly. She takes life by the horns and decides that a drastic change is needed. That kind of courage is admirable and rare. She takes the higher road and learns to forgive. It is truly a heartfelt and incredible story of a woman’s transformation and renewed hope when all seems lost and forsaken.
Her friends and family are such a great support system. When reading about them, I would see similarities to people I know and laugh at how they support and love her in such unique and fascinating ways. The theme of family is one I appreciate in books and the concept of her ever growing family is one that I loved. Her friends become sisters and grandmothers. Her budding romance is sweet and perfect. Granted it is an emotional roller coaster when broken people find one another but they fill in the cracks together and make life look a little brighter again.
This book was such a lovely story and I felt every emotion and heartache and joy! Meg Farrell is a writing guru, and I am excited to see what else she has in store for us! Make sure to check out this book today! You will not want to miss it!
I heave a sigh and eventually convince myself to go take care of business. I slip my wallet in my back pocket and leave my purse in the room. Reluctantly, I tie my sneakers and head out.
Music is spilling out from the clubs and restaurants I pass on the way back to my car; mostly jazz, zydeco, and country. There are even musicians in the street. They are extremely talented. Something about the vibe of the street party makes me forget about being tired and about going to get my car moved. It’s hard to walk through these streets without feeling a desire to shake my booty. Street vendors are telling fortunes and others are selling miscellaneous souvenirs. My imagination, being on overdrive, makes me wonder if they are voodoo-related items or perhaps the key ingredients to a spell you could cast on someone. Perhaps they could give me a spell to help me forget the pain and misery my life has been recently. The reality is they are likely selling knock-off tourist items. They probably source them overseas and sell them as “authentic”.
There are hawkers trying to draw people into their clubs. One interesting fellow is dressed in a an old black suit with his face painted like a Dia De Los Muertos skull. He isn’t yelling to get the attention of people walking by. He isn’t flattering ugly women to gain their attentions. No he is quiet. He is dancing to the music coming from the club. I watch him for what seems like an eternity. He never tires or seems exhausted by his dance. Peeking in the doors of the club I see the sway of the crowd inside. Their movement is curious. Like a single consciousness moving through all of them. The music they are dancing to is hypnotic. Without a thought or even a decision crossing my mind, I start moving towards the entrance. It’s as if my body has no power to walk away. It pulls at me from the center of my being and I need to be a part of it.
I immediately blend in with the crowd and find myself surrounded with people I’ve never seen. Yet, somehow we are sharing this moment together. We sway and I sometimes spin. Hands grab for me and either supports me from spinning out of control, or just steady me in the sway. When the song changes, everyone makes their way to the tables and bars lining the edges of the dance floor. I feel cold and abandoned without the others. Swallowing my disappointment that this curious moment is over, I make my way to the bar, order a beer, and settle into a table to watch the crowd. It is sweaty for November, but I suspect that has more to do with the dancing and alcohol than the weather.
The server is a kind, young man. I make quick friends and ask him to keep the beers coming. He nods and does a great job keeping me with a new one as needed. Men and women both smile or nod as they walk by my table to the dance floor. After several beers, I swallow my regret and apprehension, and join the new flow of people to the dance floor. The music has slowed and is even more hypnotic than before. I close my eyes and give myself over to the music.
A pair of strong arms slides around my waist from behind and a body begins to sway with me. At first, panic wells up in my throat but I quickly push it down. This is what the fresh start is about. Exploration. We continue dancing, never changing positions. I sink into the body behind me and it is a firm, strong place to rest. I reach up my right arm up and place my hand on the back of a sweaty neck. A mouth comes near to my ear as I pull on my dance partner. “I love the way you move,” he whispers in my ear. He. For a moment it occurs to me that his voice is familiar. Before I focus in on the familiarity too much, I take a hug gulp of my beer and set the bottle on a nearby table.
Turning around, I chance a look at my mystery dance partner and I’m floored. I start blinking rapidly as if something is wrong with my vision. I’m hallucinating. I have had way too much to drink. It can’t be. He can’t be here. Not now. No. I shake my head and back away from him, bumping into tables and knocking over drinks. I push through the crowd to get to the door. I burst onto the street and breathe in a huge rush of cold air. It is so cold I get chills.
“This is NOT happening,” I scream into the night.
I’m from North Mississippi, US. I’m a busy wife and mother, but decided to follow my dream of writing a novel. I completed the first draft of A Place to Stand during NaNoWriMo 2013 fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a writer. My motivation to finish the dream, by publishing my book, was found among the most amazing group of people at a conference in Nashville, TN called UtopYA. My husband, Jason, and I have 3 children, 2 old dogs, and 2 surly cats. I am a huge fan of all things Supernatural (show and otherwise). I love fiction, young adult, dystopian, and ALL romances.
For more about Meg, check out her social media sites listed below!
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