Blog Tour: Because of Lucy by Lisa Swallow
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Synopsis:
"In life, there are some people you have to lose in order to find yourself."
Ness’s parents have planned her life but Ness is determined to control her own future. She leaves home and moves to Leeds with childhood friend, Abby, and shocks her parents by turning down a place at medical school to take a job in a call-centre.
Ness meets Evan, a student friend of Abby’s, and isn’t impressed. He’s drunk, arrogant and rarely spends the night without a girl in his bed. But unlike most guys she meets Evan quotes poetry and can hold a conversation, forcing Ness to change her opinion.
Evan is struggling to escape too and throws himself into the student lifestyle to hide from the past following him. In Ness, Evan finds somebody who shares the need to walk away from what people expect him to be.
But Evan can’t hide from his past forever and when Lucy appears she threatens his new relationship with Ness. Ness is unsure she can deal with the effect Lucy has on Evan, and makes a new decision about her future.
When everything falls apart and their new lives and relationship don't go as planned, Ness and Evan are both faced with difficult choices. All because of Lucy.
Review:
Because of Lucy was a sweet read. I had the original novella on my Kindle, but never got around to reading it so once I saw the new extended version would be released I thought I should check it out. I'm glad I did as I really enjoyed the story.
Ness is running away from her past. She is trying to do her own thing and snub the pressure her parents have put on her to be who they want her to be. Instead of going to college to be a doctor she moves to the college town with her friend and takes a horrible job at a call center. She is not very happy, doesn't really have any friends, just keeps herself removed from everyone. I am not really sure why she did this, why she couldn't try and be friends with her coworkers or the college kids, but she is not comfortable around any of them since she is not part of their world. She definitely has some issues that she needs to work through, some things to work on, and she needs to figure out what she is really going to do with the rest of her life.
Evan is running from his past as well. He has had more responsibility that a teenager should have. He has run away from everything, away from Lucy and everything associated with her, and wants to start a new life. He wants to be free and not tied down. He has quite the reputation for a ladies man, he drinks a lot, he just is trying to have a little freedom after years of responsibility.
When Evan and Ness meet one night Evan definitely does not come across as someone Ness should ever be interested in. He is drunk and insults her then doesn't even remember it in the morning. She knows she should stay away, she is a bit insecure when it comes to guys and doesn't want to be used again. Only she keeps getting thrown in situations with him and she finds that he might not be all that she first assumed. She might have had him wrong. He might actually be someone she can care for, someone she could fall for. It was cute. She classified him as this horrible person, as someone who would leave her high and dry, only he isn't really. It was fun as Evan had no issue calling her out on her assumptions of him and proving her wrong. He reads and writes poetry, he is sweet and kind, he is just not like she imagined he would be.
For his part Evan doesn't want to be in a relationship either. He doesn't want to fall in love only to have that person leave him and hurt him like everyone else he has ever loved. He just doesn't want to deal with that in his new carefree life. Only he can't seem to stay away from Ness. Something about her calms him and draws him to her. She sees him. The real him, not just the facade he puts up for the world. When his past comes into the present things get a bit tense, but together they can figure things out.
Now I will say that this book is wonderful, the ending so happy and uplifting, but there are some real heartbreaking moments in there as well. Towards the end? Oh, I just could have cried for these characters. They both have issues and insecurities, they both want things but are afraid of giving in or changing their plans for the other. They just made me love them so much it was hard watching them stumble along their road to happily ever after. This was a great read. Ness and Evan are perfect together and they really were just so sweet.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★1/2
About the Author:
Ness is running away from her past. She is trying to do her own thing and snub the pressure her parents have put on her to be who they want her to be. Instead of going to college to be a doctor she moves to the college town with her friend and takes a horrible job at a call center. She is not very happy, doesn't really have any friends, just keeps herself removed from everyone. I am not really sure why she did this, why she couldn't try and be friends with her coworkers or the college kids, but she is not comfortable around any of them since she is not part of their world. She definitely has some issues that she needs to work through, some things to work on, and she needs to figure out what she is really going to do with the rest of her life.
Evan is running from his past as well. He has had more responsibility that a teenager should have. He has run away from everything, away from Lucy and everything associated with her, and wants to start a new life. He wants to be free and not tied down. He has quite the reputation for a ladies man, he drinks a lot, he just is trying to have a little freedom after years of responsibility.
When Evan and Ness meet one night Evan definitely does not come across as someone Ness should ever be interested in. He is drunk and insults her then doesn't even remember it in the morning. She knows she should stay away, she is a bit insecure when it comes to guys and doesn't want to be used again. Only she keeps getting thrown in situations with him and she finds that he might not be all that she first assumed. She might have had him wrong. He might actually be someone she can care for, someone she could fall for. It was cute. She classified him as this horrible person, as someone who would leave her high and dry, only he isn't really. It was fun as Evan had no issue calling her out on her assumptions of him and proving her wrong. He reads and writes poetry, he is sweet and kind, he is just not like she imagined he would be.
For his part Evan doesn't want to be in a relationship either. He doesn't want to fall in love only to have that person leave him and hurt him like everyone else he has ever loved. He just doesn't want to deal with that in his new carefree life. Only he can't seem to stay away from Ness. Something about her calms him and draws him to her. She sees him. The real him, not just the facade he puts up for the world. When his past comes into the present things get a bit tense, but together they can figure things out.
Now I will say that this book is wonderful, the ending so happy and uplifting, but there are some real heartbreaking moments in there as well. Towards the end? Oh, I just could have cried for these characters. They both have issues and insecurities, they both want things but are afraid of giving in or changing their plans for the other. They just made me love them so much it was hard watching them stumble along their road to happily ever after. This was a great read. Ness and Evan are perfect together and they really were just so sweet.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★1/2
Pre-order book 2 - Finding Evan now on
About the Author:
Lisa is an Amazon bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance. She is originally from the UK and moved to Australia in 2001. She now lives in Perth, Western Australia with her husband, three children, and Weimaraner, Tilly, who often makes appearances on Lisa’s social media.
Lisa’s first publication was a moving poem about the rain, followed by a suspenseful story about shoes. Following these successes at nine years old there was a long gap in her writing career, until she published her first book in 2013.
In the past, Lisa worked as an English teacher in France, as an advertising copywriter in England, and ran her own business in Australia. Now she spends her days with imaginary rock stars.
She lived in Europe as a child and also travelled when she left university. This has given Lisa stories which would sound far-fetched if she wrote them down, and maybe one day she will. These days, Lisa is happy in her writing cave, under Tilly’s supervision.
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