Thursday, November 6, 2014

Blog Tour: Excerpt, Review, Teasers:Bigger Than The Sky, By Harper Bentley

Title: Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point #1)
Author: Harper Bentley
Release Date: Sept 30, 2014
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Five years ago, I left my fiancĂ©, hotter than hot Navy SEAL Kade Kelly, at the altar. 
No, I’m not an idiot.
Yes, I had my reasons. 
Now I’ve made a new life for myself working at a large firm in Richmond and I’ve left the past behind. Or so I thought.
Upon returning to my hometown of Serenity Point, Virginia, to take care of some business, I find that Kade’s now home for good and he’s none too happy about my being here. 
Two months. That’s all I’m staying then I’m out of here. Unless I believe the town’s pink-haired psychic’s prediction. Or embrace the sense of belonging I feel at being back home. Or give in to the emotions stirring inside when Kade's attention is suddenly on me. 
He scares the crap out of me. 
He thrills me. 
He used to tell me our love was bigger than the sky.
I always knew ours was a once-in-a-lifetime love. So how can he be so sure it can happen again?

“Amelia?”
After my squawk of surprise, I turn and see Brody Kelly walking across the street and I can’t help the huge smile that covers my face.
“Brody!” I holler and run to meet him, jumping up and throwing my arms around his neck for a hug as his encircle my waist and he spins me around.
“Thought that was you,” he says with a grin as he sets me back down.
“In the flesh,” I say with a smile as I look up at him, covering my eyes with my hand to block the sun. Brody was always such a cutie with his messy sandy brown hair, expressive hazel eyes and mischievous grin that always let you know he was up to no good. He’s around six-two, two-hundred pounds of rock solid muscle and I’d think he was hot if not for the fact that he’s like a little brother to me.
He walks over and whistles at my car. “Man, Mill, getting’ pretty fancy on us. Might wanna hide it in the garage tonight so no one steals the rims.” He grins down at me when I come up beside him and smack him in the arm. He looks around for a second and says, “Seriously, where’s Jeeves? Didn’t he drive you?”
“Shut it, Brody,” I reply with a giggle.
“Guess you’re doing pretty well for yourself then, huh?” he asks, a small frown forming on his face.
I purse my lips then respond, “Yes, I’m doing okay, I guess.” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye in a that was so an understatement kind of way since my car cost almost six figures. “Um, what’re you doing here? I mean, it’s like  you just appeared out of the blue,” I say.
He takes me by the shoulders and turns me to face across the street. I look at Pettyman’s Lumberyard, but that’s when I notice it no longer says Pettyman’s on the front but Kelly & Family Lumber and Construction in its place.
“Y-you bought Pettyman’s?”
He nods with another grin then asks, “So how long you in town for?”
“Not sure. I’ve got two months’ vacation time I’m using so I came to finally check out the station,” I explain, turning back to face it, my smile falling away.
“Aw, Mill, I’m sorry. They were good people,” he replies. “I know Harley feels terrible about everything.”
Harley Sedgwick, the local heating and air technician, had inspected the heater in Papaw and Meemaw’s house for years, telling Papaw on his inspection five years ago (the winter after my wedding debacle) that it really needed to be replaced. Papaw had scoffed at him telling him there was at least a good five more years in it. The next year, Papaw had neglected to call Harley to come back out and take a look, and Harley had been so busy that it hadn’t even occurred to him to check on them. The heater had developed a leak since the previous year it’d been checked, and my beloved grandparents tragically died in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning on a chilly day in early November.
“I know,” I say. “I hope he knows it’s not his fault. Papaw was a stubborn old fool anyway, as Meemaw would’ve said.” I chuckle sadly.
He curls an arm around my shoulders to comfort me. The Kelly men and their protectiveness, I think which makes me sigh.
“So think you might be back to stay?” he asks looking down at me, eyebrows raised.
I huff out a laugh because that’s a ludicrous idea. “No. I wanted to see if maybe I could get the place up and running again then sell,” I inform him.
He drops his arm then nods with what looks like disappointment, which I think is ridiculous. He knows I’m never coming back.
“So how are you? How’s Piper?” I ask.
“She’s fine,” he says aloofly. Then he gets a shy look on his face. “I passed the fireman test. I’m a real-live firefighter now.”
My eyes now get big and I squeal, “Really? Oh, my God! I’m so happy for you!” I hug him again telling him his news is wonderful when I hear someone clearing his throat behind him. Still holding on to him, I lean to the side and look around his shoulder, and what I see makes me swallow down a gasp.
Dear God.
Brody’s older brother Kade Kelly.
Still hotter than hell Kade Kelly.
Kade Kelly who’s got a hard body that’s sculpted like a magnificent work of art.
Who has a large Celtic cross tattooed on his back with “Fiona” in the middle of it in honor of their baby sister who’d died at birth.
Kade Kelly who sings and plays guitar in a band.
Who took my virginity when I was sixteen and he was eighteen.
Kade Kelly who I left standing at the altar five years ago.


Review
I am in love with these two characters, they are mouthy and witty and I laughed a lot throughout the book. Mill aka Amelia is back in her small home town to handle her grandparents affairs, she hasn’t been back since she ran five long years ago. Leaving the her groom at the altar, now she’s back in Serenity Point and Kade to say the least is not taking to it to kindly or at least that’s the front he’s putting on. Kade is a big ex navy seal and let me tell you he isn’t much for worlds but when he is he is one that gets straight to the point; he wants to know why Mill is back in town and what her plans are? She can’t tell him for sure the longer she’s back in Serenity Point the more it is starting to feel like home again, Cassie her best friend is there they are back to cause trouble like the good old days, Mill hasn’t smiled like this in she doesn’t know how long…. Than Memories of why she’s back come to light…..

“I’ve tried rationalizing it all by telling myself I’d stayed away because I was trying to find myself, which is so ridiculously clichĂ© it makes me roll my eyes, but it’s really the only explanation I can think of.” 
“Well, that or maybe I’m just like my mother. And that pisses because I’ve always thought she was weak.”

Mill is not weak and she is not her mother, by any means, she doesn’t need to prove this to anyone but herself. She’s all she has or that’s what she thinks. But know that she’s back in town after running five long years ago, she’s finally facing the consequences of what she did to al her loved ones. Brody is Kade’s brother and also a good friend of Mills they all grow up together so he comes to her and asks her to stay clear of Kade if, she has no intentions of staying around.

“I know you are. It hurt all of us, Mill. You were family, and when you left, it felt like Fiona all over again, except worse because we knew you were still out there.”    

Brody has a huge heart and is looking out for Kade and Mill he loves them both. So Mill tries to take Brody’s advice and steer clear of Kade, For the most part it works she stays busy with trying to get the shop up and running. Until one night someone threw a brick through the front window of the shop while Mill was asleep in the upstairs apartment, with a note attached to it.

“Your not wanted here. You need to leave town while you still can bit*h”

Just then Kade shows up, he seen the broken window and stopped to see if she was okay. Kade helps Mill with the window and makes he stay with him that night, now without me giving away the book or too much, Kade he a hard as* he is after all a ex navy seal he is a man of few words but these two characters have so much history and they have so much hurt and the hurt that’s still there and still to come, but it’s miss understood hurt, jump the gun hurt, not hearing me out hurt. Let’s just say these characters are just like us everyday people they jump the gun they have their minds made up before they know the whole story and then things go south.

“And After five years, I think I’ve finally figured it out. Everyone needs a home. It’s not just a place where you put pieces of furniture that you like. It’s not a place that you retreat to once you’re back from work. Home is a place where you feel safe, where you’re the most comfortable.”

The good thing is they fight for what they want and in this case Kade was fighting for what he wanted and he wasn’t giving up and Mill she was scared, scared of being alone. But the fact of the matter is…. Well you will have to read this amazing BIGGER THAN THE SKY BOOK to find out…. I am telling you it’s worth your time, you will not be disappointed. You will fall in love with not only Kade the sexy as sin EX NAVY SEAL and Mill, Brody, Piper, Cassie and Jeremy and Mike.

“Papaw had once told me when I was little when we were lying in a field looking up at the clouds, that the sky was endless, that it went on forever just like his and Meemaw’s love for me. And I knew that’s what I was being told.”

All of them, they will push your buttons at times and make you laugh you’re as* off at others, They push each other here and there just to make them see what is right in front of their faces before it’s too late. This book is about Home about having a home about being home, about love and family not all family is blood, that’s the greatest gift of all, forgiveness of others and yourself moving on and moving forward. The author did an amazing job, I can’t wait for more. I give BIGGER THAN THE SKY 5 + ☆☆☆☆☆

“The love I’d been so fortunate to receive in my life, from my grandparents and my friends, from the Kelly’s was extraordinary.
         It was never-ending. It was unfathomable.

       It was BIGGER THAN THE SKY.” 


Harper Bentley has taught high school English for 22 years. Although she’s managed to maintain her sanity regardless of her career choice, jumping into the world of publishing her own books goes to show that she might be closer to the ledge than was previously thought.
After traveling the nation in her younger years as a military brat, having lived in Alaska, Washington State and California, she now resides in Oklahoma with her teenage daughter, two dogs and one cat, happily writing stories that she hopes her readers will enjoy.

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