A Broken Us by Amy Daws

 

Finley and Brody live in their own little bubble of “us.” Instead of, “I love you,” they say, “I love us.” It’s their own perfect endearment to each other. Finley’s quirky ways are the perfect contrast to Brody’s scandalously sexy passion. But Finley’s picture-perfect world gets pummeled when she gets a hard dose of reality from her doctor that changes everything. 

Crippled with the fear of Brody’s reaction, Finley does what she does best—she runs. She breaks his heart and leaves behind a life that is just too painful to live. One international flight later, Finley’s best friend welcomes her with open arms in London and she is immersed in a new country with new experiences and eccentric roommates. 

Nursing a broken heart, Finley grieves for the life she left behind and attempts to embrace the new one she is creating. When a cheeky Brit named Liam, a self proclaimed “fixer” catches her eye, she hopes it’s exactly what she needs to forget. But when Liam wants to help Finley unpack her bags for good, she realizes that her heart is still back home…with Brody.

A Broken Us starts off with a bang and takes you on a journey that was hard to pull away from. Finley "Fin" and Brody were made for each other. They are that perfect couple that you envy because they click and know each other so well and they are what you wish your relationship will be. So when Fin suddenly tells Brody that there can't be an "Us" anymore, that he is better off without her. Brody is left angry and confused. Fin runs and she runs far away. She can't risk running into Brody and knowing the pain he is feeling, she is cause of. Landing in London seems like the right thing to do, to start over with her life. The life that she thought she would spend forever with Brody.

Fin is just as confused as Brody, but she knows she's doing the right thing. Right? 

From the first few pages, A Broken Us, had me captivated. My heart was breaking. I understood Fin, even though she was completely wrong in her thinking and oh Brody...that poor guy. Fin's roommates in London are fun, snarky and full of spunk. There were moments of laughter and tears. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more from Amy. 

Four Stars.

CHAPTER 21: 

  I shake my head and move past him to head downstairs. He grabs my hand and pulls me backwards into his chest. 
 “Hey,” he breathes into my ear. “I haven’t even had a chance to say hello to you yet.” 

 “Hello,” I reply lightly, enjoying the feel of his warm breath on my neck. He smells awesome, like a fresh laundry detergent. I feel his lips gently kissing my shoulder and moving their way up my neck.

 “Liam,” I shake my head back and forth, feeling a shiver prickle all over my skin. 

 “Finley,” he growls into my neck and nips at my ear. Goosebumps crawl straight out from the spot he nips me and I break away from his grasp. 

 “Friends, remember?” I say, holding my hands up defensively toward him. He scrunches his lips to the side, “I don’t like the sound of that.” 

 “I know, I’m sorry, but it is what it is. Let’s go downstairs. It’s family flick night for goodness’ sake.”
I start to make my way down the steps and Liam rushes up behind me, throwing his arm around my shoulders playfully. He growls in my ear, nipping at it again. I giggle into his touch and my heart hits the floor as my eyes glance down to the foyer. 

Dead in my tracks, I stop. Everything around me blurs as Liam continues his descent and looks up at me, grabbing my hand. When he takes in the frozen expression on my face, I hear him say my name, barely. I can barely hear him because blood is rushing in my head. I can feel my heart beat pulsing in my eyes as I begin to feel faint. 

Brody is standing in the foyer with a small suitcase in hand. 

Brody. 

In. London. 

Liam drops my hand and turns to look at what I’m looking at. I hear Leslie and Theo come down the steps behind me. They stop beside me when they see me frozen in place. Leslie gasps as she sees Brody.

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Amy Daws is a local TV commercial producer and lives in South Dakota with her husband, Kevin, and their miracle daughter, Lorelei. The long-awaited birth of Lorelei is what inspired Amy’s passion for writing. On most nights, you can find Amy and her family dancing to Strawberry Shortcake’s theme song or stuffing themselves inside children’s-sized playhouses because there is nothing they wouldn’t do for their little miracle. 

For more of Amy’s work, visit: www.amydawsauthor.com  

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Welcome all. Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing, Amy Daws, author of contemporary romance novel, A Broken Us.    

Hi Amy, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background? I’m currently a TV commercial producer for a local network affiliate station in South Dakota. So I write, shoot, and edit cheesy commercials for a living. Electronic Media and Journalism is what I went to school for, so I’m grateful to have a job in my industry, but writing is definitely a huge passion of mine.  

A Broken Us is your first novel, correct? Yes it is! I can’t tell you how much fun I had writing it. It’s my first novel, but not my first book. My first book was a memoir entitled, Chasing Hope, and that was released Memorial Day of 2014. It was my true story of my journey through multiple miscarriages and eventually the miraculous birth of my daughter Lorelei. I’m so thankful I wrote that book because it ignited this huge passion I have for writing and I have tons more books to get out there!  

Where did your inspiration for, A Broken Us, come from? I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of contemporary romance novels and I’ve never really read a book that had an infertility storyline in it. Since I’m so experienced in that area, due to my history, I thought it could make a really interesting storyline for a heroine of a romance novel to be struggling with something like this. I saw this as a way for me to interest my Chasing Hope readers, but also open up my demographic to romance lovers like me. 

 Where do your ideas come from? From all over! I stole my daughters Hello Kitty notebook one day because I realized that if I didn’t start writing these ideas that popped into my head then I would forget them and lose them forever. So now I have that notebook with me everywhere. I steal a lot from my personal life but twist it and morph it until it’s barely recognizable. My life is so not as cool and romantic as the stuff I write in, A Broken Us, but that’s the beauty of writing fiction, you get to take more chances.  

How long on average does it take you to write a book? I probably wrote Chasing Hope in 3-4 months. But I took a lot of breaks and didn’t spend nearly as much time on it. It was emotional and painful, so I had to step away from it at times. A Broken Us consumed me until I finished. I wrote it in two weeks. But that was tough because I have a full time job and a husband and daughter, so I literally wrote from 9 at night til 2 in the morning when everyone was in bed. There was a lot of coffee consumed during those couple weeks.  

What are your ambitions for your writing career? Publish more of course! Chasing Hope will have a sequel to it called, Chasing Peace that will sort of wrap up my true story and give a bit more closure on all of that. So I’m currently working on Chasing Peace. But I love love love reading contemporary romance. And now I love love love writing contemporary romance! A Broken Us has definite spin off potential and I’m working some of those ideas out now as well. So, overall, I imagine contemporary romance is where my writing career will be heading.  

Tell us about the cover and how it came about? The girl on the cover is a girl from my hometown who I actually took senior pictures for when she graduated high school a while back. I do a little photography on the side, so when I was trying to find a model to be my Finley…she immediately popped into my head. My sister-in-law, Megan Daws, and myself shot the cover photo. We both had our own cameras armed and clicking at our shoot. I don’t actually know who’s picture ended up on the cover…and I don’t care. We’re a great team and I love working with her. A bunch of the photos from our shoot were used in the book video trailer, so it’s definitely a collaborative effort. I did all the cover design myself. I work in advertising and am very familiar with graphic design. I’m in love with my cover…it’s just beautiful!  

What do you think most characterizes your writing? Candid, honest and self-deprecating. And I love to write humor. I am a total goof in real life and I love to laugh, so I do my best to portray interesting characters that have funny moments. If you LOL while reading my books…I’ve succeeded.  

Which writers inspire you? Well I have to first give a shout out to my all time favorite British Chick Lit author, Elizabeth Young. Her book, Asking For Trouble was one of the first chick lit books I read and I haven’t been able to stop reading since! She has a hilarious self-deprecating humor to her heroines that resonates so strongly with me. Also, Jennifer Lancaster, who made memoirs about non-famous people cool! She’s got a great voice on paper. Then of course there’s Samantha Young…love her On Dublin Street series, then Colleen Hoover, Jamie McGuire, Abbi Glines. Okay, I have so many more but I’ll leave it at them. 

What’s next for you? My memoir sequel, Chasing Peace, is going to be published in early 2015. And then I’m working on a spin off book to, A Broken Us, that I would love to release in the summer of 2015 if possible. Then there’s many more spin off potentials for, A Broken Us that I’m super excited to get started on after that!

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