"Just Like in the Movies" By: M.B Feeney
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
'Just Like in the Movies' is a novella length story about changing lives and relationships. Ava and Marcus have been together for a while and have become settled into a routine but the relationship has lost its sparkle and magic. Ava starts to feel as though she is settling for a mundane life rather than the one she wants to live.
A short holiday with her best friend Erica to the gloriously scenic Isle of Wight, gives Ava the time she needs to reflect on her life and her relationship with Marcus. When she meets Morgan in a bookshop and he makes some assumptions about her that are wrong. It gets her back up and they end up butting heads again and again. Her reaction to Morgan may seem to be an over-reaction, but is systemic of the way she is thinking and feeling about herself at that time. She fights her attraction for him by fighting him.
Morgan is equally attracted to Ava and can read her like a book. Unfortunately Ava's sharp words cause Morgan to fight back as she consistently gets under his skin. With Ava's holiday over before they have a chance to move forward, it seems that their potential relationship is over before it has got going.
The return to everyday life brings the realisation that it is not enough anymore. She wants a life where she is happy and content. The situation with Marcus resolves itself and forces her to make some tough decisions. Each of us holds our own futures in our own hands and it is up to us to make the choices that make us happy and fulfilled.
This was a story that I could completely relate to, taking the opportunity away and using it to re-evaluate your life. It is what makes M.B Feeney's writing so good. The story is rooted in a situation that everyone can relate to, with characters that are down to earth and you can empathise with. M.B Feeney has created a romance story that is just like the movies.
Author
Bio:
M.
B. Feeney is an army brat who finally settled down in Birmingham, UK
with her other half, two kids and a dog. She’s also a student
teacher, a doodler and a chocoholic. Writing has been her one
true love ever since she could spell, and publishing is the
culmination of her hard work and ambition.
Signing
up with Renaissance
Romance Publishing to
publish her first novella as part of a compilation in December
2012 was the first step in her writing career that she hopes will
span many more works and years.
Author
Links:
Blurb:
Ava
Jones has settled for a life that she’s not sure she wants anymore,
but won’t admit it. Her best friend, Erica Davidson talks her into
taking a break on the Isle of Wight. Her days on the island are spent
thinking things through, and arguing with Morgan whom she hates on
principal.
Is it so wrong for her to want a life that follows the script of a honest to God romance film?
Is it so wrong for her to want a life that follows the script of a honest to God romance film?
Excerpt:
I’d met Marcus
Tripp not long after joining Wilson Insurance. Although I’d never
really fancied him, he was persistent. Our friendship had grown, and
we’d fallen into a routine that suited both of us. I was happy with
the attention, and the sex . . . yeah, it was okay. As time passed,
the earth rarely moved when we were intimate; more often than not, it
was pretty much over before it began. Still, we stayed together, more
out of habit and familiarity than anything else. We did love each
other. I just wasn’t sure that it was enough.
In the evenings I
spent alone, I would daydream about living the life of a lead in a
Hollywood chick flick, but then reality would slap some sense into
me. My life was as good as it was going to get. I wasn’t about to
be swept off my feet any time soon. Marcus and I were comfortable,
and that was enough — for me, at least. I was too scared to ask
Marcus what he felt.
We tried for a
couple of years to have children, but it never happened. After many
serious discussions, we decided to give up on the idea altogether.
That was when we bought our first fur baby: a beautiful Collie cross
called Rhea. She was our little girl, and we both doted on her. We
assuaged our guilt over our mutual neglect by caring for Rhea,
devoting our attention to another living being rather than to each
other. The puppies, Remus and Romulus, soon joined her, and our
“family” was complete.
For as long as I’d
known him, Marcus had played Sunday League football, which was
followed by an afternoon with his teammates at the very pub I was now
approaching. Coupled with training one evening a week, his evenings
out gave me more than enough time to spend with Erica or at home with
the dogs.
“Have you
thought any more about that holiday I mentioned?” Erica asked while
we claimed our usual table. Our customary bottle of red wine was
already ready and waiting for us.
“I have . . .”
My words drifted away when I thought back to her idea of a girlie
getaway on the Isle of Wight. Just as its name suggested, the
top-class Lakeside Hotel with attached spa was located right next to
a beautiful lake. Bliss.
“And?Why the
hesitation?” Erica pushed like she always did, her blue eyes
flashing once more as she looked into my brown ones.
The idea of a real
getaway made the blonde hairs on the back of my neck stand on end,
but I tried to rein in my excitement. “I don’t know. It sounds
amazing, and Lord knows I could do with some time away.”
“Do it, then.”
I knew I had
enough holiday time available at work. Screw
it.
“Let’s do it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment