Title: Saving Each Other
Series: Saving Series #1
Author: Stacy Mitchell
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 4, 2017
Two hearts, two souls.
Devastated by loss, united through destiny.
The rules: Communicate only through text messages and never reveal our real names or other personal details.
My name is Ean Montgomery. After the drunk-driving accident that killed my wife, son, and unborn daughter, I was forced to see a grief counselor. In an unconventional move, she gave me a private cell phone and the first initial of the name of a woman who had been widowed by the same accident. I had no intention of ever texting her but with all hope and the will to live gone, I found myself quickly slipping down the rabbit hole. Desperate, lonely, and unbelievably sad, I reached out to her and she became my everything.
Everything is excruciating! Everything is broken!
My name is Dani Adams. I was married to my college sweetheart, the love of my life. Together we were raising our four-year-old daughter and running a successful business. Then the accident happened and life as I knew it ended in the blink of an eye. I didn’t want to answer his text but I was barely hanging on by a thread and he was in tremendous pain, so I replied. And once again, my world was forever changed.
I can’t lose you, I won’t survive…
Over the course of a year, through texting alone, we bond. Friendship blossoms into something deeper. We were never supposed to meet, but fate had other plans, and into this world of loss and despair, something amazing began to grow… But can the passion we’ve found sustain itself with the deep, soul-twisting pain that never seems to fade?
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
This book starts out with an incredibly tragic event which impacts on Ean and Dani greatly, tearing their lives apart. Ean loses his entire family and Dani her husband in the same accident. The idea that they can talk anonymously to each other through messages was a great one, enabling the relationship to develop gradually over time and be based on their personalities rather than a physical one (although sexting is a thing). I really loved how these two helped and supported each other virtually through a very dark time to the light at the other end. Yes, it probably-definitely wouldn't be able to happen in the real world but that is the beauty of fiction.
This book brought all the feels as we followed Ean and Dani on their journey of healing. I liked how when they meet (and don't know the identity of the other) the attraction is there and the conflict this causes adds an extra dimension.
Whilst I know this is fiction, there were elements, particularly at the beginning, that jarred with me as not fitting with the way situations are officially handled. That being said, I really enjoyed this book and the emotional roller coaster it took me on.
Our House usually holds group sessions but because our sessions are court-mandated and high profile, D and I are able to meet separately with our counselor, Barbara Macintyre, on a one-to-one basis.
Since we’re both barely hanging on by a thread, Barbara decided to do something very extreme and very risky. She came up with the idea that connecting us with one another could help us get through the grieving process. Her thinking was, since we’re both going through the same thing, we could potentially help each other and to her that was worth the loss of her license.
She gave us each a new cell phone that contained only each other’s new phone numbers along with the first letter of our first names. She wanted us to have a dedicated line to one another and her only stipulations were that we only communicate through text message and never reveal our real names or other personal details. This I agreed to because I had absolutely no intention of ever contacting her.
Except today. Today I have to. So I turn on my phone and type:
D, this is E.
I can’t believe I’m actually doing this. I don’t see how it’s going to change anything but I can’t stand this anymore. I’m at my breaking point. I’m in constant pain. It feels like a huge band is crushing my chest and getting tighter every day. All I do is cry! Everybody has been trying really hard, I know that. I just don’t have it in me to give a shit.
I lost it with my mom yesterday. Said things no son should ever say to his mother. All she did was ask me to move in with her and I lost it. It got so bad that she ran out of the house crying with a very mad Riley on her heels. Sure she’s asked me before but that’s no excuse. My dad laid into me, took Po, and left. I’m now truly alone; being sucked into an inescapable vortex of grief. I’m so lost.
They haven’t been by yet today and I hope they don’t come by at all; this way I can die in peace. I’m falling down the rabbit hole very quickly and that’s why I need to contact D, the only other person who could possibly understand what I’m going through.
So I continue.
I wasn’t planning on contacting you, but here I am. I’m sure you feel the same way since you haven’t reached out to me and I don’t blame you if you don’t respond. It’s been almost a month since my world ended and let’s just say, unfortunately, suicide isn’t an option. Even though I really wish it were.
I push aside my tears but not my pain, it refuses to leave. I take a deep breath and continue.
I’m dying! With each second that passes, I keep dying more and more. I never leave my house, I just sit by the front door waiting for their return. So yeah, I’m contacting you. Are you going through the same thing? Why does it hurt so much? How am I ever supposed to move on or whatever the hell that even means. Why did this have to happen?!
Through my agony I type the plea that just might save my life.
I really need you to text me back. I’m scared, sad, lonely, and extremely desperate.
This story came to me in waves. Dani and Ean woke me up in the middle of the night and the best way I can it describe is…like listening to an audiobook. I felt their pain with such intensity it took my breath away. I got up, opened notes on my iPhone, and my thumbs got to work. I wrote it in a month. I then spent the next year and a half working with Francine LaSala (Google her…she really is incredible!) to get it where it is today.
I truly believe in soulmates, the one you connected with, time and time again throughout eternity. In the course of writing this book, I came to realize it doesn’t matter what form that soul takes because it’s the soul we embrace and the connection we share with that special soul. That the loss of someone you love takes all the color out of your world and that loss of every kind hurts.
I lost my goldendoodle to cancer. I watched my beautiful, strong, vibrant dog, that one soul that always makes you smile and lift your spirits, take his last breath. I had nine years with my Norman and while I cherish every minute I had with him, he still left this world, far too soon.
Embrace the ones you love. Cherish the time you have with them and celebrate it. Always celebrate it!
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