In keeping with the change of name for my Romance & Women’s Fiction Twitter chat [@SatBookChat previously known as @ChocLitSaturday] – I am announcing a change of features here on Jorie Loves A Story. Since January, 2014 I carved out a niche of focus which I named #ChocLitSaturdays as I have felt the best time to read romantic and dramatic stories are the weekends. This spun into a Twitter chat featuring the authors of ChocLit whilst I supplied weekly topics which would appeal to readers, writers and book bloggers alike. We grew into our own Saturday tribe of chatters – then, somewhere round the time of my father’s stroke in late [2016] and the forthcoming year of [2017] I started to feel less inspired to host the chat.
I had new plans to re-invent the chat in its new incantation as @SatBookChat but I also wanted to re-invent the complimentary showcases on my blog which would reflect the diversity of stories, authors and publishers I would be featuring on the chat itself. As at the root and heart of #ChocLitSaturday the chat were the stories I was reading which complimented the conversations.
After a difficult year for [personal health & wellness] this 2018, I am beginning anew this Autumn – selecting the stories to resume where I left off featuring the Romance & Women’s Fiction authors I am discovering to read whilst highlighting a story by the author I am chatting with during #SatBookChat. Every Saturday will feature a different author who writes either Romance or Women’s Fiction – for the remaining weeks of October and most of November, I will be featuring special guest authors during #SatBookChat whose stories I have either read, are reading or hope to read in the future if their newer releases. The reviews on Saturdays might inspire the topics in the forthcoming chats or they might be directly connected to the current guest author.
Our holiday break for the month of December will find us resuming #SatBookChat the week after New Year’s, 2019 where new guests and new stories will lay down the foundation of inspiring the topics, the conversations and the bookish recommendations towards promoting Romance & Women’s Fiction.
Acquired Book By: One thing I love about being active in the bookish side of the twitterverse is being able to interact with authors. This is how my path crossed with Ms Fuller – where in a random encounter led to chattering about her debut Contemporary Romance being a duet, the first installment of a duology; of which I was most excited to learn more about as the format of dulogies interest me greatly since I first started discovering them as a book blogger. Ironically or not, I did not read as many as a reader prior to having my bookish blog! I credit this to the wider net of awareness I have gained as a book blogger and the more routes of interaction I’ve become blessed within the book world to actively be more ‘aware’ of the uniqueness of releases which are not traditional series, limited series, mini-series and/or non-sequential series – or even, series rooted by theme, setting or supporting cast but rather, a duology – one half of a whole spilt into two individual volumes which once read together compliment and complete each other.
Thus, I agreed to accept a complimentary copy of “Indecision” fully aware of the fact it was the first of a duology release by the author Brittany Fuller in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
On why I was keen on reading ‘Indecision’ knowing it was a duology:
It truly began about a discussion with Ms Fuller about readers and duologies – about the misconceptions about duologies and how sometimes readers feel short-changed by them. For me personally, I wouldn’t feel upset if a novel I was reading turnt out to be a duology – as I’ve read stories I felt were stand-alone novels which ended on ambiguous final chapters without a hint of a whiff of a sequel or anchouring novel to accompany them.
One quite infamous read of mine where I was honestly in such bereavement and ached for a sequel was when I had borrowed a novel called The Golem and the Jinni by new author (that particular year) Helene Wecker! I was emotionally distraught as I had taken this arduous journey, emotionally gutted and the ending,.. ohh, dear how to even describe it? It felt like a new beginning or a regeneration of what could be plausible or possible, but an ending? No, it didn’t feel quite like that to me,… if you visit that particular review you’ll see how I learnt about the (forthcoming) sequel and how happy I was to interact with Ms Wecker in the twitterverse, as it truly became a ‘journal’ of a passionate reader,…
Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum, where you are unsure of a connective sequel wherein either writer anchours the first story to a limited series, a mini-saga or series, or a non-sequential series where your reading stories linked by setting, theme or characters – you have the option of soaking inside a duology. I, personally would never feel disappointed if I read a story and it turnt out to be a duology – even if I wasn’t previously attuned to this being the case, as I have had the unlucky habit of finding myself in the midst of full-on serials wherein I have to back-track to find the originating stories and/or find which stories are still available in print (for purchase or borrowing) in order to re-adjust the continuity, gather the thoughts of how the author set the tone for the series overall and generally feel in confluence with the stability of the evolving story (or saga).
Speaking on behalf of the previous duologies I’ve read, I have a high level of respect for how writers write them. Mostly as you are being given half of the evolving arc of narrative, half the journey of the characters both major and minor and have to have felt you’ve resolved or have come to a conclusionary ending by the time you put down the second half of the duology. For those writers who have continued to inspire me and give me a ready story for which I love reading anchoured in this unique fashion, I am forever humbled and blessed to have had their stories cross my bookshelf.
Thereby, when it came time to decide if I wanted to dive into the world in which Indecision lies in the midst of a ‘duet’ – I daresay, dear hearts, I dove right in!
Notation about the Cover Design: There are a few moments where I stumble across cover art and design which speaks directly to the heart of the story – most cover art designs today strike to find a balance between what is marketable and what is relevant even if sometimes I think they (ie. publishing & PR) err on one side of the ledger vs the other – in this particular case, what was so very striking about the cover is how it truly represents both characters: Evelyn and Noah. Specifically as to why the pier would be of ‘importance’ and what that important ‘revelation’ on behalf of a character would mean in regards to being ‘clued in’ to understanding ‘them’. In essence, I love when a cover of a novel is a glimpse of a portrait of the story the author has written – I much prefer these kinds of covers than a marketable gamble on aesthetics!
Indecision
Subtitle: He gave up everything to be with her but is she willing to do the same.
by Brittany Fuller
Source: Direct from Author
Noah knew one thing in life, he would never let a woman rearrange his world ever again. After giving up his future once for what he thought was true love, only to end up alone with what little pride he had left, he headed out towards the West Coast and sunny California in hopes of putting his past behind him. After one year trying to fit into the fast-paced lifestyle, he’s ready to pack up and head back to the south, and his old Kentucky home, even if it means crossing paths again with the demons he left behind. That is, until he meets her. The one girl he can’t help but be drawn to no matter how hard he tries. As he finds himself ready to surrender everything once again for a future with the one woman he knows he will never be able to live without, he’s suddenly forced to realize she just might not be willing to do the same.
Evelyn has had the same dream since she can remember. After her parents moved her to northern California as a pre-teen, she is determined she won’t rest until she can move back home to Orange County and somehow land a job at the LA Times. Vowing to never let anything stop her, and so far succeeding in making her goals come almost within reach, she will not compromise and will let nothing stand in her way. Although, the night a tall handsome stranger comes to her rescue in a dark corner of a downtown bar, her life is suddenly changed and forever rearranged. Noah soon has her questioning everything she thought she wanted in life. Suddenly, she finds herself torn between the life she always wanted, and the one man she’s afraid to live without. Although, when she’s offered her dream and the chance of a lifetime, does she take it, or does she choose him?
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-0692153468
Published by Self Published
on 7th July, 2018
Format: POD | Print On Demand Paperback
Pages: 272
Self-Published Author
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #ContemporaryRomance, #Romance #Duology & #SecondChanceRomance
About Brittany Fuller
Brittany Fuller has known one thing since as far back as she can remember, she wanted to be a writer!
Born in Orange County, California, she grew up scribbling notes and drawing stick figures on blank pages, stapling them together and calling them her latest book.
Her family moved to northern California when she was five, and throughout the years her writing has evolved to poems, songs and short stories.
Returning to college at the age of 28, after getting married and starting a family, she received a degree in journalism and recently took a leap of faith uprooting her life and moving to Kentucky where she works as an editor of a community newspaper.
Although, before leaving the West Coast, she took a chance and started to write her first novel in the hopes of fulfilling a dream she’s had since she was a little girl. To become an author.
With no plans to stop writing anytime soon, she is excited to embark on what she hopes will be a long career.
Busy planning, drafting, writing and reading any chance she gets, she loves to hear feedback and connect with not only readers, but potential clients as well.
my review of indecision:
Rage and emotional anguish is hard to pin down in narrative – to have the clarity of thought in the height of a deeply emotional response is hard to eclipse within mere paragraphs but even a bit of a harder sell when it is threading through your opening paragraph and chapter – yet, this is where Ms Fuller excels in placing you cut quick to centre into this woman’s tailspin of a day! It goes from #epicfail to a plummeting spiral into near self-destruction because her emotions are clouding her judgement, her ability to drive and even to think straight. Full-stop, she needs to take the keys out of the engine and just hit the pause button on reality.
Evelyn. This character has a way of intuiting how to articulate her innermost thoughts and her dearest of emotions by both her observations and her frank earnestness in dialogue. She literally emotes through her experiences – giving you a prism of understanding her at her inner core. This countering of intuition threading through the under-threads of the narrative – where a voice of wisdom is ebbing its presence into the foreground is one you can recognise and denote as resonating with your own life as your reading.
This Contemporary is lifted straight out of ordinary life set in a place you can feel alongside Evelyn due to how Fuller has introduced you to the setting – as places which mean the most of us are not necessarily encased in visuals but rather emotional thoughts of personal space and personal attachments. We live so dearly close to our emotions, they can effectively alter how we perceive where we live or where we ought to be living – depending if your currently where you feel soulfully free and the natural environment agrees with your spirit. Counter to that, you could be living in an environment which never lifts your soul and where you never quite feel free to simply be yourself.
In a bar scene you can almost imagine yourself as your worst nightmare, Fuller explores the tenuous line between being a best friend and needing to act on your own self-preservation instincts! It was one of those sequences where you understand why Evelyn is on the fence about what she ought to do about it but in the end, what is most important is never losing sight of your own personal safety even if your friend is making choices which make it more difficult for you to preserve your own interests. Sometimes, as this sequence reflects – you have to come before your friend. Fuller does a great job at showing all the different angles in the scene itself – from the rats who linger in bars seeking easy targets to the women who are not there for the men but for their friends to the wait staff who’d rather be anywhere else but need to earn a weekly wage.
Interestingly, I wasn’t expecting to be taken away from the bar to meet Noah nor did I expect to be brought back in-scene with Evelyn going up against that bar rat but this just proves that sometimes a story has different lens in which to draw your eye. Sometimes you only see the closeness of the scene unfolding rather than the wider angle of whom is around outside the immediate action of what is taking place and this befits how to describe the bar. We first were only clued into what Evelyn was experiencing in her close quarters with the bloke who couldn’t take a hint if you handed him a direct order. Then, as the lens pulls back a few feet more – we start to see things as they really were from a different pair of eyes we never knew were in attendance.
Noah and Evelyn have an epic encounter in the bar – uniquely told from both their perspectives, Fuller focuses on Noah first, then Evelyn. The unique bit there is how two strangers find themselves positively entranced by each other and have barely enough words to even articulate their reactions! Fuller also writes Noah’s reactions as you might expect a guy to express himself rather than to hear from a bloke’s POV from how a woman would think a guy would respond; making this encounter a rather unique one in Contemporary Romance. It was in this scene’s after effects where my mind remembered how the story began – how emotionally destroyed Evelyn had felt and I wondered, what caused the fracture of this relationship? Could it be repaired?
As I started to see more into Evelyn’s interior world – the ways in which her thoughts curl around her ideas for the future and how she was given a foundation of perfection by her mother, you better understand how Evelyn is rooted on a path of intense focus for her career. Her obsession for success is valid for the most part but her unwillingness to accept life doesn’t quite stick to one’s forecasted plans for the long-term is where I felt she might be more than slightly misguided. Her mother’s intensity for everything to be neat and tidy is as overwhelming as a natural disaster! I couldn’t imagine anyone finding a way to function in a home environment that bent towards a perfected existence! And, in some ways, I wondered if this is why a part of Evelyn was intrigued by Gwen? Her friendship with Gwen should have expired long before now – as the two girls are polar opposites of each other, but one thing Gwen has that Evelyn doesn’t have is a chaotic centre of self and an upturnt view of how to live her life. Not that Evelyn should throw caution and reason out the window but one thing she could take from Gwen’s lead is a bit of spontaneity and the acceptance for serendipity.
With the kind of kinetic attraction bubbling between Noah and Evelyn, part of me was surprised they were both taking their budding relationship a bit slower than they voiced they’d prefer. I did understand why though – they both had things they had to resolve for themselves, especially the differences in time zones and home bases. Noah was from the Mid-West and Evelyn was on a one woman course of determination to get herself situated in a different part of California and inside the job of her dreams. Both of them were focused on their careers and were dearly attached to where they presumed they wanted to call ‘home’. Presumed here referring to the fact neither of them were at the time of their meeting were living the life they desired in the place they preferred.
As you start to see them step away from themselves and interact with their friends and family (at least Evelyn’s family at first) – you see the ripples of how they are different from their immediate circles of influence. They stand out because their striving to make their lives count for something outside of what others they know had wanted for their own lives. In many ways, their both career driven workaholics who dreamt of a relationship but when one walks in through the door they weren’t expecting to open neither of them knows how they want to react to the randomness of the moment. They both have fierce feelings for each other – but to react on them? It is almost as if they want to approach this intellectually and with sound reason – stacking on the reasons why they are wrong for each other or rather, why the timing is wrong for them to pursue a relationship rather than giving into their attraction.
From Noah’s perspective, you see a man whose gone through the wringer for a girl previously and doesn’t want to go through something even remotely close to that again. He is one of the last true gentlemen around who believes in the relationships he begins and wants to see the good in people even though in the past his sense of honour was not respected by a girl who was too immature to have an adult relationship based on mutual trust. As you see things from Noah’s perspective you almost fear he might find his heart broken once again – as although Evelyn has more going for her than the last girlfriend Noah had there is one fatal flaw inside which might undo Noah.
The characters I was less inclined to warm towards were Rex, Michael and Gwen – the supporting cast of friends and family. Their a bit too intense and blunt round the edges for me – whilst their lifestyle choices are clearly over the top and on a reckless course of self-destruction they also aren’t the best for being the kind of friends who Noah and Evelyn need as their always trying to needle into their relationship to find faults or to find reasons to give either of them self-doubt about choosing to be with each other. In many ways, I had trouble sorting out how they were ‘supportive’ and felt like their connections should have been limited if not severed. Except to say, there is is one crucial conversation with Gwen which served as forbearance of insight into how this installment of the duology would anchour and fuse into the sequel as it set the ground for Evelyn to re-evaluate her life.
Indecision is a story about how spending too much time focused on what could be and what might never be could be the choosing factors regarding your own future. Told from the dual perspectives of two characters who have reached the apex of their relationships where each of them is contemplating choices they never felt they could desire for themselves, we knit close to their thoughts, seeking to find which of them is willing to bend and which of them is unwilling to yield.
Not quite a fly in the ointment:
Notation on the stronger words and why they are well placed:
It would be re-missive of me not to emotion there are strong words in this novel – however, unlike most authors who rankle my ire and irk my last nerve about how include such language in scenes and dialogues where I never truly felt they were warranted, Ms Fuller took the opposite approach. She gave an honest dialogue of cohesive thought in the height of an emotional deluge of angst – wherein, who would be using softer words to express the fire bursting of their skin? This woman was on fire (cue Alicia Keys) – she needed to vent, she needed to gain distance from her duress and most of all – she needed the space to just be.
In this instance, I took no offence of their inclusions because it was singularly one of the best uses I’ve seen for strong language – there are a few exceptions dear hearts, as I’m sure you’ve observed if you’ve been visiting with me for awhile now – Indecision is merely the latest entry in that category.
The only time where my patience drew a bit thin was when my least favourite word popped out in a sentence I wasn’t expecting anything strong to be said and found it really hadn’t helped anchour me to any particular train of thought it might have been attached. In essence, I did find a few examples of where some words were not needed even though they were used. Towards the latter half of the novel they became more frequent and I wished they had been infrequent as they really didn’t offer anything to me other than annoyance.
On sequencing and direction:
There was a moment early-on in the narrative where I almost felt the story took an about-turn of direction, as I was slightly confused in the shift as I was thinking the plot was heading off in one direction vs another. It is hard to put into words, as the story still moved forward and was continuing on course but the tone and voice of the delivery of the flow of story was altering from how the novel began and that is where the confusion started. Then, blessedly things evened out and I was unsure what had happened.
on the contemporary writing styling of brittany fuller:
I’ll say one thing for Ms Fuller – if the Prologue didn’t grab your heart and leave you on the very edge of your chair contemplating the final paragraph, I daresay there isn’t a Thriller round which would instead! The way she ends the Prologue – you’re dearly wrapped up in the ‘heat of the moment’, in the emotional reckless roller-coaster of her character – diving into that spiral of emotional response and trying to put aside the very realistic dangers ebbing at you just out of your periphery senses – their there, all along their there but your with the character,… you’ve stepped so full into her shoes – it is hard to know whose more gobsmacked – her OR you?
The choices Ms Fuller is making to tell this story is what makes it an incredibly compelling read for me – as I found myself aching to read more, to see where Evelyn was going to take me next and I honestly was loving the instinctive way in which Fuller wrote this novel. It has an edge to it but it is the kind of edge which keeps you lingering over the context of the story, of searching to understand what your being told and in keeping suspended a bit to see how it will track forward.
As you get closer to the middle of the story, you start to see how Fuller is setting this up for the duology as even in the opening bridge, you had a feeling there is ‘more’ to the story than what is being disclosed but she doesn’t rush the chapters. In effect, she takes her time to introduce you to Noah and Evelyn shifting from one character to the other in alternating chapters of focus – thus, giving you a dual perspective throughout the novel of how these two characters perceived each other and how in effect they both desired each other but were stalling the attraction as neither of them wanted to alter their own pre-conceived ideas for their futures.
Fuller also shows what happens when the friends you keep close to you don’t always have your best interests at heart. Proving that sometimes, the friends you think are good for you might actually be a bit too toxic to keep. As the story evolves forward, where insta-attraction and lust lead into a relationship which needs to be begun properly – you start to see how this story could be anchoured to a sequel. This is the opening arc of a larger story – of where two people have to recognise their indecision could affect their future and how not realising the truth of your heart could drastically alter the course of your life.
notes about why this works as a duology:
There is dramatic conflict at the jump start of their relationship as each of them is already on course for securing a future they want more than marriage. Except is that the whole story? Your meeting two individuals at a turning of fate where their lives can go in two different directions or find unity in walking together.
This first half of the duology explores what led into their relationship – including the good, bad and ugly bits of sorting out your emotions – of knowing what you truly want vs what you dreamt of having for so long. It isn’t a clear path towards the future, but rather a muddled one with hard choices and consequences neither of the characters saw coming for either of them.
The reason I felt this worked as a duology is because this installment offers the back-story and I am hoping the sequel Devotion will offer the resolution and healing as this one ended on an emotional cliffhanger.
readers who gravitate towards the same stories to read.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Indecision”, book synopsis, author biography and author photograph of Brittany Fuller were all provided by the author Brittany Fuller and are used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #SaturdaysAreBookish banner the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.
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feat. guest for @SatBookChat#duology part one – two people recognise their indecision could affect their future & how not realising the truth of your heart could drastically alter your life.🌼https://t.co/MJiAVVZUfH | #SaturdaysAreBookish pic.twitter.com/4Hl3SYiOdr
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) October 13, 2018
Before #SatBookChat be sure to read my #bookreview about INDECISION by @BineyAnne of whom is today’s featured guest author! We’ll be chatting about topics inclusive to this novel @ 11a NYC | 4p UK // looking fwd to the discussion!?
— Spooktastically, Jorie?? (@joriestory) October 13, 2018
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