Acquired Book By: I have been hosting blog tours with Cedar Fort Publishing and Media for several years now, wherein their new blog tour publicist (Ms Sydney Anderson) also runs her own publicity touring company: Singing Librarian Book Tours (or SLB Tours for short!). I happily joined her team of book bloggers as a hostess in late Spring, 2018 wherein my first tours with her as a hostess began Summer, 2018. I appreciate reading INSPY literature and was happy to find these are most of the stories she is showcasing through SLB Tours! Most of her authors are published through Cedar Fort, though she does work with authors who are either Self-Published or Indie published through different publishers as well.
I received a complimentary ARC copy of “After the Rain” direct from the author Brandy Bruce in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I am enjoying reading the stories by Brandy Bruce
– especially within this series:
These are the very first words we read within the pages of The Last Summer, which set the tone for the novel and for what your expecting to find inside the story. You immediately feel comfortable around Addison, Sam, Luke, Lily, Jason, Debra and Sara. I credit this directly to how Ms Bruce fused her heart into the story-line, as the opening bridge has such a strong visceral anchouring to it, it’s hard not to feel as if you’ve become part of this close-knit circle of friends yourself!
They have the kind of familial relationship you might have hoped to have sought out yourself, though in reality forging friendships like these is not as simple as it would seem. Anyone whose attempted to make a fresh start in a new community knows how hard it is to ‘break-in’ if there is a niche already established between friends’ who have known each other for years. In many ways, I was both thankful to see Sara embraced and slightly questioning how plausible it really would be for that to happen as by my own experiences, it is beyond rare. For the sake of the story, I decided to suspend reality and embrace the moment, as what Sara had stumbled into is something everyone hopes to find for themselves and for that reason alone, I was hooked into reading her story!
The realistic manner of feeling enveloped by the emotional anguish is fittingly honest – these kinds of relationships are murky on the outset, as there are no clear definitions on either side – especially if someone along the way chooses to realise their feelings have changed from idle friendship to romance – how is it best handled to explain that to the other person? The quagmire of course is sorting this out whilst realising the person of your affection has started to move on without you – choosing someone who isn’t you and where does that leave you in the end?
In the background of the story, as this hinges quite heavily on the lives of seven friends, is an interesting mother-daughter relationship. One which surprised me at first, as being that Sara is an only child, I thought I could relate to her a bit more than I did. For starters, I was a bit surprised by how she viewed her relationship with her parents but moreso, how she viewed her connection to her mother. In the end, the only thing I shared in common with Sara is the fact we’re onlys as nothing else related to my life except for that one fact. For Sara, she had issues realising how much alike she was to her mother (which reminded me of the relationship with my Aunt and my grandmother; two peas in a pod and yet they were at odds with each other all the time!) to the brink they both harboured certain secrets in their lives. For Sara, the hardest part for her to reconcile is the fact her mother didn’t like to share the bits of herself which would leave her vulnerable – she’d rather create this exterior barrier against the world which showed her greatest strengths rather than focused on her weaknesses. Sara would have benefited from those lessons – of how to rise out of the ashes of where life hurts us the most but for Sara’s mother, those were the moments she couldn’t easily find a way to re-share without re-opening the wounds which were now healed.
There is a wonderful ease of narrative within the Contemporary styling of Brandy Bruce – you can tell she’s spent a considerable amount of time discovering her characters – not just how they reflect on their lives but how they interact as a family unit. They come alive on paper as true as if they were standing next to you – each with their own quirks and faults, ready to be seen as they are and accepted as we find them. One of the things I love about her signature style is how she tucks us so comfortably into the lives of her characters – she lets us feel as if we’ve spent a few hours getting to know them either through a journal of their lives up to this point or had a conversation with someone who knows the seven as well as Ms Bruce. The conversational style is also keen, as it grants you easy access to better understand where each character is emotionally and on which crossroads of change each character is on the brink of either embracing or choosing to walk down.
Ms Bruce openly shows what it is like to have your emotions pulled straight out of you at a time in your life where you felt you had more worked out than how it appeared on the surface. She also pulls together the faith lives of her characters by organically showing how their faith is directly fused to how they live with a prayerful awareness during their living hours – either through reflective pause, active prayer or a mindfulness of the lessons they grew up knowing as believers which still to this moment in their lives plays a special part in keeping them grounded.
I truly appreciate how Ms Bruce has curated a style for writing realistic Contemporary INSPY which is emotionally centred on uncovering the secrets we try to keep from ourselves, the humbled realities of living through prayer and the emotional upheaval of owning your own truth whilst walking with the realisation not every heart can fully embrace a love which is not reciprocated. There is a lot of real life stitched into this novel – from the highs and lows of feeling loved to the wandering path of friendship and the heartstone connections of family.
-quoted from my review of The Last Summer
After the Rain
by Brandy Bruce
Source: Direct from Author via SLB Tours
Debra Hart is moving on. Maybe. Hopefully. One day.
As a radio show host, Debra spends her mornings as Miss Lonely Heart on air, empathizing with all the broken hearts in the Denver metro area. She spends her evenings watching old musicals and trying not to think about the guy who broke up with her and subsequently fell in love with one of her best friends. Alone in a new city, Debra questions where she belongs and who she is now.
When she stumbles into the indie music scene, Debra meets singer Ben Price. Rock star appeal, with a day job as a worship pastor, Ben is everything Debra wants to avoid. But he’s determined to be her friend, and it so happens she could really use one. Because try as she might, nothing seems to erase the anger and betrayal she feels.
It’s time for a new dream. But how does she start over when she doesn’t even know what she wants anymore?
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781946016737
Also by this author: The Last Summer, Cover Reveal: After the Rain
Also in this series: The Last Summer
Published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas
on 4th February, 2019
Format: Paperback ARC
Pages: 232
Published By: Bling Romance (@BlingRomance)
an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas (@LPCTweets)
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
The Last Summer series:
The Last Summer | (book one) | (see also Review)
After the Rain | (book two) | (cover reveal w/ notes)
Converse via: #INSPY #WomensFiction & #AfterTheRain + #BlingRomance
About Brandy Bruce
Brandy Bruce is a mom, a wife, a book editor, an author, and someone who really loves dessert. She’s the author of the award-winning novel The Last Summer, Looks Like Love, and The Romano Family Collection. Brandy, her husband, and their children make their home in Colorado.
why i was dearly excited over ‘after the rain’:
As soon as I finished reading “The Last Summer” – I wanted to read more from Ms Bruce! Finding stories of Contemporary Fiction – whether anchoured through Women’s Fiction and/or Romance is getting a bit trickier these days. I have become rather particular about my selections in those veins of interest, which is what made enjoying her novel a bit sweeter this past Summer! I loved how she hugs you close to the emotional threads of her characters but she writes with such a realistic edge to her story-lines, you feel like you’ve found another author who understands how to bridge a world close to ours with an INSPY twist to the edges.
I was overjoyed finding out there is a new book on the horizon by this author early-on in the New Year, right as Winter is starting to contemplate exchanging itself for Spring! What a lovely Christmas surprise for those of us who loved reading “The Last Summer” and wish to continue reading more titles by this INSPY author!
my review of after the rain:
Debra isn’t quite herself when we re-enter her story, she’s taken a personal hit to her heart when she had to accept the bloke she was in love with chose someone else to marry. That was quite the quagmire of the first installment – the recognition and forced acceptance of having to face the fact the person you were most interested in spending your life with had chosen a different path, moved on without you in their life and where that left you was your choice to decide how to pick up the pieces of a life you had to abandon in order to seek a new path.
This is how we meet her – where she’s out on the towne with a girlfriend (Paige) whose been attempting to get her outside her shell, live a bit and see the latest talent in music whom Paige knows Debra would love if she would just feel motivated to begin experiencing something outside herself for once. It was here, on a night Paige was surprised her invitation was accepted where Debra met her match – by way of an intuitively charming singer-songwriter who saw past her facade and started to reach towards her personal truth. Not that she let him see as much as he wanted to know but it was enough to jolt her back into the cautionary distance she’d been keeping everyone. Yet, there was the matter of his music – the soulfulness of his lyrics, the way in which he etched out his emotions as he sang and the impact his music was having on her was the most curious of all. Debra had closed and locked her heart after her devastating loss of knowing her soulmate wasn’t the one she had chosen but one who was still out there somewhere in the world.
Navigating through the lonesome hours of not knowing which way to direct herself, Debra takes to the road to see if she can get a closer glimpse at the Rocky Mountains. One gift of her relocation to Colorado is being close enough to kiss the mountains if she wished too as they would be rising against any backdrop she could drink in whilst living there. The mountains, I must admit, do call a person – not just the Rockies nor Appalachia, but all mountains – there is something in their murmuring that speaks to you when your on a quest to find yourself. I find mountains alluring as much as Debra but for her, they were calling her to speak her truth of where she saw herself in the present and how her inward struggle to combat her fears and doubts was pushing her further into a murky ‘other place’ which was bordering on depression. She wanted to be different than how she felt but the hardest hurdle she had was how to ‘let go’ of the moments she cannot change and embrace a second chance at rebuilding a life she could feel happy inside to live.
As Debra reconnected with Addison (one of the last remaining friends she has in Texas) they shared a heartfelt conversation about Debra’s current state of rebuilding her life and of finding the courage to be who she is in the moment of ‘now’ vs back-peddling into the emotional funk she’s been living inside since the break-up. She was craving a new start where she could hit the reset button and put Texas behind her – something Addison respected but was unsure if Debra had the right motivations going into this new phase of her life. For Debra it was part of her innate survival skills to be singularly focused on what she was doing right now rather than to lay thought on the regrets she dearly hoped wouldn’t keep her jaded.
Paige was a true-blue huckleberry friend as she was trying to inspire Debra out of her shell. To give her a reason not to tuck like a turtle and hide from the world but to feel motivated enough to be outside, experiencing new things and seeing her new hometown at different hours of the day or night. It was her dedication to giving Debra a safe passage into this new life she knew Debra wanted that touched Debra the most. For a new friend, I think Debra was surprised the lengths she was going to make her feel inclusive; not just when they were out together but when they were part of a group of friends Paige regularly met with to attend different events. She had the same kind of bond Debra once had herself – where they were inter-connected to their church life and the friends they had made whilst attending.
I even liked how there was a bit of a segue where Bruce broached the concept of accepting help in the form of therapy for Debra. She was lost inside her thoughts most of the time – something Bruce highlighted well without making it feel forced into the foreground. She wrote Debra’s search for solid ground realistically as it applied to a woman casting herself into a new environment in a ‘come what may’ attitude if it meant she could rescue herself from the hurts of the recent past. Debra was not in the right frame of mind in the beginning of After the Rain to see a pathway towards a future where she could live a balanced life; this is why showing her attending therapy was a step in the right direction, as Debra needed a voice reassuring her that her past goals for her future were not cast in vain nor did she have to worry about time expiring to achieve them.
Psychologically, we find Debra has taken a radio job working against her new sense of direction in her life – as it is allowing her to re-hash the past on a constant basis of analysis. I could see why she took the job initially but part of me wondered what her long-term job might be instead as the radio show would only seek to keep her rutted in the past without a step forward to where she could finally shed the angst and the anguish of what made her move to Colorado in the first place.
I loved how Bruce pulled Debra’s Nana into the story-line – how a long distance phone call could be the kind of anchouring you need at the hours your still questioning how to repair your life, your heart and re-fuell your soul with encouragement rather than disappointment. I love family centric stories and this one is writ with a realistic edge about how relationships and maturity through adversity comes with patience and a belief that despite the bad things in our lives, the good moments are worth striving towards even if our days are full of rain, shadow and cast a drizzling effect on our mood. We can always walk in sunshine – some days are best spent in the rain, of embracing the grey days and finding the reassurance of the healing effect afterwards.
One of the most honest and openly raw conversations about life, relationships and recovery from the aftermath of when things go wrong was seen between Ben and Debra. Ben had a voice whose lyrical prose was affecting Debra in such a profound way it was starting to soften the edges of her heart – he was in the band Paige took Debra to see as the story started to unfold. The emotional connection they had to one another was a shared path of recovery from the adverse situations they had faced in life. It was here where Bruce broached the topic of abortion and religious belief – as they both had their own demons to work through from a past they both had not fully recovered. Uniquely they both had hard-won futures – Ben was disappointed by the path his relationship had taken inasmuch as Debra was gutted to the core by hers; the situations were different but in the end, they were both broken-hearted searching for a new beginning.
The beauty of how Bruce approached writing the ‘second half’ of Debra’s story is how she allowed for the river of her life to resume from whence it was stifled from continuing to take her into new experiences. It took a bit of time for her to feel comfortable stepping out with new friends but even when one of her Texas friends came for a visit (Jason) she was willing to prove she was shedding her past one adventure at a time. Ben really helped with this as he knew what she was facing – the heartache and the uneasy ways the mind can play tricks on you when you simply want to ‘move forward’ and put the past behind you.
Each new experience, Debra was learning gratitude for living in the moment – for embracing who she was becoming as if she were cocooning herself in Colorado awaiting for her new wings to burst out and give her flight. It is a compelling drama about one woman’s search for her new truth and how sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is relocate ‘somewhere new’ and rediscover what enriches our life with joy, happiness and the beauty of ordinary days. Because somewhere in those hours, our heart heals, our mind cleanses itself from the past (to where its not playing on a looped reel) and the future feels brighter somehow as we’ve taken firm steps towards reinventing ourselves after sustaining a great loss.
After the Rain at its heart is a story about learning
self-care and finding peace.
on the contemporary inspy styling of brandy bruce:
Very early-on in After the Rain, Ms Bruce makes a connection between song lyrics and the state of Debra’s mind – how the lyrics themselves were projecting the status of her psychological state and by doing so, were effectively re-positioning her on a course where she needed to choose self-healing over the pursuit of a relationship. Her break-up was more than a causal recognition of a relationship which had outlasted its mirth – it was soul-breaking for Debra because of how she had dearly anchoured her life to Luke. She never even considered they would live separately – with different partners and in world apart by not just distance but everything which was important.
I loved this juxtaposition because it eluded to a more humbling truth – of how music speaks to each of us on a different level than words. Music can reach us when words fail and I think for Debra, as music was a constant in her life before she felt shattered and fractured from the woman she had been previously – music became a turn-off. Until of course, Ms Bruce shows how even in an unexpected moment of random adventure, something you love can return back to you and give you the blessing of introspective insight!
What I appreciated about how Bruce tackled the issues of Women’s Health and a women’s right to choose is how she presented it. She didn’t write it with judgement but rather, she laid down the facts of what happened to Ben and his girlfriend at the time – letting the reader have their thoughts and the story-line shifted forward. I applauded her for that as it left the door open for discussion for readers who might be cautious about how an INSPY novel might handle the topic. It was similar to how I admired Brenda S. Anderson for approaching the same issue in her novel.
Part of the continuity of this novel was blessedly graced with quotations from show-tunes and Broadway musicals – featured in the Chapter headings. It spoke to Debra’s passion for them and how each of the quotes used in the novel also pre-empted the chapter they were headlining. You can draw out a lot of inspiration from the words being shared but also, they pointedly re-referenced what was happening in Debra’s life which was a brilliant nod at continuity.
Similar to The Last Summer, I loved how Ms Bruce tucks us close to the walk of faith of her characters – of how they’re evolving through their circumstances, rallying against what afflicts their souls and how they try to champion each other to the point where they lift each other up whilst sorting out their lives. It is a community of chosen families and of friends who endear themselves to the process of accepting each other wherever they are right now in their lives without judgement. She explores where they are in spirit but also where they are in their own head-space; as sometimes the hardest part of living is giving yourself a moment to work through the things that give us the most grief. Its a series realistically exploring how to heal and how to choose your attitude when life grows adverse and I love it for that kind of message of self-empowering courage!
Equality in Lit: focusing on Mental Health
Bruce is known for her realistic story-lines and her focus on keeping things real for her characters. In this installment of the series, she takes us through the motions of Debra’s mental state, from how she is trying to curate an isolated state of living away from people – to how she’s realised she needed to reach out to talk to a therapist. Most of the opening chapters are focusing on how Debra’s state of mind and her mental health especially are in jeopardy because she fused her future to Luke and once he was no longer involved in her life, she was starting to fracture. She hadn’t run a scenario in her mind about what to do if they broke-up and that was the main root of her issues in Colorado. She had no future outlined which wasn’t connected to her Texas church, her group of friends therein and the relationship she had to walk away from despite feeling burdened by the emotions which hadn’t left her since she arrived in her new state.
Rather fittingly, I enjoyed listening to a new favourite playlist of music via #Spotify when I was reading “After the Rain” – which are the ‘daily mix’ selected for you by Spotify? This was my Daily Mix 2 and I loved it! Artists I listened to included the following: The Milk Carton, Dawes, Julien Baker, Bahamas, Blind Pilot, Broken Social, The Decemberists, Westerman, Susie Suh, Billie Marten, Villagers, Local Natives, Shovels and Ropes, Broken Social Scene, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes and Father John Misty.
I had meant to share this lovely Q&A on St. Valentine’s Day, however, for some reason I forgot to add it after my review! Therefore, I am sharing it the day after and as the tour is still be visited upon, I regret those who came previously might have missed this conversation!
One of my favourite reflections on reading “The Last Summer” was this one: There is a gentle earnestness to the way in which Ms Bruce has written The Last Summer – how she chooses to wrap our hearts around Sara’s pain and how whenever we are reading a passage involving prayer, there is a humility of realism embedded inside the words she’s chosen to highlight the emotional strife of Sara. – How did you take us to the depth of this emotional intuitiveness about Sara whilst showing how grounded she was in her faith? It is a difficult balance and you excelled in writing such a realistic impression of Sara’s internal world.
Bruce responds: Oh gosh. Such a good question. I think in every book I’ve written, I draw the faith aspects from my own journey. I’ve written two books in which I know I’ve poured my own fears and doubts and experiences into–one is Second Chance Cafe (The Romano Family Collection) and the other is After the Rain. For The Last Summer, the character of Sara has been with me for years and years, writing her came naturally for me because I know her so well. To me, when you’re secure in your faith, you can express your truest emotions because you know you’re accepted regardless.
What inspires you about writing convicting narratives within the grip of Realistic Fiction and INSPY (Inspirational) story-lines?
Bruce responds: I’ve found that even if I’m reading fantasy, I want the characters to be realistic. I like relatable characters. To be honest, I didn’t start out with any specific genre ideas. The original story came to me (all seven main characters) during my freshman year of college. I started writing this story and the characters were believers—probably because I am and that’s the perspective I was coming from. Over time, deeper themes took root in the story. When writing After the Rain, I wanted to be equally realistic in what someone like Debra would be feeling and going through, including her faith journey, which is very different from Sara’s.
You carve such a distinctive balance between the romantic and platonic relationships we develop in life. Inasmuch as our inter-generational connections – is this continued in the sequel After the Rain? And, what can readers hope to find between the bridge of the last chapter in The Last Summer and the opening arc of After the Rain?
Bruce responds: Yes, I think dating relationships and friendships and connecting with older generations (or younger) are all important parts of real life and that they should be included in fiction in real ways. This is seen in After the Rain as well. The circle is smaller this time around, which I think is only natural after what the characters go through in the previous book. After the Rain begins just a few months after The Last Summer. In some ways, it begins a little before the ending actually, because we’re now following a point-of-view from a different character.
My favourite takeaway I shared with my readers after reading The Last Summer was this one: Ms Bruce has curated a style for writing realistic Contemporary INSPY which is emotionally centred on uncovering the secrets we try to keep from ourselves, the humbled realities of living through prayer and the emotional upheaval of owning your own truth whilst walking with the realisation not every heart can fully embrace a love which is not reciprocated. – What can you reveal about your own approach and intuition in listening to the stories which percolate in your heart to tell? How do the stories paint the palette of words your giving us to read in other words?
Bruce responds: The story of Sara and her friends in The Last Summer has been with me for so long, and gone through different revisions as I’ve rewritten the story at times, that I feel it finally came to a place where it was the story I’d wanted to tell all along. But getting there was like taking a long, winding road. I got to know these characters in depth, scene after scene, year after year as I myself grew as a person.
Is this considered a duology or will this become a series? A trilogy, quartet or long running? What was the most challenging aspect of continuing to tell this story after you finished The Last Summer and began After the Rain?
Bruce responds: One challenge in After the Rain was introducing a sort of “new version” of Debra. She’s not the same woman we see in The Last Summer. Anyone who’s gone through a difficult, heartbreaking time of life knows that we sometimes come out a little different on the other side. People change. Sometimes people are sad or depressed and just can’t be that bubbly person they wish they were. This is what felt real to me as I started to dig into Debra’s story.
I began this as just one story, but since I knew the direction it would go in from the start, there was always this thought in the back of my mind that maybe I’d write a follow-up novel eventually. Some scenes came to me years ago, even as I was writing early versions of The Last Summer. I’d make a note or something to remember, and then set it aside. So by the time I sat down to write After the Rain, I had something of a foundation to start from. I don’t know if there will be a third novel. If there is, it would be the last in this series. I can say I think there’s room for one more story to tell.
This Blog Tour Stop is courtesy of SLB Tours:
Follow the Virtual Road Map
by visiting the blog tour route:
especially as this is a tour offering a special giveaway
I look forward to reading your thoughts & commentary! Especially if you read the book or were thinking you might be inclined to read it. I appreciate hearing different points of view especially amongst readers who picked up the same story to read.
If you love reading these kinds of INSPY Realistic Contemporary stories – kindly let me know some of your favourites – titles, series and authors – as I am always open to expanding what I am reading, as this is one area of literature it takes me a bit of time to research and source the kinds of authors who are writing stories I feel are the ones I’d enjoy the most to read!
Reading this story counted towards my reading challenges for 2019:
This review will be cross-posted to LibraryThing.
{SOURCES: Book cover of “The Last Summer” and “After the Rain”, synopsis for “After the Rain”, author photograph of Brandy Bruce, author biography, the blog tour banner and SLB Tours badge were all provided by SLB Tours and used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. 2019 New Release Challenge badge provided by unconventionalbookworms.com. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Review Banner using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Frank McKenna; Post Script banner (created using: Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo) and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
ICYMI: The Last Summer #bookreview by @BrandyBruce you’ll want to visit (https://t.co/NkabrLilcw) to see why I said ‘A lot of real life stitched into this novel – the highs/lows of feeling loved to wandering path of friendship & the heartstone connections of family #BlingRomance
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter?? (@joriestory) February 14, 2019
#JorieReads | #LastSummer series
by @BrandyBruce | #BlingRomance | @BlingRomanceVery early-on Bruce makes a connection between song lyrics & the state of Debra’s mind – this is a story of learning self-care & finding peace
?#bookreview | #AfterTheRain☂️https://t.co/kA56vH3o1D pic.twitter.com/3ygcIbGMUb
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter?? (@joriestory) February 14, 2019
.@joriestory | ?UPDATED!
When I posted my thoughts on behalf of #AfterTheRain? for some odd reason I had forgotten to include a lovely convo feat. @BrandyBruce! I’ve amended this and hope you ?what she says in the end (https://t.co/kA56vH3o1D) #INSPY #ChrisFic series ?
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter?? (@joriestory) February 15, 2019
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Brandy Bruce does a wonderful job at putting us in the character’s shoes and letting the reader experience those emotions. She’s one of my favorite authors.
Hallo, Hallo Toni!
Isn’t that the truth?! I love how she puts us directly into their living experience and makes us feel as if we’re taking that journey right alongside them! :) I unfortunately had forgotten to include the Q&A when this originally posted – I blame it on a very busy week with morning deadlines; I simply overlooked it and thankfully caught it a moment ago. If you come back to view it you might be happily surprised by what she mentions at the very end of the convo!! I know I was grinning madly over the news!! Happy our paths crossed on the blog tour!