8 July 2015

Blog Tour with Giveaway: Two Hearts: When I Said I Do, I Meant Forever by James Eric Richey



My rating: 4 of 5 stars



“The papers say we're married, but it's the heart that writes the love story.” 


----Anthony Liccione, an American author/poet



James Eric Richey, an American author, has penned his debut contemporary fiction, Two Hearts: When I Said I Do, I Meant Forever, that etches a beautiful and heart-touching love story of a young married couple through the odds and evens of their lives' shared journey.






Synopsis:

Jaxon Tagget is a cattle-rancher’s son, born and raised on the Double T, just outside of Dillon, Montana. In love with his high-school sweetheart, Annie, Jaxon proposes on graduation night, presenting her with a wedding ring made from gold he mined himself. Annie accepts immediately, to the horror of her bitter, man-hating mother.


Jaxon’s a wonderful husband, but the warnings of Annie’s mother linger in the young bride’s ears. And it doesn’t help that women continue to fall all over the markedly handsome Jaxon.


Unaware of his wife’s persistent doubts, Jaxon is struggling with his own troubles when he finds out his dad is sorely in need of money to save the ranch. But hope glimmers gold when he rediscovers the old mine on the Double T.


While Jaxon travels to verify the mine’s productivity, Annie grows increasingly suspicious. Is Jaxon’s absence what it seems, or does he have another, less faithful reason for his travels? When Annie sees a picture of the beautiful laboratory owner whom Jaxon is visiting, she’s sure the only gold he’s interested in is long, blond hair. Is Annie right, or will it be her doubts that forever sever their Two Hearts?


The synopsis pretty much sums up the whole story although there is one nail-biting as well as adrenaline-rushing event that kept me glued to the story to find out the result of such an event. Jaxon and Annie are high school sweethearts and on the graduation night, Jaxon proposed Annie with a self-made gold ring, which he dug out from an old mine inside his father's ranch. Before heading to college, they got married, had a nice college life, settled to Venezuela, where Jaxon was offered a job in a mining company. And that is where the insecurities started clouding up their marriage which threatens Jaxon's job. Heading back to their hometown in Montana eased the tension between the couple followed by Jaxon's father's cancer, soon due to a financial crunch, once again Annie's dilapidated childhood threatens to fill up her mind with insecurities leading to bigger problems. Will their love story see a happy ending or will the insecurities will kill their marital bliss?

The writing style of the author is very simple, as well as easy to comprehend with. The articulate prose invites the readers' minds to stay glued throughout the story. The narrative is layered with compassion and evocation emotions that makes the readers deeply feel the events unfolding right in front of their eyes. The growing tension between this young couple keeps the readers engaged to see them through the storms and war threatening to take away their marital bliss.

The characters are sketched with lots of realism, and the author have voiced each charterer's voice quite strikingly. Although I barely could connect with any one of them as they lacked depth which was bit difficult for me to understand so as to why some characters behaved in a particular way.

The book teaches us how to stay strong in a marital confusion and how to believe one another, although felt a bit unrealistic at times. However, if you enjoy a good romantic contemporary story then do grab a copy of this book as it really provokes some of our deep core emotions to come out from our souls.

Verdict: Nice story and will appeal to all romance readers.

Courtesy: Thanks to the iRead Book Tour for this book! 

Add it to your Goodreads bookshelf

Book Purchase Link: Amazon


Author Interview:
Now let's chat with the author, James Eric Richey, to know more about this amazing author as well as the book.

Me: Hello and welcome to my blog, James. Congratulations on your book, Two Hearts. Tell us briefly the story behind your book, Two Hearts?

James:
Thank you for taking the time to spotlight Two Hearts. Before I started on Two Hearts, I was writing a fantasy story-other world creation, magic, and monsters. I was having a hard time with the details.  For a couple of weeks I kind of just stared at the computer screen struggling with the story. On April 2, 2012 I had a very specific dream.  When I woke up I knew I had my story. I quickly wrote down my dream using bullet points for the main ideas. I immediately started writing Two Hearts. I also got story ideas from fiction books I had been reading, which helped me develop the story line for Two Hearts.


Me: What was your source of inspiration for this book?

James:
On April 2, 2012 I had a very detailed dream, which I wrote down in outline form the following morning. I knew that the dream was going to be my next story. I immediately began creating the characters and their histories. It took me two and a half years to write the story.


Me: How did you research for this novel? Which is your favorite contemporary romance book?

James:
I do all of my research through Google, Google Earth, Wikipedia, and the internet in general. When I am able, I also like to talk with people that I know have experience with the subject I’m dealing. With Two Hearts, I consulted with a spine surgeon to understand the impact of a bullet on the body. I spoke with a clinical psychologist about issues of infidelity in marriage and the emotional impact that would have on a person. I spoke with hunters several times about rifle and bullet types. Also, when I can, I like to visit the locations where the story is set—it doesn’t happen as much as I would like, but maybe I will get to the point when I have more free time to visit every location.  I just recently finished three books.  The most recent book I finished was The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks. Great book. The two books I finished before The Longest Ride, were Gray Mountain and Sycamore Row, both by John Grisham. Right now I am reading Persuader, a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. I read Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks while I was writing Two Hearts.


Me: How will you describe your journey so far as an author?

James:
Good question. Thanks for asking. Two Hearts is the third book that I have written. The first two were learning experiences which I never fully completed. Once I started Two Hearts I knew I wasn’t going to stop until it was finished. It has been a very hard process, and I knew if I didn’t consistently work at it every day, I would never complete it. Consistency was the key, and I had to keep pushing myself. Even though the process was hard, it was very fulfilling watching the story develop from the initial dream, to the outline, to the development of the character’s lives, and then to the actual writing of the story.  Each step completed was a success story, a little victory I had won, which pushed me on. When you first acknowledge to yourself that you are going to write a novel, a large novel, the idea seems overwhelming. The end result, a published novel in your hand, seems so far out there, the actual writing of the story seems surreal--impossible. But, if you take it bit by bit, piece by piece, a little every day, the task gets done and then suddenly you are half way through the novel.  My journey so far as an author has been awesome. There definitely have been down days as well as days where I seem like I’m floating on air. Very fulfilling.


Me: Was it always your one true dream to be an author?
James:
No, I grew up wanting to be a lawyer. I am the youngest of nine. I have five brothers and three sisters. We had a full house. My father owned his own construction company and all of my brothers and I worked in construction starting at the age of 12. We were expected to pay our own way through school working in construction. Practically every day, working in construction with my father, he would tell us to go to school and get an education. My father would tell all of us boys to either be a doctor or a lawyer and so that is what we did. My three sisters all married either a doctor or a lawyer. Including spouses, there are four doctors and five lawyers in my family. I went to college planning on being a lawyer. I went to law school for two reasons. First, I couldn’t stand the sight of blood, so being a doctor was out of the question.  Second, I was following in the footsteps of my other siblings and their spouses. Plus, I love to read and write. The study of law was a natural fit for my passions. I love to read and write. My older brother practiced personal injury law, so after graduating from law school, I started working with him.
 

Me: How will you describe your normal writing day? And tell us how do you get away from the stress of a long day's work?

James:
I have a very time consuming day job.  Fortunately, I am self-employed, so I try to stop working at a reasonable hour to allow myself time and energy to write. When I am heavily into writing a story, I try to consistently stop my day job at six. I take a one hour break for dinner.  I start writing at seven and I will usually work until ten. I will do this four to five days a week. I don’t work on Sunday and I usually will only work half a day on Saturday.  So, if the moon aligns with all of the stars, and everything is in place in the Richey family universe, I will spend anywhere from twelve to fifteen hours a week writing.  This doesn’t happen every week. I try, but thinks come up. To break up the stress from work, I take my wife and two daughters out faithfully every Friday night. I play an active roll in my church. So, I have church responsibilities on Wednesday night and on Sunday. 


Me: What are you currently working on?

James: I’m working on another romantic suspense story built around the relationship of a father and son.  The story ultimately is about forgiveness. The story deals with the unique requests of the father’s will. So, in a way, it is a legal romantic suspense story. In the story, the son blames the father for the accidental death of the mother. The son has to learn how the mother died and he has to learn to forgive the father for what happened and how it happened.


Me: Thanks so much for joining me today on this interview session, I wish you luck for all your future endeavors.

James:
Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for spotlighting Two Hearts.
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Author Info:


James Eric Richey was born and raised in California. He attended Brigham Young University, studying English with an emphasis in Literature. After graduating from BYU he returned home to California to further his education by attending law school. After passing the bar, James practiced in California for several years, but he quickly learned that he did not have a passion for the law. In 1998 James obtained his real estate appraiser license, which has given him a flexible work schedule and allowed him to pursue his true passion, writing books. Besides his writing, he also enjoys reading, running, and sailing. James currently lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with his wife, Heather, and their two daughters. 







Connect with James on:  Website  ~   Twitter  ~    Facebook

Giveaway:

Win one of 10 copies of “Two Hearts”. Two winners will also each get a $20 Amazon Gift Card (open to USA & Canada) Ends Aug 8


a Rafflecopter giveaway


1 comment:

  1. Thank you Aditi for allowing me the opportunity to respond to your questions, and thank you for spotlighting Two Hearts. Thank you for your honest review.

    ReplyDelete

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