Free Falling by Sandy James

Posted by Diana Coyle in

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Hello everyone and welcome back to this week's reviewer showcase. It's Thursday already and time to discuss another great book with all of our faithful readers. I chose an author who has tremendous talent and I've been extremely lucky to review her Damaged Heroes series for her. This is definitely an author to watch because with her talent, dedication and superb storytelling capabilities I know we will be seeing plenty more of her and her writing in the future.

So, let's jump into this week's reviewer showcase and let me tell you a little bit about: Free Falling by Sandy James. This is the second book in the Damaged Heroes series and was jammed packed with such emotion flowing between the two main characters, Laurie and Ross, that I just couldn't tear myself away from the story. I was pulled into the storyline immediately and Ms. James held my attention until the very last sentence.

The author knows how to convey her characters' feelings to her readers and makes us feel as if we're part of the story, watching everything unfold before us as we turn the pages. Laurie and Ross were both workaholics so they had a deep and mutual understanding of what it meant for the both of them to have no real social life and a few select friends to lean on. Since a terrible blizzard hit Montana, there was no other available choice for Ross than to stay at Laurie's house until the storm had passed. But having to weather the storm together and make do with only certain provisions because of the outages of the electricity and phone, only made it a bit more complicated for these two not to start developing some kind of bond between them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to other readers.

***Please note, this week in my showcase we will be holding a contest to give away a copy of Ms. James' latest story, Faith of the Heart, to one of our lucky readers. All you have to do is leave a comment and please include some form of contact information so Ms. James can contact the winner directly. Any form of contact information will do, but please make certain that she will be able to reach you with the information you provide us. This book is available in PDF format only through this contest and it's running for today only, Thursday, June 25, 2009. Ms. James will announce the winner later on here in the blog comments and she'll contact the winner directly. Good luck to all our readers!

If you'd like to find out more about Ms. James and see what other stories she has available for purchase, please contact her at:http://www.sandy-james.com/.

Well, that's it for this week's showcase. Please stop by next week to see who we're spotlighting and in the mean time, I hope you all have a pleasant week! See you all next Thursday and thanks for stopping by!


Free Falling (Damaged Heroes Book 2)

Author: Sandy James (Author Website)

Genre(s): Contemporary - Suspense/Mystery
Review Date: 5/3/2009
E-Book Price: $5.99
Book Strand -(Website)
Street Date: Out Now

Free Falling - Book Excerpt

SCORE: 5 / 5

Laurie Miller, a twenty-nine year old PhD in clinical psychology who has empathic abilities, decides that she needs to get away from her job as counselor from the clinic where she is half partners in. Lately, she doesn’t know why, but her empathic abilities just seem to have slipped away from her. No matter how hard she tries, nothing is working for her. Her dear friends, Dr. Deepika Sen, an Emergency Room doctor and Andrew Greve, her fellow psychologist and clinic partner, both think it’s a wonderful idea for Laurie to go spend a few days in Montana where her family’s vacation house is. Reluctantly, she decides to go in hopes of just using the time away to relax and obtain her abilities again.

While there, Montana is being hit with a winter blizzard. Sipping a cup of cocoa and looking out her kitchen window, she sees a car buried under the snow not too far from the house. Since her house and barn are the only structures for miles, she decides to head out to see if someone might need her help. When she approaches the vehicle, she spots a man dressed in nothing more than a suit and overcoat in the driver’s seat. Pounding on the window, she hopes the man is still alive and not frozen to death. Unfortunately, she gets no answer from him. She moves around to the passenger side of the car and begins to get as much snow away from the door as possible so she can enter the car and assess the man more closely. Once inside, she sees that his lips are a shade of blue, but his cheek is warm to her touch. She tries slapping him awake a few times and he finally wakes up. She helps him get out of the car and they start the treacherous trek back to her house.

Once inside the warm house, she tries warming him up because he’s so cold. He settles down on the sofa near the crackling fireplace and he can’t help but fall asleep. Because the storm knocked out the phones and the electricity, she knows the fire isn’t going to warm him enough. Not knowing what else to do to warm him up, she decides to lay next to him on the couch and falls asleep with him. This is something she hasn’t been able to do with any man because once her skin touches someone else’s, all their emotions start flooding to her because of her abilities. No matter how close her skin was to this guy, she couldn’t get any readings off of him. In a way, she’s relishing the fact that she is enjoying the closeness of a man’s body to hers without being inundated with emotions and such as she has in the past.

When they both awake, they start talking and getting to know each other. She finds out that his name is Ross Kennedy and he is an attorney, who just happens to be on a forced vacation from his law firm because he’s been working way too much to suit the firm. So his boss sends him to Montana to search out a client for their signature because it seems that they keep running from this paperwork that finally needs to be signed. Ross doesn’t consider this a vacation at all because now the blizzard has snowed him into Laurie’s house and he can’t try to find the client he desperately needs to get this signature from.

Since the weather is that bad outside, it’s going to be awhile before either one can leave the house. They both have no choice but to make the best of this bad situation they’re both in. But as their time passes, they both realize they are secretly enjoying each other’s company.

How long are they snowed in for? What do they learn about each other while being cooped up together? Does Ross ever get to find the client he came to Montana for? Does Laurie ever get her empathic abilities back?

Ms. James has penned another fantastic story within these pages. This was the second book in the Damaged Heroes series and it was just as entertaining as the first book. I loved how the author weaved her twist and turns throughout the storyline and she had me completely engrossed right until the very last page. I loved Laurie because she was a very smart and independent woman who wasn’t going to take any nonsense from anyone, but she also had a soft side for her family, friends and close clients she dealt with. I already liked Ross because he was introduced to me in the first book, Murphy’s Law, and it was nice to see he had his own story within these pages. I couldn’t help but fall in love with him this time around because Ms. James really went into detail letting her reader get to know Ross on a completely intimate level. I hoped all along that Laurie would get her abilities back and that Ross would find the client he was going crazy looking for. Since he and Laurie were getting along fairly well while they were stranded together, I found myself hoping that maybe something could come about between these two characters. I highly recommend this story and I urge you to pick up the series because you won’t be disappointed with this author’s writing style. She’s very talented and will definitely keep you entertained for a few hours while reading her work. I’m happy to tell you that the third book in this series, All the Right Reasons, has just been released also. Each book is a stand-alone story, but they’re well worth reading in order.


Book Blurb & Info for: Free Falling (Damaged Heroes Book 2)

Workaholic attorney Ross Kennedy never learned to enjoy life until he meets the woman of his dreams. If only Laurie Miller can convince him that’s exactly who she is. A psychologist with empathic abilities, Laurie rescues Ross, who has been stranded in the middle of a Montana blizzard. The two strangers are completely snowed in and out of contact. In just a few days, their attraction to each other is overwhelming, but Laurie is troubled. Her empathic gift seems to have vanished. Fascinated by his pretty rescuer, Ross struggles to open up his heart enough to let this woman in. When the two return home to Chicago, they try to solve a mystery revolving around a Prohibition Era journal they discovered in Montana. Will they find the missing treasure the journal points to? And as a former boyfriend begins to stalk Laurie, how will Ross be able to protect her?



Review available at:
http://www.nightowlromance.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.asp?ReviewId=3612