Forget
Me Not (Lily’s
story)
Book
Info:
Title:
Forget
Me Not
Author:
Sarah Daltry
Blurb:
18+
New Adult romance
This
isn’t a sweet and innocent coming of age story. If dirty talk,
bedroom toys, and threesomes offend you… this is not your book.
There are also no billionaires, strippers, or virgins. This is just
the story of typical college kids trying to connect to each other.
“No
one tells you when you start school just how homesick you will be, or
how hard it will be to start life over with no direction and no
friends or family. No one says that becoming your own person is
terrifying.”
Lily
had a crush on her brother’s best friend, Derek, for years –
which led to their steamy night ten months ago in her bedroom. Now,
she’s off to college and she and Derek are still going strong.
However, when school starts, Lily realizes it’s hard to maintain a
relationship, while also trying to live her own life. She and Derek
find themselves falling apart and she has no idea where to turn.
Enter
Jack. Everything about him is wrong for Lily and she knows it, but
she can’t stop herself from being attracted to him. When things
implode with Derek, it’s Jack who’s there to pick up the pieces –
and to show Lily an entirely new set of experiences she didn’t know
she was missing. Of course, Jack has his own problems and once
Lily gets to know him better, she starts to wonder if she can handle
all of Jack.
When
Derek reappears on the scene, Lily is forced to decide between two
guys and herself. Can she find herself without losing the people who
matter in the process?
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“Is
it bad? Is something wrong with Derek?” Abby knows better than
anyone how much I obsessed over him for years. She’s the one who
bought me the vibrator last year for my birthday that ended up being
the catalyst for my entire relationship with him. Four years of high
school and three of them consisted of me whining about how badly I
wanted to be with him.
“No,
he’s okay. But, well, I have only seen him once since school
started. We don’t even talk every night lately because our
schedules are so different.”
“Are
you having a lot of fun at school?”
“Not
really,” I admit. “I’m just so sad about Derek. I feel like he
doesn’t even care about me anymore.”
“That’s
weird. You guys were headed for marriage when we graduated. What
happened?”
“I
don’t know. When he came to visit, it was amazing, of course, but
now we are both so busy, and I don’t know.” I break down, crying
for real for the first time since school started, because I know
she’s right. It is weird
and something must be wrong. I just don’t know what it is. It isn’t
just Derek, either. School isn’t what I thought it would be. I feel
like I am alone most of the time, even with my small group of
friends. Everyone has his or her own schedule and it’s tough
finding time outside of meals to talk. On the weekends, we usually
try to hang out, but someone is always missing for work, a home
visit, or just because something else came up.
“Maybe
you need a break,” Abby suggests. “Not like a break up, but just
time for you to get settled. I mean, he’s been with you since last
year and he also had time to settle in first. You haven’t even
found your own way around school. I know how you are. You probably
just pine over him and act antisocial, aren’t you?”
“I
have friends,” I argue.
“You’re
in college. What do you do every night?”
I’m
about to argue again when I realize that what I do mostly is stay in
and work on homework, or go to the library to work on homework, or
talk to Derek. Yes, I go to meals and hang out with Kristen and the
others, but I don’t take part in most of the events or activities
on campus. I can’t claim that the environmental club is a happening
social life. I honestly can’t say I know anyone outside of the
group of people that Kristen hangs out with – and Jack.
“You’re
right,” I say. “I love him, Abby. But I don’t even know who I
am.”
Lily
of the Valley (Jack’s
story)
Book
Info:
Title:
Lily
of the Valley (Flowering, #1.5)
Author:
Sarah Daltry
Blurb:
18+
New Adult romance
This
isn’t a sweet and innocent coming of age story. If dirty talk,
bedroom toys, and threesomes offend you… this is not your book.
There are also no billionaires, strippers, or virgins. This is just
the story of typical college kids trying to connect to each other.
“No
one tells you about pain. They tell you that it hurts, that sometimes
it’s consuming. What they don’t tell you is that it’s not the
pain that can kill you. It’s the uncomfortable numbness that
follows, the weakness in your body when you realize your lungs may
stop taking in air and you just can’t exert enough energy to care.
It’s the way taste and color and smell fade from the world and all
you’re left with is a sepia print of misery. That’s when the
shift starts – the movement from passive to active. I fall asleep,
hoping that the morning will bring back the pain. At least the pain
is a thing.”
Plagued
by a dark past, Jack sees college as a way out. Desperate to escape
the area where he grew up, the people who know his secrets, and his
own family, he deals with his problems through alcohol and
meaningless sex.
When
he first sees Lily, she’s the epitome of everything he hates. Yet
something about her makes Jack rethink everything he knows and
assumes about other people. Now, with the help of his best friend and
lover, Jack has to decide if he wants to pursue something that he
knows will only end badly.
Can
Lily be one of the few people who can see Jack for who he really is –
or will his darkness be too much for her to handle?
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Excerpt:
“Did
you go see your Mom today?”
I
nod. Before moving in, I made my regular visit to the cemetery.
Nothing there ever changes. It’s both a relief and a constant
reminder. Even my grandmother stopped going, but I can’t. I can’t
just not go. Someday, I’ll be ready. Someday.
“You
don’t have to say it,” I tell Sandee. “I know she’s not
there.”
At
one point, during my father’s trial, when I refused to take his
side on the stand, he nearly kicked me across the lawyer’s
office. “Your
mother was a fucking junkie, and you meant shit to her. Driving up
there every weekend, leaving flowers on her grave? You’re wasting
your time. She’s dead and good riddance to her. There’s nothing
in that grave because even if there is a soul, that bitch didn’t
have one.” The
lawyers later came to work out guardianship one afternoon when I was
home and shook their heads when they saw me. Was it guilt?
Irritation? Something else? I don’t know, but fuck them. That’s
what I know now.
“You
do what to need to do, Jack. She’s there if you want her to be
there.”
“You
know, they spelled her fucking name wrong. Right there on the
tombstone. E-V-E-L-Y-N. It was Eveline, with an I-N-E. And no one
even bothered to fix it. I remember being led to a plastic folding
chair out on the cemetery lawn, the gaping hole my last physical
memory of my mother, and looking up. That fucking Y. By the time we
noticed, it was done and they said it would cost us several hundred
dollars to change it. Like it was our fault.”
“Shit.
Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It
doesn’t matter. They couldn’t really change it, even if they had
put up a new one. They did it and you can’t fix something that
deeply ingrained, can you? It’s been dug in too far. That Y is not
going anywhere, no matter if I cry, punch something, or just give
up.”
“Things
can always be fixed.” Sandee’s a regular source of inspiration,
but her optimism wears me down right now. I don’t get how some
things can be fixed.
Whenever
I think of my family, either then or now, all I feel is rage. Rage at
my mother for turning out like she did, rage at my father for what he
did, rage at the way the world shits on your dreams, and rage
sometimes at myself. For existing.
Star
of Bethlehem
Book
Info:
Title:
Star
of Bethlehem (Flowering holiday
novella)
Author:
Sarah Daltry
Publisher:
SDE Press
Blurb:
Jack
isn’t a rock star. He’s not the leader of a MC. He isn’t a
billionaire. Lily’s not the daughter of a mob boss, or a stripper,
or a virgin with a BDSM fascination. They’re just regular college
kids, who somehow found each other in the middle of all the crap and
chaos of growing up.
“With
you, Jack, it was the first time I ever felt real. It was the first
time anyone looked at me and saw substance. It was the first time I
wanted to make someone see me.”
Jack
and Lily have navigated his past, her desire to move on from her
family’s demands of her, his depression, and her loneliness. Now,
on New Year’s Eve, they have an entire year laid out ahead of them.
First, though, Jack needs to meet Lily’s family, to be welcomed
into her life. It’s intimidating, but with a sweater that is way
too hot and his grandmother’s ugly car, he arrives at Lily’s
gleaming house on a hill, ready to open himself up completely to her.
Inside
the perfect, sparkling house, Lily waits for the boy she has come to
love. But Lily’s house and family are a lot like her – shiny and
pretty on the outside, with a sad emptiness on the interior. Lily
wants to give Jack the one thing he has always dreamed of – family
and love – but can she keep him from seeing how hollow a lot of the
picture perfect life he fantasizes about really is?
This
is a novella length work that follows Forget
Me Not and Lily
of the Valley.
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Excerpt:
I take his hand and pull him down
beside me on my bed. I feel so complete in his arms, as if nothing
can go wrong when he holds me. It’s all the other stuff. The world,
people, pressure. Maybe it’s a little fear that things just ended
with Derek. That one day, as quickly as I fell for Jack, I also fell
out of love with Derek. I don’t have enough experience to know if
that’s normal. What if it happens again?
“What? Tell me,” Jack
whispers.
“Have you ever felt like your
entire life is some surrealist’s joke? That you think you’re in
control of it, while really, you’re probably just…”
“A melting clock?” he
finishes and laughs. I look at him, disappointed that I can’t
explain it, but also relieved that he doesn’t care.
“All the fucking time,” he
says. “I know you’re scared. I know I’m
scared. But I seem to
remember you telling me that I should remember what matters. I made
you a promise, princess. Yes, your house intimidates me. Your life
intimidates me. Hell,
loving you intimidates me. But I’m in this. I’m here. Present.
Entirely. I’m looking only forward. And all I see is you.”
“Take the damn book,” I tell
him. “I just wanted to show you that I have faith in us. It was a
conscious decision to give you something that was a very special gift
to me, to tell you that I trust you with it, because I trust you to
be there. Long term.”
He takes me in his arms and
kisses me. I decide I won’t stop him if he goes further, but he
doesn’t. Our bodies crackle with the energy between us, but as much
as the sex thrills me, Jack does so much more for my mind than his
body could even do. I can’t believe how alive I feel when he’s
near me. Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s desperate. But I want
him here in my life; I want him with me, because I love being this
aware.
I speak against his cheek, while
his hands slowly explore my body. It’s sensual but not sexual. He’s
studying me like a work of art. “I don’t want to fall out of love
with you. I thought Derek was all I ever wanted. I don’t want to be
in the same place with you a year from now.”
“You won’t be,” he tells
me.
“How do you know?”
He kisses along my face, brushing
his lips against my cheek, my forehead, my nose, but never reaching
my mouth. “I don’t know how. But I do.”
I love that he can put aside his
doubts to ease my own. I know Jack’s had so much trouble in his
life, and the fact that he can comfort me, when my problems are so
petty and stupid in the scheme of things, is one more thing I love so
much. “I know I’m shallow. But I don’t want to be, Jack.”
“You’re not shallow. You’re
not empty. Anything you think of yourself – it’s crazy. If you
want to talk about surreal, it’s the fact that you think you’re
less than something. Maybe you didn’t get shit on the same way I
did in high school, but clearly, people have underestimated you. They
missed out on you. And you have every right to be hurt. But, Lily? No
one will ever hurt you again.”
I smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry
I’m being so moody. It’s probably hormones or something. I think
I’m just frustrated.”
“Yeah?” He laughs. “Well…
I mean… I can help you relieve some of that.”
He’s on top of me and I don’t
care that it wasn’t exactly what I meant. I don’t care that
someone could walk in. Someone probably will
walk in, since
eventually they’ll come looking, but I don’t care at all. I want
to belong to Jack, and I don’t know any other way to do so.
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About
The Author:
Sarah
Daltry writes about the regular people who populate our lives. She's
written works in various genres - romance, erotica, fantasy, horror.
Genre isn't as important as telling a story about people and how
their lives unfold. Sarah tends to focus on YA/NA characters but
she's been known to shake it up. Most of her stories are about
relationships - romantic, familial, friendly - because love and
empathy are the foundation of life. It doesn't matter if the story is
set in contemporary NY, historical Britain, or a fantasy world in the
future - human beings are most interesting in the ways they interact
with others. This is the principle behind all of Sarah's stories.
Sarah
has spent most of her life in school, from her BA and MA in English
and writing to teaching both at the high school and college level.
She also loves studying art history and really anything because
learning is fun.
When
Sarah isn't writing, she tends to waste a lot of time checking
Facebook for pictures of cats, shooting virtual zombies, and simply
staring out the window.
Author
Social Media Links:
Top
Ten:
Author’s
Favorite Books:
The
Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
Jane
Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering
Heights – Emily Bronte
Dandelion
Wine – Ray Bradbury
The
Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Clockwork
Angel – Cassandra Clare
Lola
and the Boy Next Door – Stephanie Perkins
Days
of Blood and Starlight – Laini Taylor
Red
Moon – MA Grant
Author’s
Favorite Book Boyfriends:
Jake
Barnes – The Sun Also Rises
Holden
Caulfield – The Catcher in the Rye
Heathcliff
– Wuthering Heights
Rochester
– Jane Eyre
Will
– Clockwork Angel
Etienne
– Anna and the French Kiss
Hamlet
– Hamlet
Ian
– The Host
Bru
– Summer Sisters
Samuel
– The Lovely Bones
Author’s
Favorite Video Games:
Borderlands
1 and 2
Fallout
3
Persona
series
Silent
Hill series
Final
Fantasy series
Skyrim
Dragon
Age series
Mass
Effect series
Fable
series
Bioshock
series
Magic:
The Gathering
Perfect
Dark
Heavy
Rain
LA
Noire
Catherine
Zuma
Author’s
Favorite Bad Boys:
Heathcliff
from Wuthering
Heights
Jake
Barnes from The
Sun Also Rises
Will
from Infernal
Devices
Lord
Byron
The
Scarecrow in Batman
Begins
Lucifer
from Supernatural
Mr.
Darcy from Pride
and Prejudice
James
Dean
Damon
from Vampire
Diaries
V
from V
for Vendetta
Interview
with Sarah:
I had written a
short story about Derek and Lily and their first time called “Her
Brother’s Best Friend.” It was just supposed to be a short erotic
story. But it sold well, so I thought about writing more about the
two of them. However, as I started writing Forget Me Not, the
story would not work for me. Until I found Jack. And then the novel
was over and there was just so much more to his story, so Lily of
the Valley was born.
Forget Me Not
and Lily of the Valley are both flowers, and the series is
called Flowering. The reason is that it is about love,
sexuality, and growing up – sort of blossoming into the person you
will be. Forget Me Not also addresses the idea of leaving your
life behind and moving on. And Lily is the main female character, so
hence Lily of the Valley.
People are
complicated, as are relationships. The things we think we want
sometimes turn out not to be what we want. In addition, the people we
think we understand may surprise us. We can’t assume anything about
love or each other. They are too complex.
The Catcher in
the Rye, because it was the first time I understood that other
people felt like me and it also said it was okay to be different. And
The Sun Also Rises, because there can be beauty in suffering.
Hemingway. I know
he’s dead, but he knew how to write true.
I am writing
Scandal, a contemporary romance about a teacher and an actor
who find each other after they are both ruined by rumors, and I am
waiting to release Bitter Fruits, a New Adult paranormal/urban
fantasy romance in December through the publisher. I am also
working on Immortal Star, the second book in that series.
Jack’s
experiences and emotions are really closely tied to my own and it was
hard to write some of his scenes.
Aubrey
Plaza. She has the same type of biting sarcasm that I do.
Travel
the world and write.
Anyone
who is cruel to other people or creatures. People who assume their
own reality is the only reality. And people who don’t read.
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