Reclaim by Aly Martinez-Review and Excerpt tour
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Choices. Everyone makes them. From mundane to unimaginable, one choice can change the trajectory of your entire life.
My mother’s choice was to abandon us with our abusive father.
My brother’s choice was to go to prison for killing the boy who assaulted his soulmate.
Camden Cole’s choice was to fall in love with a shattered girl who had absolutely nothing to offer him but heartbreak.
It was one summer beneath the trees, but with Camden, I had a place where I belonged.
A friend who was always waiting for me.
A boy who I caught staring at me more often than not.
He was mine, but when the world closed in and secrets exploded all around us, it was my choice to let him go.
Choices. Everyone makes them.
But mine would ruin us all.
••••••••
REVIEW:RECLAIM by Aly Martinez is a contemporary, adult, dark, romance story line focusing on Camden Cole, and Nora Stewart.
NOTE: RECLAIM runs parallel to, and crosses over with the events of RELEASE but you do not have to have read Release to follow with the current story line. Nora is Ramsay Stewart’s sister (Release).
WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise including child abuse, neglect and rape, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Camden and Nora) following several timelines, covering close to twenty five years in the life, RECLAIM follows the friends to lovers relationship between Camden Cole, and Nora Stewart. At the ages of seven and eight, Nora Stewart met Camden Cole, and spent one wild summer together collecting worms and stories, as Nora’s home life would continue to spiral out of control. Visiting his grandparents very summer near Clovert, Georgia was meant to be punishment but Camden looked forward to his time spent with our story line heroine. At the age of twelve Nora would discover the true meaning of evil, and Camden would be pulled from her life for the next several years. Time would pass, as our couple would meet up, catch up and never forget until Nora did something unspeakable and her brother would pay the price. Years later, Nora would become a teacher, and Camden would write the bar exam, knowing he would eventually be called to save the woman he loved, but saving Nora also meant saving his own heart in the process. What ensues is the building back and forth friendship, relationship romance and love between Camden and Nora as Nora’s life in the small town of Clovert, Georgia would move forward with only the memories of the man she never stopped loving.
Camden Cole was only a summer visitor in Clover Georgia but his family had history and power in the small town where Nora Stewart lived. Camden knew Nora and her brother Ramsay struggled daily to survive but he never expected his life to be shattered when he discovered the truth about the who and what had happened to Nora. Nora Stewart had only ever loved one man from the age of seven, and said man kept disappearing and reappearing throughout her life but it wasn’t until a personal vengeance against Nora and her brother threatened any sense of peace for our story line heroine did Camden Cole return to claim Nora forever.
The relationship between Nora and Camden begins as childhood friends but Nora struggled with her life at home. Abuse, neglect, hunger and hate were but a few of the daily rituals our heroine and her brother had to endure. Camden battled between head and heart knowing the who and what Nora had to endure but it wasn’t until our heroine was older did Camden step in to ensure she was protected from her life back home. As the years went by, Camden and Nora would continue to proclaim their love but Nora struggled to fight the demons from her past, demons that would continue to haunt her for years to come. The $ex scenes are limited but mostly implied.
The colorful cast of secondary and supporting characters include Nora’s brother Ramsay and his girlfriend Thea (Release); Camden’s cousins Josh and Jonathan; Nora and Ramsay’s father, as well as Camden’s parents, his grandparents, and a couple of private investigators.
RECLAIM is a story of power, control; abuse and neglect; betrayal and vengeance; friendship and love. The premise is emotional, heart breaking and raw; the romance is imaginative and sensitive; the characters are broken, stubborn, dynamic and real. RECLAIM is a tragic, impassioned and dramatic tale of survival and love.
Click HERE for Sandy’s review of RELEASE
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
He wedged his large body beside me in the bed. On his side, he draped one arm across my middle, curling his other under his head.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye, completely unsure if I was supposed to cuddle into him or what the hell we were doing.
“This okay?” he asked. “You comfortable?”
I was a lot of things. Confused. Lost. Overwhelmed by guilt.
But because it was Camden, comfortable was one of those things too.
As an answer, I rolled toward him and buried my face in his broad chest.
His whole body sagged as he began stroking the back of my hair. “Nora. Nora. Nora.”
In a way, Camden and I were strangers, but as his heart played in my ear, I felt two puzzle pieces clicking into place. A calm washed over me. The dark cloud of my betrayals still existed outside of Camden’s embrace; it just didn’t seem so ominous anymore. He knew all the dirty and broken parts of me and still came back, holding me as though he could keep me together.
Sliding an arm around his back, I curled in close, shifting to tangle my legs with his. “I’m tired, Cam.”
“I know,” he whispered, hugging me tight.
“No, you don’t. Nobody understands. I’m a disease who infects everyone who gets close to me.” My breathing shuddered. “It hurts. Everything hurts.”
“Do you remember our first summer together when a grasshopper got into the container where we held the extra worms? You screamed so loud when you opened that thing and it came flying out like a bat out of hell. It got on your shirt and then hung on for dear life. With all the racket you were making, the damn thing had to have been terrified, but he never jumped off. I had to peel it off your shirt, one leg at a time.”
I gagged at the memory. “Thanks for reminding me of that. Awesome timing.”
He chuckled and pressed his lips to the top of my head. “I’m the grasshopper clinging to your shirt, Nora.”
Now, if that wasn’t some good old classic Camden Cole rambling, I had no idea what was.
I tilted my head back, resting my chin on his pec, and peered up at him. “You do realize I have no idea what you’re talking about, right?”
My cold, hollow chest filled with a warmth I hadn’t felt in years when he grinned down at me.
“I genuinely thought you’d find your way back to me. A phone call. A visit. Anything. But as time passed and I got older, I realized I fell in love with a girl who had no idea how to be loved.”
My stomach wrenched, and emotion made my vision swim. “Camden, I—”
“No, just let me talk. Hear me out.” He tucked a stray hair behind my ear and let his thumb linger at my cheek, sweeping back and forth. “I know you love me, Nora. It’s flashed in your eyes every time you’ve seen me since we were kids. It’s like every light in the house suddenly comes on, but it terrifies you, so you spend the whole time we’re together running around, turning them all off, convincing yourself that you don’t deserve for people to love you back. But we still do it. Joe loves you. Thea loves you. Ramsey loves you. I’ll always love you.”
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her husband and four young children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and baked feta. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.
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