Release Day Blitz and Review: Love Lines by S. Walden

Arrive to work at 7:58 A.M. sharp. Check. Count forty-seven steps to cubicle. Check. Arrange pens in their red-blue-black-green-purple order of importance. Check. Apply hand sanitizer before opening email. Double check.

And that’s just the first few minutes of her work day.

Thirty-one-year-old proofreader Bailey Mitchell is a slave to her tics. She inherited Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder from her father, and it’s done nothing but inhibit her love life. She’s run the gamut of boyfriends—none of them willing or able to cope with her condition.

Enter 32-year-old Reece Powell, her new coworker at Beach Elite Marketing Firm. He’s more than willing to cope. He finds her habits cute and quirky . . . for now. Reece wins her over, and life coasts along for them until Bailey experiences a devastating blow. Tragedy exacerbates her OCD, and Reece realizes her tics aren’t so cute and quirky anymore. Just like all the others, he has the choice to leave.

But Reece isn't like all the others.

The Wilmington Saga
Follow the stories of Wilmington, NC residents as they fall in and out of love, mend and break hearts, grow, change, lose, win, and experience what it means to truly live in this small coastal community.

4 Star Review by Jen Hagen

Bailey has OCD and touches the door handle to work every morning at precisely at 7:58 a.m.  If she touches it earlier she is certain that her day will fall apart.  She counts her steps to her desk and she lines up her pens.  Bailey was 6 years old when she developed the same symptoms as her father.  Bailey has always had a very close relationship with her father because they understand each other.  Bailey’s mother has had a rough time dealing with her husband’s quirks throughout the years and it was devastating to find out she had a daughter with the same compulsions.   Bailey and her mother have not had a close relationship as her mother tends to focus her attention on the younger daughter.

Bailey is 31 years of age and she is certain that 31 is her unlucky number – it’s the age when her fiancé dumped her 6 months ago, it was the number of rocks she lined up to make her disorder come to light.  She isn’t expecting anything good to happen to her during her 31^st year.  Enter Reece…

Reece is recently hired at the same agency at Bailey.  He is 32 years old and didn’t have much of a home life growing up.  He has never had anybody to call family and his relationships never seem to amount to anything.   His friend claims he likes “projects” – women Reece can try to fix.

I loved Reece.  He was so cute and quick witted.  He didn’t seem to be bothered at all by Bailey’s tics and he was willing to take on all her quirks at a chance of happiness for both of them.  Reece and Bailey got along so well, humor was plenty between the two.  It was a fun relationship to watch unfold.  He was pretty hot in the bedroom too.

What was this man doing to me?  He made me forget that I was tic-bound, schedule-bound, urge-bound.  He made me feel like I was breaking free, even as my hands were securely fastened to the headboard.

But then life hands Bailey something that forces her compulsions to take hold of her life in order to feel somewhat in control.  She pushes Reece aside as she tries to put her life back on track.   Reece was only trying to give her time to figure it out on her own but instead gave her too much time to dwell on her anxieties and questions about their future.  Bailey thinks she’s doing him a favor by pushing him away and out of her life that is constantly controlled by urges.

“Why can’t you figure it out with me?”  He tasted the salt on his lips.  He didn’t realize he was crying.  He only knew that he was losing, and he was running out of battle plans.

Did you catch the change in POV?  Ms. Walden took a unique approach to storytelling and changed it up by combining first and and third person views.  Bailey is told in first person, while Reece stands out with third person narrating. 

At about 85% is where my heart broke and strong emotions came out.  Here is where I would place the book at 4.5 stars because it went from everything being candy canes and gum drops with her OCD to her anxiety taking over and changing everything to sour patch kids.   She crumbles under the pressure and sadly pushes Reece away and my heart broke for Reece.  He has never had anybody constant in his life and this left him reeling, and my heart aching for him.

He loved her.  He wanted her.  But he was also a man with pride.  And his pride steered him out of the door and into the darkness of a new reality.

Hopefully Bailey can get a grasp on her anxiety and realize what she has pushed out the door before it’s too late.  In the meantime, get ready for your heart to be ripped in half because you will hurt for Reece.   You will laugh at Reece, you will cheer for Reece, and you will love Reece. 

Graphic credit: Michelle @ Give Me Books

“Annie!” I squealed, running and scooping her up before she had the chance to escape. I rained kisses all over her face. She was clearly confused, but she seemed to like it. The evidence? She dropped her doll and squeezed my neck.

Erica stared at me through narrowed eyes. “No one, including me, likes my children that much. What is going on?”

Annie giggled on cue, like she understood her mother’s words. I laughed outright.

“Your momma’s silly, isn’t she? Isn’t she?” I asked, poking Annie’s sides.

“Oh my God, who are you?” Erica demanded. “Where’s my BFF who promised me she’d never have children so I could live vicariously through her? I swear to God if you’re pregnant…”

“Calm down,” I said over the top of Annie’s head. She twisted in my arms signaling she was over my show of affection. I placed her on the floor beside her discarded doll. “How would I even be pregnant?”

“Sex. It’s called sex,” Erica replied. She finished folding the last of Little Noah’s shirts, then tossed it in the laundry basket.

“Don’t say s-e-x in front of the baby!” I chided.

“B, she doesn’t know what sex is.”

“She’ll repeat it.”

“Who cares?”

“Oh, so you want to be the mother with the kid who knows the bad words?” I asked.

“Bad word?” Erica asked, laughing.

“You know what I mean,” I said. “You want to be the mother who all the other mothers gossip about? Like about how bad your parenting skills are?”

Erica placed her hand on her hip. “Yeah, I do. Fuck ‘em. Fuck all those mothers. Fuck their playdates and mommy groups and fucking Melissa and Doug puzzles. Fuck their running strollers and baby couture and breastfeeding advice. Fuck their—”

“ERICA!”

“What?”

I looked down at the floor, but Annie was gone. She’d walked away somewhere, no doubt the kitchen since that seemed to be her favorite place to play.

S. Walden used to teach English before making the best decision of her life by becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Georgia with her very supportive husband, who prefers physics textbooks over fiction and has a difficult time understanding why her characters must have personality flaws. She is wary of small children, so she has a Westie instead. She is the USA Today bestselling author of Going Under. When she's not writing, she's thinking about it.

She loves her fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and follow her twitter feed at @swaldenauthor.

Website: http://www.swaldenauthor.com
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