BooksChatter: ☀ Love Is An Action: What Love Is [1]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Love Is An Action, a New Adult Contemporary Romance by Bry Foster (16 November 2015, Bry Foster , 288 pages).

This is the first book in the What Love Is series.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first three chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Bry Foster will be awarding one (1) ebook copy of Love Is An Action to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter to readers of our blog.

Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway

Synopsis

Khloe Hudson is all out of everything.

All out of patience for her alcoholic father. All out of money from her summer job savings. All out of scholarship essay ideas. And all out of room in her heart for people who don’t care to see her for who she really is.

But even she has to admit that the French jerk attending her academy is starting to worm his way in just a bit.

Cash Castille couldn’t care less about what Khloe thinks she knows. None of her advanced classes have taught her that love isn’t something that can be measured or figured out using scientific methods. Actions often speak louder than words. And although he gets a rise out of driving her crazy, he can’t help but wonder when her brain will stop arguing with what their hearts already know.

When Cash drops a bomb and asks for the favor of a lifetime, Khloe reluctantly agrees because despite the terms, she needs the benefits of their arrangement. However, as Cash and Khloe navigate through their new found relationship, she can’t help but wonder if the cost of this ploy will be another expense she can’t afford to give. Her heart.

Teaser: Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

I’ve always found love to be a bit facetious. Some people swear by things like true love and finding your soulmate. Others believe you can easily fall out of love. Others still, believe that one person can be in love with a variety of lovers. Why is that? Why is love interpreted in so many ways and yet, can’t really be explained? Is love not universal? And if love isn’t universal, why does it seem that everyone is striving for it? Maybe I’m bitter, because I have never experienced a romantic kind of love before. And if love is what I get from both of my parents, than it can’t be that all-encompassing, overwhelming passion that everyone else is experiencing.
      But, for whatever reason, everyone handles love and the loss of it in their own way. My best friend—Liz’s— godmother has always been a little off her rocker to me. However, how she is choosing to get over her most recent breakup has me stumped.
      “Does she really believe in this shit or is this one of those ‘positive thinker’ situations?” I whisper to Liz. Before she can answer, Jasmine elbows me sharply in my side to remind me to be quiet. I wince and suck in a breath as I try not to curse.
      “That’s one for the swear jar.” Dammit, that’s five bucks today. Jasmine is Liz’s mom and she is not a fan of my ‘potty mouth’. Swearing is really the only thing my father ever taught me and it’s panning out to be a rather difficult habit to kick.
      I look over at Liz, seeing her shoulders shake in barely restrained laughter. I’m glad someone is enjoying this. I’m at a loss.
      “Spirits…please be with us. Help us heal and find new love…” Beth continues to say a silent prayer to the Cosmos. From what I can understand, Beth and her longtime boyfriend Jeremy broke up after he left her for a coworker. She thought they were on their way down the aisle; he apparently did not.
      The unpredictable nature of Liz’s house keeps things interesting. One week Jasmine may want to take us on a bike ride through the upper side of the city. Another week, we may pack up and take a road trip to Mexico or—-my least favorite— Jasmine’s crazy best friend may show up and force us into a weekend of ‘Spiritual Rejuvenation’. I roll my eyes as Beth starts to shuffle the deck of Tarot cards. Yawn.
      All four of us sit in a circle around a small, wooden table. A white candle with a flame sits on top of it. The flickering of the candle is the only light in the room. If I were afraid of the dark, this would be very disturbing. But, with my experiences, I’ve learned that sometimes the scariest things reside in daylight.
      “Who’s first?” Bright brown eyes glance around the small circle. I try my best not to make eye contact with her so that she doesn’t pick me. The opposite happens.
      “Khloe? How about you.” Liz chuckles not so silently next to me. I narrow my eyes.
      “If it doesn’t work in Mrs. Tucker’s class, why would you think it would work here?”
      “I never get picked for anything I’m actually excited about.” I mutter before scooting forward to be closer to the table. I know that I’m unenthused but, judging from the forced happiness radiating from Beth, she doesn't seem to notice or care.
      “Are there any questions you wish to ask the Universe?” Really lady?
      “No.”
      “Try her love life! I wanna hear something juicy.” Liz insists. I look at her over my shoulder.
      “You just made the nemesis list.” She and Jasmine laugh.
      “Excellent. Shuffle the deck.” I do and then Beth closes her eyes and pulls the first card. I don’t even look down. She twists her lips to the side as she pulls another, then another, then another.
      “I see change…” She trails off as she looks at the cards. I chew my lip. I didn’t think I would actually be this nervous. “Something or someone…you’ve been wishing for is about to come to fruition…”
      “I don’t know. Maybe my grades?”
      “No, no, no…this is a person, see, this card symbolizes love, and this one life. Unless the life card means pregnancy.” She arches an eyebrow. I huff and sit back on my hands.
      “My name ain’t Mary.” I tell her. She nods like my revelation helped cement hers. I don’t agree.
      “Is there a love interest?”
     “With an actual person, Koko, not your grades.” Liz clarifies as I open my mouth. Sometimes I really hate that she knows me so well.
     “No…”
     “Well, there is Cash.” Liz suggests. I snort.
      “The only reason he’s in our lives is because he kind of forced his way in.” I clarify.
      “Well then the spirits have spoken. They have placed the two of you in each other’s paths for a reason. Your love is all but written in the sky.” There is a beat of silence before Liz and I break into peels of hysterical laughter; so much so that my eyes water. “What did I say?”
      “Surely I would believe that Cash was the love of my life if I didn’t need to convince myself that I don’t hate his guts every time he steals one of my pens to hand off to some girl in class. Or make me trip over my own feet down the halls. OR pull my hair tie out, knowing that it takes great patience and a complete cup of water to get my curly hair into a decent ponytail.” I say after I control myself a little.
      “Hate is a strong word, Flower Pot.” Jasmine cuts in. ‘Flower pot’ is some strange pet name she came up with for me when I was younger and never stopped using. Something about my aura being filled with bright colors that could rival flowers in the spring. Therefore my body is like a flower pot.
      I try not to get offended.
      “Okay, strongly dislike.” I amend and smile sweetly for her. She waves me off.
      “And on that note, I think Koko and I should head out.” Liz says as she stands up. I follow behind her, relieved to stretch my long legs.
      “Where are you two headed?” Jasmine asks as Elizabeth blows out her candle. I flick on the living room light.
      “Probably up to my room, out on the balcony.” We start backing out of the room.
      “You two sure you want to head out before the smoothies?” I bite my lip to keep from grimacing. Beth’s ‘smoothies’ are pretty much every vegetable she can shove in the blender mixed together. It’s like drinking baby food.
      “No offense Beth but I think we’ve had about as much spiritual rejuvenation as we can get from the living room. We need to walk around and spread our wings…let the spirit of the Cosmos open up to us.” Liz says.
      “You’re right. A beautiful night like this… maybe we should just move this little party outside under the stars-”
      “-Maybe another night. Gotta go! Bye!” Liz yells before we race up to her room.
      “I swear that lady gets more kooky every time we see her.”
      “Hey, that’s my godmother you’re talking about.”
      “I know, and she’s looney.” We both chuckle as Liz walks over and opens the glass door that leads out to her balcony. Crisp air wisps in and I sigh as I follow her out.
      “Wanna paint my nails?” I shrug. Why not. As she grabs her kit, I sit down on the lavender chair and kick my legs up over the railing. When she plops down next to me, pink nail polish kit in hand, her phone starts to ring.

      Tyler,
      Lights up the screen and she rolls her eyes before pressing ignore.
     “How long are you going to lead him on?”
     “I’m not leading him on, I like him.”
      “I can totally tell, by the way you forward a third of his calls.” She narrows her brown eyes at me as she puts her wine red hair in a ponytail.
      “My dad likes him. Besides, he’s not nearly as bad as Ryan or Anthony were.” And there it is. Liz’s dad, Alex, always finds ‘good kids’ he wants Liz to date. Even from upstate New York he finds ways to dictate her dating life. She hates it, but instead of refusing him and causing a bigger rift between her parents she bites the bullet and dates guys, she at best feels lukewarm about, to please him. As much as that sucks and I wish my friend would stand up for herself, I am kind of jealous that she has two parents that care.
      Rather than argue with her as she continues to spout off all the reasons she and Tyler might be right for each other, I paint her nails and make fun of her lack of technique when she paints mine. If I
      If I were as smart as I like to think, I’d take Liz and Jasmine up on their offer and move in with them. They are the closest thing to family I have, besides my father. My mother left us when I was nine and her family hasn’t concerned themselves with me since we moved to Louisiana.
      Liz and I met about a decade ago in California— just before my mom split—in public grade school. She was getting picked on about the gap in her teeth and I’ve never been one to keep my mouth shut, even as a kid. We became inseparable, mostly bonding over our dysfunctional parental structures. Jasmine had an arranged marriage with Alex but they never made it down the aisle. She came to her senses and decided that wasn’t the life she wanted. But, not before she ended up pregnant with Liz. After she had her, she ran off with some reckless kid from Flagstaff, AZ with no goals and a motorcycle—causing her family to promptly cut her off. It ended when Liz was in third grade, the guy passed away.
      Alex decided to help support them under a few conditions. One of which included private school. Across the country. They still came to visit California almost every summer when Jasmine was running from her own internal demons and searching for answers on sandy beaches under comfortably sunny skies. They weren’t aware how messed up my family life was until it was too late. I still haven’t decided if that was a gift or a curse.

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About the Author

My name is Bry. I was born in San Diego, CA but raised in central TX. After years of writing poems and short stories and making my family read them, the characters in my head have finally matured--mostly-- and demanded to be heard.

I enjoy all things paranormal and believe sarcasm is a second language that I have mastered. I adore flawed female characters that aren't afraid to speak their mind (even to the point of driving other characters mad).

I am an Army wife and the mother of a four year old little boy who demands that I call him Iron Man or Donny (Ninja Turtles) on any given day.

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