Break My Fall
Falling Series – Book 2
Genre: New Adult
By Jessica Scott
Buy : Amazon / B & N / ITunes / Kobo
Synopsis
Violence.
I’m addicted to it. It’s how I feel alive. It’s the only thing that’s real any more.
And now I have to sit around and discuss it like it’s physics or calculus. I can’t do it. I can’t pretend that it’s some sterile academic topic. Violence isn’t sterile. It isn’t calm. It’s pulsing. It’s alive.
It’s my drug.
Until I met Abby, I never wanted anything beyond the next fight. Never considered that I might finally find a way back to the land of the living.
Now? Now I find myself dreaming of a woman with golden eyes.
But I can never be with her. Because I am not whole. And I never will be again.
But I cannot stay away.
And loving her might finally be what breaks me.
Books in the Falling Series
Book 1: Before I Fall
Book 2: Break My Fall
Book 3: If I Fall (Forthcoming)
Excerpt
He’s watching me. I want to step closer to him but I can’t. I won’t.
Because I’m not blind to the darkness in Mr. Douglas. It’s there, just below the surface. Like a pot of water just before it boils.
The tension is back, now. A slow burning anger I should be getting as far away from as I possibly can.
“What?” I finally ask, needing something to break the spell between us.
“Why do you care why I got angry in class? You don’t even know my name.”
I narrow my eyes at him and open my mouth, then snap it closed, mirroring his earlier action. I didn’t expect the question and I have no idea how to answer.
Because in reality, I don’t have an answer for why I’m standing here at the moment.
Damn it.
My brain finally latches onto the first thing I come up with
“Wookie life debt. Payback for you helping me the other night.”
I try to leave then. Hoping that he’ll let me go and put all my curiosity away. For good.
“Hey.” His voice tugs at me to stop.
I won’t look at him now. Because I’m ashamed of what he’ll see if he looks into my eyes.
And I can’t stand the thought of him seeing the needful loneliness that has become my constant companion since Robert ripped my heart out and left it bleeding on the cobblestone sidewalk.
“What’s your name?” His voice is low and quiet. Steady now. Almost calm.
I turn, unable to avoid looking at him now.
It dawns on me that no, I don’t know his name.
I stand there for a moment, hesitant. The last time this happened, I fell too far, too fast.
This time will be different. Because I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.
It’s like standing too close to an electrical current.
The simplicity of the question is deceptively benign.
I’m drawn to him in a way that is unhealthy and dangerous. He’s already consuming my thoughts, drawing my attention away from the matter at hand and luring me down a dark corridor where only dark thoughts and whispered need twist together.
I hold up one hand, needing to break the spell or whatever is going on between us. My hand collides with his chest, and I am flush against the stark reminder of this man’s strength and power and capability to do violence.
There’s a small cut over his left eye, from the other night. Before the rational part of my brain kicks in, I brush my fingertips gently over the bruised and damaged skin.
He goes still beneath my touch. That full bottom lip opens a little. A tiny space, but I can feel the heat of his breath on my wrist.
His eyes are locked on mine. I’m trapped, unable to move. I’m not sure I want to. I’m furious for him but I’m frozen, burning where my fingers touch his skin.
I cannot move. Cannot look away.
“I’m Josh,” he whispers. An answer to an unasked question.
Michel’s Review
Break My Fall by Jessica Scott is the second book in the dynamic new adult, Falling Series. Unlike most new adult series, the Falling series features a unique cast of characters. These characters have experienced the trauma of war and are now trying to fit into society. They can’t relate to their college peers, they no longer fit in their former life in the army, and are holding on by a thread. The only thing that keeps them glued together is their rag tag group that hangs together at the bar owned by a former officer and soldier. The armed forces has used them up, spit them out, and offers very little to help them acclimate back into normal life. While most of their college peers are thinking about what frat party to attend or what paper is due next, they are running from their nightmares, trying to hold themselves together, and barely getting by. Each guy has their own means of coping and while it may be a quick fix, it is not the glue that is going to hold them together.
Josh Douglas is struggling with his new life. He’s attending one of the most elite colleges and yet he can’t escape his time in the army. He has seen and experienced the ugly side of war. He has watched his brothers die and or return home broken souls. He’s a broken soul himself. He no longer sleeps and thrives off of the thrill of fighting. The violence pumps up his adrenaline and makes him feel alive. The rest of the time he feels like he is a shell of a man he used to be. He’s lost his ability to connect with others. He’s lost his ability to function as a normal healthy red-blooded male. When he meets Abby Hilliard, he sees more than a quiet coed. He sees a woman that guards herself much like he does. On the surface she’s a beautiful and smart lady but beneath the surface she has her own demons. Demons that are just as threatening as his own.
Josh and Abby begin a guarded relationship that turns into one that opens up their souls. A relationship that gives them courage to open up. To allow themselves to feel the pain as well as feel the glories of love. Together they both find the hope they need to heal.
Jessica Scott writes a brutally honest love story. Her characters are the ordinary men and women we meet daily. What she does is gives the reader a view of what makes them special, the good and the bad. Her experience as an a career officer dealing with men and women suffering from PTSD and other life issues, makes each of her novels much more personal and dynamic. I truly sympathized with both Josh and Abby. Their ups and downs, the small victories and baby steps were very realistic. As I finished the Break My Fall I knew that they couldn’t be completely fixed but that they were going to be okay because they allowed the door to their souls to open.
The writing was engaging, emotional, and honest. Jessica Scott has once again touched my heart.
Read Break My Fall by Jessica Scott. It can be read as a stand alone novel or in series order.
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The Falling Series
Before I Fall
Falling Series – Book 1
Synopsis
Stay focused. Get a job. Save her father’s life.
Beth Lamont knows far too much about the harsh realities of life her gilded classmates have only read about in class. She’ll do whatever it takes to take care of her father, even if that means tutoring a guy like Noah – a guy who represents everything she hates about the war, soldiers and what the Army has done to her family.
Noah Warren doesn’t know how to be a student. All he knows is war. But he’s going to college now to fulfill a promise and he doesn’t break his promises. Except he doesn’t count on his tutor being drop dead gorgeous and distracting as hell. One look at Beth threatens to unravel the careful lies Noah has constructed around him.
A simple arrangement turns into something neither of them can deny. And a war that neither of them can forget could destroy them both.
Buy: Amazon / B & N / ITunes / Google Play / Kobo
Break My Fall
Falling Series – Book 2
Buy : Amazon / B & N / ITunes / Kobo
Synopsis
Violence.
I’m addicted to it. It’s how I feel alive. It’s the only thing that’s real any more.
And now I have to sit around and discuss it like it’s physics or calculus. I can’t do it. I can’t pretend that it’s some sterile academic topic. Violence isn’t sterile. It isn’t calm. It’s pulsing. It’s alive.
It’s my drug.
Until I met Abby, I never wanted anything beyond the next fight. Never considered that I might finally find a way back to the land of the living.
Now? Now I find myself dreaming of a woman with golden eyes.
But I can never be with her. Because I am not whole. And I never will be again.
But I cannot stay away.
And loving her might finally be what breaks me.
______________________________________________
About Jessica Scott
USA Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott is a career army officer, mother of two daughters, three cats and three dogs, wife to a career NCO and wrangler of all things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even worse housekeeper, but she’s a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and someone liked some of the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty well adjusted and her husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy house.
She’s also written for the New York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View Regarding War, and IAVA. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of OIF/New Dawn and has had the honor of serving as a company commander at Fort Hood, Texas twice.
Most recently, she’s been featured as one of Esquire Magazine’s Americans of the Year for 2012. Learn More at http://www.jessicascott.net
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