To Fall in Love Again by David Burnett Book Tour + Giveaway
Title: To Fall in Love Again
Author: David Burnett
Release date: February, 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book Description:
Drew Nelson did not plan to talk with anyone that morning. He did not plan to make a new friend. He certainly did not plan to fall in love.He resisted all of Amy’s attempts to draw him out− at the hotel, at the airport, on the airplane− giving hurried responses and burying his face in a pile of papers. It was only when the flight attendant offered coffee, and a muscle in Amy’s back twitched as she reached for it, and the cup tipped, and the hot liquid puddled in Drew’s lap that they began to talk. Earlier in the year, each had lost a spouse of over thirty years. Drew’s wife had died of a brain tumor, Amy’s husband when his small airplane nose-dived to earth, the engine at full throttle − an accident, it was ruled.They live in the same city. Both have grandchildren. They are about the same age. Consciously, or not, they both are looking to love again.
But relationships do not exist in vacuums. Drew is wealthy, and Amy is middle class. Amy is “new” in town – she and her husband moved to Charleston twenty-five years ago – while Drew’s family has lived there for three centuries. Drew lives below Broad, a code word for high society, old families, power, and money. Amy’s home is across the river.
Class warfare may be less violent than it was in the past, but when Drew invites Amy to the St Cecelia Ball, battle lines are drawn. In a city in which ancestry is important, the ball’s membership is passed from father to son, and only those from the oldest families attend.
Family, friends, co-workers all weigh in on their relationship and choose sides. Allies are found in unexpected places. Opposition comes from among those who were thought to be friends. Though they are gone, even their spouses − through things they have done and things they have said − wield influence in the conflict that follows.
Amy begins to suspect that Drew is one of them, the rich snobs who despise her, while Drew concludes that Amy neither trusts him nor cares for him. As each questions the other’s motives, their feelings for each other are tested, and Drew and Amy are challenged to consider if they truly want to fall in love again.
But relationships do not exist in vacuums. Drew is wealthy, and Amy is middle class. Amy is “new” in town – she and her husband moved to Charleston twenty-five years ago – while Drew’s family has lived there for three centuries. Drew lives below Broad, a code word for high society, old families, power, and money. Amy’s home is across the river.
Class warfare may be less violent than it was in the past, but when Drew invites Amy to the St Cecelia Ball, battle lines are drawn. In a city in which ancestry is important, the ball’s membership is passed from father to son, and only those from the oldest families attend.
Family, friends, co-workers all weigh in on their relationship and choose sides. Allies are found in unexpected places. Opposition comes from among those who were thought to be friends. Though they are gone, even their spouses − through things they have done and things they have said − wield influence in the conflict that follows.
Amy begins to suspect that Drew is one of them, the rich snobs who despise her, while Drew concludes that Amy neither trusts him nor cares for him. As each questions the other’s motives, their feelings for each other are tested, and Drew and Amy are challenged to consider if they truly want to fall in love again.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23654873-to-fall-in-love-again
Guest Post:
Is it true?
Perhaps the story is so compelling, the descriptions so vivid, that the reader concludes they could not be the product of the author’s imagination. Perhaps the story is set among historical events and the reader is startled at the factors which are said to motivate the behaviors of a beloved president or a revered monarch. Perhaps the reader believes that all writers draw on their own experiences, so the story must be true, and the question reflects the reader’s astonishment that the events in the story could have actually occurred.
So, they ask, is it true?
What is truth?
It is one of the ultimate questions with which philosophers and theologians grapple. It is also a question that we should consider any time that we reach for a book.
“Did it truly happen?”
“Is it based on fact, or is it totally a product of the author’s imagination?”
“Does it provide us any insight into the nature of our world?”
Each of these questions addresses one of three types of “truth” which we might encounter, for which we might search, when reading a book.
First, there is “literal truth.”
An event is literally true if it really happened just as it is described. It is what we hope to find when reading a newspaper, a biography, a memoir, or a history book.
Second, there is “embellished truth.”
We find embellished truth whenever a real event is altered in part. Often, the event really occurred, and the author has incorporated it in his story, using his characters, rather than the real participants. Maybe a real event serves as the basis for a story, but the details have been changed, providing an interesting twist that would be missing from a strictly factual presentation. Perhaps, changes were necessary because of the time and place in which the story is set, or because the context of the story differs significantly from the original setting in some other manner.
Embellished truth is often found in historical fiction. For example, a book may recount real events, but the principal characters are not historical. Or, a character may be historical, but the author supplies dialogue for which there is no record. Perhaps the characters behave in ways that are consistent with a particular period in history, and the things they do are things that might well have happened in the circumstances that are described, but we have no reason to believe that the events actually occurred.
Finally, a story may have “philosophical truth.”
A story is philosophically true if it conveys to the reader an understanding of some ultimate truth about the world, about humanity, or about God.
Consider the following excerpt from my book, The Handfasting.
He actually had proposed, once. It was when men were being drafted into the army to fight in Vietnam. The rules were changing, and he’d discovered that he couldn’t be drafted if he got married within the next four weeks. A friend of his had done just that, and Bill made the suggestion to Melissa, partially in jest, partially not. He was shocked when she’d agreed, but she gave him two conditions. First, she would not be married in name only. After pausing to let him consider the full meaning of her words, she said that Bill would have to explain things to her father. “I’m guessing you’ll be safer in the army than you would be talking to Daddy the morning after our wedding night,” she had told him.
She was probably right—Bill had no wish to tangle with Melissa’s father. He enrolled in college and generally managed a C average. When he came up short—three times in four years—his uncle sat on the county’s draft board, and he managed to keep Bill out of the army.
We find all three types of truth in this passage.
It is literally true that in the nineteen-sixties, men who were married could not be conscripted into the United States Army. The policy was altered in the middle of that decade, but the new policy did not apply to men who married before the date of its implementation.
It is literally true, that conscription could be avoided while one was enrolled in college and making satisfactory grades. Finally, it is literally true that each county or parish in the country had a board that selected those who actually would be called into service, and those boards had some discretion in who they called.
The passage is an example of embellished truth only because Bill and Melissa were not real people. Bill’s behavior, however, was very real. Men did propose marriage in order to avoid having to serve in the army. (My older brother jokingly suggested that he might do exactly that!)
Since Bill was fictional, so, of course, was his uncle, but board members did prevent their sons, their nephews, and sons of their friends from being called into service.
In each case, the characters behaved as some people truly behaved when they found themselves in similar circumstances
The excerpt is an example of philosophical truth because it highlights certain aspects of Bill’s character, characteristics that we see time and again throughout the book. He is self-centered. He is interested in his own good. He tries to get what he wants, even if someone else is hurt or inconvenienced in the process. This set of characteristics is not unique to Bill. Many of us have known people exactly like him.
Unless a book was written solely with escapism in mind, there is likely truth to be found within its pages. We should always consider the truth in the books that we read, the literal truths as well as the others. All three are important. We should learn to distinguish among them and to appreciate them all.
About the Author:
David Burnett lives in Columbia South Carolina, with his wife and their blue-eyed cat, Bonnie. The Reunion, his first novel, is set in nearby Charleston.
David enjoys traveling, photography, baking bread, and the Carolina beaches.
David enjoys traveling, photography, baking bread, and the Carolina beaches.
He has photographed subjects as varied as prehistoric ruins on the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, and a Native American powwow. David and his wife have travelled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom. During one trip to Scotland, they visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the Burnett family near Aberdeen. In The Reunion, Michael's journey through England and Scotland allows him to sketch many places they have visited.
avid has graduate degrees in psychology and education and previously was Director of Research for the South Carolina Department of Education. He and his wife have two daughters.
Giveaway
Prize: 5 USD Amazon Gift Card
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