Blogoversary Excerpt & Author Spotlight: A Love Like Ours by Becky Wade

I'm thrilled to have an excerpt from Becky Wade's to-be-released book, A Love Like Ours, to share with you guys today!! I LOVE Becky! I think she might actually get tired of my gushing sometimes. If I saw her in person I'd probably be like a deer-in-the-headlights. Lol! You can see my reviews of her books: My Stubborn Heart, Undeniably Yours, and Meant to Be Mine.

This is one book that I am highly anticipating and so I was thrilled when her publisher, Bethany House, said she could post an excerpt. It's definitely exclusive. :) If you enjoy inspirational romance or really romance in general, you'd love Becky's books. Enjoy...

A Love Like Ours

(Porter Family #3)
by Becky Wade

Christian Contemporary Romance
Paperback, 368 Pages
May 5th 2015 by Bethany House Publishers

Summary

Deeply scarred from a day he wishes he could forget during his military service, Thoroughbred trainer Jake Porter has given up on love. He struggles against symptoms of PTSD, lives a solitary life, and avoids relationships.

When Lyndie James, Jake's childhood best friend, returns to their hometown of Holley, Texas, Jake cautiously hires her to exercise his Thoroughbreds. Lyndie is tender-hearted, fiercely determined, and afraid of nothing, just like she was as a child. Jake trusts her with his prized racehorse, Silver Leaf, then battles his hopes for his horse against his increasing fear for Lyndie's safety.

Though Jake and Lyndie have grown into very different adults, the bond that existed during their childhood still ties them together. Against Jake's will, Lyndie's sparkling, optimistic personality begins to tear down the walls he's built around his heart. A glimmer of the hope he'd thought he'd lost returns. Will Jake ever be able to love Lyndie like she deserves, or is his heart too shattered to mend?

  

Excerpt

Jake turned up the collar of his brown corduroy hunting jacket, then rested his forearms on the top rail of the wooden fence that enclosed the thirty-acre pasture. His careful attention catalogued numerous things about the colt within, only a handful of them visual. Call it horse sense. Or instinct. Jake understood things about these animals that most people didn’t.

A few days ago he’d decided to back off training this particular colt, Desert Willow, and give him more time to recover fully from his arthroscopic knee surgery. Willow liked to complain about his sore knee, which meant Jake needed to freshen him longer before Willow would be ready to resume training. Five more days maybe—

Jake heard the crunch of a twig breaking and flinched at the unexpected noise, then cursed himself for flinching. He could already tell that the sound had been made by nothing but footsteps.

Turning, he squinted beneath the brim of his black Stetson and tried to make out who was coming toward him. A small woman with long, wavy blond hair. She wasn’t on the barn staff; that he knew. He angled toward her more fully.

And then, very slowly, recognition began to slide over him. The hair on his arms rose.

It couldn’t be her. Not after all this time. And yet the rational part of his brain understood that it could be. He knew she’d moved back to Holley. His mom had been nagging him to see her ever since, but he’d wanted no part of that, no part of her.

Yet here she was.

He went to stone, inside and out. Only his heart kept moving, knocking inside his chest, hard and sure. He didn’t want her to look at him.

He was ugly. And she was beautiful.

He’d already lived the life and died the death of the boy she’d known. She wouldn’t recognize him now, same as he no longer recognized himself.

She wore jeans tucked into black riding boots. A white shirt under a pale green sweater that hung open down to her hips. Big hoop earrings. Her scarf, which had a lot of green, pink, white, and gray on it, didn’t have ends. It just rested in a loop around her neck.

She no longer looked like a Texan. She looked like a Californian to him now.

She came to a stop a few feet away and stuck her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

He couldn’t speak, and she had the grace not to say anything trite. She only took him in, her head tilted slightly, a half smile on her face, softness in her gaze.

He hadn’t felt any emotion forcefully since his accident. Yet the sight of her caused bitterness to blaze through him, true and clean. You left me behind, he wanted to accuse. You. Left. Me.

It surprised him, the anger turning in his gut like a blade. She’d been a kid back then. Her father had gotten a better job in California, and so they’d moved. It hadn’t been Lyndie’s fault. But that’s not what he was feeling, standing here all these years later. He was feeling a betrayal so strong it nearly took his breath.

“Jake,” she said at last, her smile growing.

He dipped his chin. “Lyndie.”

About the Author

Becky's a California native who attended Baylor University, met and married a Texan, and settled in Dallas. She published historical romances for the general market before putting her career on hold for several years to care for her three children. When God called her back to writing, Becky knew He meant for her to turn her attention to Christian fiction. She loves writing funny, modern, and inspirational contemporary romance! She's the Carol Award and Inspirational Reader's Choice Award winning author of My Stubborn Heart, Undeniably Yours, and Meant to Be Mine.

Website - Goodreads - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest

Other Books by the Author

  

Links for My Stubborn Heart

  

Links for Undeniably Yours (Porter Family #1)

  

Links for Meant to Be Mine (Porter Family #2)

  

First Rafflecopter Giveaway (US & INT)
- $15 Amazon Gift Card
- Choice of ebook of Shifting Fate, Reign of Shadows, or King of Ash and Bone by Melissa Wright

- Audiobook of The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzio Hunter

- Choice of For Elise, Hope Springs, or As You Are by Sarah M. Eden

- Choice of Defy or Ignite by Sara B. Larson

Second Rafflecopter Giveaway (US Only)

- Undeniably Yours & Meant to be Mine by Becky Wade (US Only)

- Signed paperbacks of the Fire and Thrones Series by Rae Carson (US Only)
- Signed hardcover of Now That You're Here by Amy K. Nichols (US Only)

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