Author: Meredith Walters
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release: Oct 6, 2014
Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.
Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or
anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect
nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others
miserable.
Particularly Freaky Flynn.
Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as
he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was
taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty,
ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and
Flynn’s worlds crashing down.
But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.
And moved on.
Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again
and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.
When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels
impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who
inexplicably find a connection in each other.
And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an
unlikely love story unfolds.
But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old
wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from
yourself the closer you come to who you really are.
"I like being with you. I missed you," Flynn said,
surprising me. Of all things for him to say, I had not expected that. It was
such an innocent thing but it held so much weight.
He missed me.
After everything I had done to him.
He missed me.
I couldn't respond. I had nothing to say to that. I couldn't
reciprocate because I hadn't missed him. I had spent most of the last six years
despising him. Blaming him for things that weren't his fault. It had been
easier to hate him than to hate myself.
"You stopped talking to me. After my birthday. You
never called me again. Mom said to leave you alone. That you weren't my friend.
But you were my friend. Because you told me I was and I believed you." His
eyes were bright and even though he wouldn't look directly at me, I knew his
eyes were wet..
I should tell him the truth. I should shatter his illusions
of me before they could grow into something more dangerous.
His mother hadn't told him what I had done. She had saved
him from that particular pain. I didn't know whether to be thankful or upset
that she had done that. Because now here were, six years later, on the cusp of
something not yet realized and i struggled.
I wanted to tell him. But I wanted to lie as well. I liked
the way he looked at me. To Flynn Hendrick, Ellie McCallum was important. She
was wanted. If I told him the truth about that night, I was sure that would all
change.
Reclaiming the Sand is a story that will pull at your heart strings and have you tearing up on more than one occasion, for both characters. A. Meredith Walters is one of my favorite authors and this book is the perfect example why. The way that she writes the characters of Ellie and Flynn allow you to feel the pain that each is going through, to relate to struggles that you never imagined you could comprehend and to understand the meaning behind friendship and love and living within the limits of both. This was a 4 star read for me and I recommend it to everyone to read!
Flynn and Ellie have grown up in the same town but on different sides of the tracks so to speak. Ellie is an orphan trying to make a life for herself in her foster home and Flynn struggles to find a balance to live in a world where his Asperger's disease rules much of what he does. With most of the kids in school not understanding the complexity of his disease, they bully him in so many ways that will break your heart and have you wanting to slap each and every one of them; especially Ellie. Ellie often leads the bullying against Flynn while with those she calls her "friends", not wanting to admit that she secretly spends time with him after school. That she has grown to understand his different tells. That after spending so much time with him, she was falling for him in a romantic way. Flynn not understanding the differences in the way that Ellie treats him and why she behaves the way she does, only yearns for her to like him and to be her friend.
After high-school they run into each other again, at a point in her life where Ellie has begun to want more than what she has been living. She is tired of the drinking and the partying and she wants to try her hand at the community college so that she can have a job that actually pays decent money. It is when she sees Flynn again for the first time that a plethora of emotions assault her, love, hate, anger and acceptance. Seeming to start over from scratch with him, Ellie begins to spend time with Flynn again; realizing that he is the same as he was in school but he is also different at the same time. Flynn has gotten a better handle on his Asperger's and what that means for him but he goes as far as to slightly push the limits of his routine with Ellie there to guide and encourage him.
The story of their love is one like no other, and the sacrifices that they make are unique to their situation. But the love that they feel for each other is pure and untainted and has the reader on an emotional roller-coaster the entire way.
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of
Contemporary and Paranormal romance including The Find You in the Dark and Bad
Rep series as well as the upcoming stand alone romance, Reclaiming the Sand,
and a dark new adult series for Gallery Books.
A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk
teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program
and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health
issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect
of her writing.
When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of
beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly
daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot
your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.
A. Meredith is represented by Michelle Johnson with the
Inklings Literary Agency.
Chasing The
Tide is the sequel releasing on Dec 16:
***The powerful continuation
of the story that began in Reclaiming the Sand- a tale of love and forgiveness
and learning to move on from a past that has come to define you.***
Bully and Victim
Friend and Lover
Past and Future
Ellie McCallum and Flynn Hendrick’s story was as painful as it was devastating. But they were able to find within each other an unlikely yet beautiful love. Despite the obstacles that tried to keep them apart.
And together they rose out of the ashes of their tragic history.
Now years after their life changing reunion Ellie is back in Wellston, having just graduated from college and ready to start her future with the man who taught her how to love. However, returning to a town that held so much bitterness and anger was the last place she wanted to start over.
But for Flynn, who is now an art professor at the community college and firmly rooted in the place that gave them their beginning, she’d do just about anything.
Yet it’s difficult building a life when you’ve only just learned how to live.
And love, no matter how strong, doesn’t always conquer all.
Ellie and Flynn must learn how far they are willing to go to stay together. Or whether the ghosts of the past will consume them both.
Because finding a happily ever after is harder than it seems. Particularly when you’re fighting against the one thing that could destroy you.
Yourself.
Bully and Victim
Friend and Lover
Past and Future
Ellie McCallum and Flynn Hendrick’s story was as painful as it was devastating. But they were able to find within each other an unlikely yet beautiful love. Despite the obstacles that tried to keep them apart.
And together they rose out of the ashes of their tragic history.
Now years after their life changing reunion Ellie is back in Wellston, having just graduated from college and ready to start her future with the man who taught her how to love. However, returning to a town that held so much bitterness and anger was the last place she wanted to start over.
But for Flynn, who is now an art professor at the community college and firmly rooted in the place that gave them their beginning, she’d do just about anything.
Yet it’s difficult building a life when you’ve only just learned how to live.
And love, no matter how strong, doesn’t always conquer all.
Ellie and Flynn must learn how far they are willing to go to stay together. Or whether the ghosts of the past will consume them both.
Because finding a happily ever after is harder than it seems. Particularly when you’re fighting against the one thing that could destroy you.
Yourself.
