*~*When It Rains by Lisa De Jong Blog Tour – EXCLUSIVE Alternate POV, Review & Giveaway*~*

Beau Bennett has been my best friend since I can remember.  He was my first crush before everything came crashing down, and now he wants more, but it’s more than I can give him.  Things are different now.  I wish I could tell him why, but I can’t.

I haven’t told anyone.

I never knew how much I really needed him until the day he left for college, and I was completely alone.

Then one day, Asher Hunt rides into town with his dark, captivating eyes and cocky grin. He doesn’t care who I used to be, he’s simply breathing life into what’s left. People warn me to stay away from him, but he helps me forget the pain that has held me hostage for so long; something I thought was impossible before he walked into my life.

I’ve been hurt.

I’ve been saved.

And I’ve found hope.

I thought my story was written that night, but now I know it was only a new beginning. Until one secret turns my world upside down…

Again.

Have you read the prologue that made me bawl my eyes out – yeah, 3% in and I’m sobbing like a baby!  Only a sign of things to come.  And apparently I am a masochist when it comes to Lisa’s writing because I enjoy the pain.  I asked her to write a Beau Alternate POV scene for me…and be warned, it hurts!

When It Rains by Lisa De Jong

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

4.5 “You’re everything to me” Kisses

Gutted. That’s what I feel right now. Raw. Tortured. Drained. The emotional turmoil I went thru with this book was epic…legendary…and will go down in history as the  worst  ugly cry I have ever experienced. We are talking more than an hour – around 30-40% of the book of solid, constant, consistent, unending crying…I was a hot sobbing mess. And that’s not counting the parts before that that made me cry. Heartbreaking. No…heart destroying…heart crushing…heart pulverizing. That’s a pretty accurate description of where I am at.

Kate Alexander…wow…so she was the first one my heart broke for. She’s a beautiful girl…auburn hair, green eyes…my heart broke for her on so many levels…so many times…not only for what she has to go thru in the prologue but then it just seemed like her suffering was never ending. I’m torn on whether or not to talk about what happens to her in the prologue because…it could be classified as a spoiler, which I try to avoid at all costs in my reviews…so to be cautious, I will just say it is one of my deepest fears. I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone, and I felt every moment of her pain – which is a good thing for the writing, not so much for my soul. So two years later and Kate is a shell of who she once was. She has alienated everyone, can barely function outside of the few necessary things she needs to do and her future plans are getting through the next day. It’s a painful struggle to watch Kate because she does have so much potential but you can’t find it for the 100-foot high brick walls she has used to bury herself. The only people she even allows close to her (and I use the word ‘close’ very loosely) are her mom and her best friend…Beau.

‘The old Kate is gone…and she’s never coming back.
And I’ll always hate when it rains.’

Beau Bennett…it didn’t take me long to fall for Beau. He’s pretty amazing…and he was the second one my heart broke for. He and Kate grew up together, best friends practically since the age of five when they became neighbors and there are very few days that Kate cannot remember Beau being a part of. The problem? Kate is stuck behind her walls, keeping her secrets and completely shutting him out. He is so utterly amazing with her, when other guys would have given up ages ago – he doesn’t. He might get mad or frustrated or angry, but he never loses that faith in Kate that one day…she’ll come around. Want another dagger to the heart? She loves him. But because of what happened, she doesn’t think she’s good enough – she thinks he deserves better, when in reality he couldn’t see better if it was staring him in the face. Because she is the only one he has eyes for…and that’s why my heart broke for him. He’s caring, he’s supportive, he’s sweet, he’s loving…it is nearly impossible not to fall in love with Beau Bennett.

‘He means everything to me, even if I can’t say it. He’s the one person in the world I trust not to hurt me.
He was my dream for so many years.’

Asher Hunt…my third and final and most painful heartbreak. I can’t even type his name without crying. I can’t lie, I was reluctant to love Asher. My heart was with Beau! But I’ll be damned if those blue eyes and that dimpled smile didn’t quickly win me over. Alright, I didn’t put up that much of a fight…but I will come back to the inner war I had with myself. Asher is exactly what Kate needs…he breaks her walls down, chipping each piece away with little moments of amazingness. There is no other word for what he does because literally you can practically see Kate’s walls come down with each moment she spends with Asher. And we’re not talking about over the top grand gestures…it’s relatively basic things but his approach, his words, his passion behind everything he does for her, it speaks volumes. What does he do? He takes her fishing…he sings and plays the guitar for her…they watch movies…he leaves her notes on napkins…they just talk…see? Pretty basic, right? WRONG! So wrong…couldn’t be wrong-er (might have made up that word…). I can’t talk or think about Asher without being happy and sad. Happy because of what he did for Kate and sad because of what happened to him.

‘Some kisses are just kisses, but Asher’s kiss is the best kind of kiss. It feels like heaven, and I never want to let him go. I feel like I’ve been living the last two years for this moment…for someone to save me. It’s a new beginning for me.’

So my inner war…I really struggled in the beginning. I loved Beau. I was open to Asher and I wanted to love him but with the way things went between Kate and Beau I wasn’t comfortable with Kate and Asher to begin with. It seemed a little…sudden. Rushed maybe? Not sure what word I am looking for but I was so frustrated that Kate was being open and doing things with Asher when she could have been doing it with Beau. I hurt for him. That is not to say that seeing Kate open up period, regardless of whether it was Asher, didn’t make me so happy. That girl deserves peace and love and acceptance and Asher was there and giving her exactly what she needed. I tried to understand her logic for why she pushed Beau away…and to some degree I do…but I just don’t agree with it personally. Each of us deal with things in different ways and Kate chose to handle things the way she did…it may not have been the way I would have done it or the way I would have liked her to do it, but I cannot fault her for that.

‘Life’s not fair. Life’s often complicated, leaving us to deal with things that we shouldn’t have to. Life can make you smile one day, only to leave you broken into tiny little pieces the next.’

Even though this book was the worst ugly cry of my life (not joking or exaggerating, I mean that 100%) I still completely and thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved all of the emotions, regardless of the fact that most of them were sad. And just because a bulk of the emotions were towards the ‘sad’ end of the spectrum, there is still a lot of positive to take away from the book. And the love…OMG, this book is over flowing with love. Bursting from the seams. It’s a sad love story, but it’s also a healing love story…a beautiful love story and even more beautifully written. Just like with Lisa De Jong‘s other books, I was a highlighting freak! Her words touched me…didn’t matter if it was inner thoughts or dialogue, her words were just bleeding with emotion. I had a really hard time picking my quotes for this review.

‘I’ve learned three things in my life. First, I can’t keep things locked inside….Second, I should never take anyone or anything for granted….Third, love is a powerful emotion.’

I have loved every book that Lisa has put out and When It Rains is no exception. It’s beautifully written, the characters are amazing, the story was fresh and never did what I might have been expecting and once again I was taken on the emotional rollercoaster of my life…and even though my heart may have been put through the ringer, I was still left with an HEA that made me happy. Shoot – I’m sorry, but I earned this HEA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lisa De Jong is a wife, mother and full-time number cruncher who lives in the Midwest. Her writing journey involved insane amounts of coffee and many nights of very little sleep but she wouldn’t change a thing. She also enjoys reading, football and music.