A new adult novel that perfectly captures the existential angst of your early twenties with raw wit, fresh insight, and true feeling from a critically adored USA TODAY bestselling author.
Joshua Miles has spent his early twenties spinning his wheels. Working dead-end jobs and living at home has left him exhausted and uninspired, with little energy to pursue his passion for graphic art. Until he meets Gemma Henare, a vivacious out-of-towner from New Zealand. What begins as a one-night stand soon becomes a turning point for Josh. He can’t get Gemma out of his head, even after she has left for home, and finds himself throwing caution to the wind for the first time in his life.
It’s not long before Josh is headed to New Zealand with only a backpack, some cash, and Gemma’s name to go on. But when he finally tracks her down, he finds his adventure is only just beginning. Equally infatuated, Gemma leads him on a whirlwind tour across the beautiful country, opening Josh up to life, lust, love, and all the messy heartache in between. Because, when love drags you somewhere, it might never let go even when you know you have to say goodbye.
Where Sea Meets Sky is a spin off of the LIE Series. While you don’t have to read the LIE books to understand it, you do get to meet Josh and get to know him a little bit…plus…I LOVED the Love, in English – A LOT! One of my favorite books of 2014 – check out my review here!
He’s thirty-eight. I’m twenty-three.
He speaks Spanish. I speak English.
He lives in Spain. I live in Canada.
He dresses in thousand-dollar suits. I’m covered in tattoos.
He’s married and has a five-year old daughter.
I’m single and can’t commit to anyone or anything.
Until now.
Because when they say you can’t choose who you fall in love with, boy ain’t that the f*#king truth.
To a restless dreamer like Vera Miles, it sounded like the experience of a lifetime. Instead of spending her summer interning for her astronomy major, she would fly to Spain where she’d spend a few weeks teaching conversational English to businessmen and women, all while enjoying free room and board at an isolated resort. But while Vera expected to get a tan, meet new people and stuff herself with wine and paella, she never expected to fall in love.
Mateo is unlike anyone Vera has ever known, let alone anyone she’s usually attracted to. While Vera is a pierced and tatted free spirit with a love for music and freedom, Mateo Casales is a successful businessman from Madrid, all sharp suits and cocky Latino charm. Yet, as the weeks go on, the two grow increasingly close and their relationship changes from purely platonic to something…more.
Something that makes Vera feel alive for the first time.
Something that can never, ever be.
Or so she thinks.
“She sat beside me on the bus – and she changed my whole life.”
Successful, wealthy and absurdly handsome – Spanish ex-football player Mateo Casalles seemed like he had it all. A high-society wife, an adorable little girl, and flashy apartments in Madrid and Barcelona only sweetened the deal. But there was more to Mateo than met the eye – a life of uncertainty and regret that colored his black and white world.
That was until Vera Miles came into his life like a shooting star. Tattooed, wild and young, Vera seemed like Mateo’s polar opposite at first. But you can’t choose who you fall in love with and the two lost souls did everything they could to be together, all while suffering the grave consequences.
Now with Mateo divorced and living in Madrid with Vera, there is a whole new set of challenges and setbacks facing the couple and rocking the foundation of their star-crossed relationship.
Unfortunately for them, the brighter the star, the faster they burn.
And get ready for Amber’s book! We meet Amber in Where Sea Meets Sky – she’s awesome! I’m super excited to see what happens to her in Italy. You can read an excerpt here.
From the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky comes a new adult novel about a young woman who becomes a nanny in Capri and falls for her charges’ bad-boy brother.
When I’m traveling, I feel like the secret to my life, to myself, to really becoming, is one step ahead. It’s in the next destination, the next town I get lost in, the next stranger I talk to. It’s always next but never here . . .After six months of backpacking and soul-searching across the world, Amber MacLean is flat broke. There are worse places for a twentysomething to be stuck than the Amalfi Coast, but the only way she can earn enough money for a plane ticket home to California is to teach English to two of the brattiest children she has ever met.
It doesn’t help that the children are under the care of their brooding older brother, ex-motorcycle racer Desiderio Larosa. Darkly handsome and oh-so-mysterious, the young master of the crumbling villa tests Amber’s patience and will at every turn—not to mention her hormones.
When her position turns into a full-time nanny gig, Amber grows dangerously closer to the enigmatic recluse. But can she give up the certainty of home for someone whose closely guarded heart feels a world apart from her own?
Vancouver
Josh
I get an erection the moment I first lay eyes on her. She looks like no one I’ve ever seen before. Tall, curvy, with thick superhero thighs and a round ass, showcased in black Lycra that hugs every slope. Her big, high breasts and small waist are accentuated by her white tank top. Her body has just enough meat for me to grab a good hold of, and I imagine running my hands over her hills and valleys. I want to imagine more than that, but I’m horny as hell as it is and my erection is already inappropriate, considering I’m in public and all.
She finally looks my way, aware that I’ve been staring like an idiot. She catches my gaze, her eyes twinkling a vibrant yellow, her pupils large and wet. She smirks at me, causing a shower of glitter to rain from her cheeks, and brushes her purple hair over her shoulder before she bends over to slide a gun out from the harness strapped to her boot.
I try not to stare into the blinding sun of her tanned cleavage. I try to think of something clever to say to her. Something along the lines of, “I think I know who you are, but shouldn’t you have one eyeball instead of two?”
But it’s she who comes over to me, gun comfortably in her hand, and stops only a foot away. When she smiles at me, I see fangs.
Now I’m really confused. At least I know what to say now.
“Who are you?” I ask her, happy that my voice is hard and deep. I hope it makes her think of sex.
She raises a perfect brow and up close I’m struck by how bronzed her skin tone is. I don’t think it’s makeup. Not many people in Vancouver manage to keep their tan into the fall.
“You don’t know?” she asks. She has an accent. I immediately want to say she’s from England but that’s not it. It’s not Australia either.
“I thought I did,” I say. “But your eyes and fangs are throwing me all off.”
“I’m vampire Leela, from Futurama.”
I grin at her, happy that I was half-right. “Shouldn’t you just have one eyeball then?”
She reaches into her other boot and effortlessly pulls out an eye mask. It’s painted white, with a black pupil in the middle. She waves it at me. “I put it on for photos but I can barely see out of it. I walked into a wall, twice.” She raises two fingers for emphasis. “I figured I’ll just be a vampire the rest of the time.”
I can seriously listen to her talk all day. “I don’t remember any episode where Leela turned into a vampire.” Maybe it hinted at my secret nerd-boy status, but I watched the cartoon Futurama religiously.
She wets her lips for a moment and I try my hardest not to adjust my boxer briefs underneath my costume. “I like to think she’ll become a vampire in future episodes. Or maybe she was one once and Matt Groening scrapped the idea. I believe characters have more to their lives than the lives we are shown.”
“Kind of like people,” I say, hoping I come across as somewhat profound.
She gives me a slight nod – indicating I’m not as profound as I thought – and looks me up and down. “I just had to come over here to tell you you’re the best-dressed guy here. I mean, that must have taken some effort.”
I grin at her. “Game of Thrones, fan?” I ask.
Another sly nod. “Of course. But who doesn’t love Khal Drogo?”
“Last year I dressed up as the author George R.R. Martin,” I tell her. “People kept mistaking me for Ernest Hemingway, even though I was carrying a bucket of fried chicken around with me and had a pillow stuffed down my shirt.”
“So you went for something sexier…” she says as she lets her eyes trail over my body, which automatically makes me stand up straighter. I haven’t left much to the imagination. Jesus sandals, weird billowy pants that I think some granola dude dropped off at the thrift store, plus a leather corset over my abs and leather cuffs on my forearms. My upper body is bare and covered with bronzer and streaks of blue paint and I found a black wig with a long braid down the back. It kind of works. I guess if you don’t know the show, I look like some sparkling warrior who wears too much eye-makeup.
“Hey, girls can’t be the only ones to slut it up at Halloween.”
She raises her brow.
And once again, my foot goes in my mouth. “I mean, not that you’re dressed slutty or anything, I just mean–”
She laughs. “Don’t worry about it,” she says with a wave of her hand. “Everyone here is dressed slutty. That’s what the holiday is all about, isn’t it? Pretending to be someone else? This is actually my first Halloween, so I’m feeling a little overdressed. Or super nerdy.” She looks around her at the drunk girls—referees and fairies and nurses in wonderfully indecent outfits—and shrugs.
“I wholeheartedly disagree,” I say, trying not to ogle her all over again. I pause. “Wait, your first Halloween?”
“First proper Halloween. The North American kind. We don’t really celebrate it the way you guys do.”
I cross my arms, insanely curious now. “And who is we?”
“New Zealand,” she says. “I’m from Auckland.”
“Nice,” I say, “I was going to ask if you were from New Zealand.”
Her lips twitch and she gives me a shake of her head. “No you weren’t.”
“Well, I definitely wasn’t going to ask if you were from Australia. I know how you feel about that.”
For a moment her features look strained, then it passes. “Kind of like if I asked if you were American.”
“Exactly.”
“So,” she muses and steps closer. She lays her hand on my bicep and I suck in my breath. “Are the tattoos real?” She removes her hand and peers at her palm which is streaked with bronze shimmer shit. “Because your tan sure isn’t.”
Damn, I hope I’m not blushing. I clear my throat. “The tattoos are real, I assure you. I needed a bit of, um, help to get that Dothraki tan going on.”
“And this?” She reaches for my face and I am frozen in place while she gently fingers my goatee and beard. She grabs the end of it, which I had attempted to braid, and gives it a little tug.
“Ouch,” I say, though it doesn’t really hurt. It turns me on instead. Big surprise.
“So it is real,” she says. She sounds impressed.
I shrug. “I had a month to grow it in. I say, it’s all or nothing. But tomorrow everything is getting shaved off.”
She frowns and lets go. “Pity. I love a scruffy guy.”
I can’t help but smile. “Lucky for you, I’m scruffy for at least twelve more hours.”
Her mouth twists into a wry smile. I realize I’m being kind of forward with her, but at the same time, she just felt my bicep and fondled my man hair. Then again, I’ve never been very good at reading women. Half of them seem to love my tats and black hair and piercings; the other half seem to think I’m a delinquent from Skid row.
I’m wondering what she thinks about me when I realize I don’t know her name.
“I’m Josh, by the way,” I say to her, holding out my hand.
She gives me a surprisingly firm shake in return. “Gemma.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” I tell her. Even though I’m sincere, I’m aware that it’s very much a pick-up line.
Gemma snorts and it’s absolutely adorable. “Right. Well, in New Zealand, Gemmas are everywhere.”
“But I bet they don’t look like you.” Okay, so now I’m totally swerving into pick-up line territory. I push it further. “Can I buy you a drink?”
And there the question sits, floating between us, along with the haze of pot smoke that hangs in the air. The rejection might come fast, or if I’m lucky, not at all. But it’s Halloween, I have a three-beer buzz going on, and I’m feeling pretty good.
Still, when she nods and says, “Sure” I feel my whole body lift with relief.
Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*
3.5 “Comfortably Numb” Kisses
I have been beyond excited about Where Sea Meets Sky since the moment I knew it was going to be released. I’ve had a soft spot for Josh since meeting him in Love, In English…he doesn’t play a huge part, but his relationship with Vera and what he does for her drew me to him. Plus if he was anything like his sister, then it was going to be epic. Oh…if I only knew. Let’s see if I can get through this review without babbling my head off – but I’ll warn you right now, I make no promises. 🙂
Joshua Miles…this man blew me away. To another planet…another solar system…gah he was everything and then some. He is just as amazing as his sister…possibly a tiny bit more so for about a million of inexplicable reasons because to truly value and appreciate the magic that is Josh, you have to read him. From the moment he described his Khal Drogo costume, I was in it to win it – he’s my sexy nerd dream come true. He’s smart and witty, talented, charming, kind, sweet…he’s just the total package. I mean I’m all for hot guys, and Josh is pretty freaking delicious – TDH (tall, dark and handsome), gorgeous blue eyes, tattoo’s and piercings…but looks aren’t everything – lucky for me, he had an awesome personality to back up the hotness. Josh had me swooning all over the place and laughing so hard I was crying – truly, it was his sense of humor that really got me. He might be one of the funniest BBF’s I’ve ever read…dry, sarcastic, I mean his liners were amazing. Josh is the ultimate threat in my book…he deserves nothing but the absolute best…and he’s got his heart set on Gemma.
‘He kisses me and the world around us slips away. His tongue is smooth but urgent, the tongue ring stimulating, and our kiss builds with desire until my whole body feels like it’s being licked by the sweetest flames. I’m sucked under, in a riptide, into the undertow, and it’s dark and I’m tumbling and I don’t know which way is up but oh god, how I don’t want it to stop. I could drown in his mouth. I could sink into him forever.
I barely know this guy. I’m leaving tomorrow and I’ll never see him again.
But I want to drown in every moment we have.’
Gemma Henare…I started out good with Gemma…she was a cool chick, I liked how different and unique she was, she clicked well with Josh…there were a few red flags that I was concerned about…but superficially, I was hopeful that I my feelings would continue to stay positive. That all got blown to smithereens after the road trip started. Gemma is…a lot of things…she’s incredibly independent…she’s strong, in many ways – physically, mentally, emotionally…she’s very self-contained, which can be a good thing but for me, it went past the point of frustration, but that wasn’t all there was. The few moments of vulnerability…where Gemma let go…brought down her walls and gave her and Josh a moment to just be…that’s when I felt like I got to see the real Gemma. There was so much potential there…so much just begging to be let free…dreams, wants, desires, hopes…but as quickly as my hopes would go up, she would smash them back down with those walls. *sigh*
“Josh?” I ask softly.
“Yeah?”
“Do you ever find yourself wanting something so badly but you don’t know what it is?”
His breath is heavy in my ear for a moment. Finally he says, “Yes. I do.”
I swallow, my throat feeling thick. “I have this…I don’t know what it is exactly. But I wake up and it’s there and it’s been there for a long time. It’s just this absence. It tells me that either something was there before and now it’s gone or that something should be there at this point in my life. But I don’t have it. I feel this lack. So much that it hurts. And I don’t know what it is. It just makes me sad. It makes me long and ache and I need something to fill it. It’s a constant pain and I’m so fucking tired of it.”
My voice chokes up a bit at the end and the tears that didn’t come during the sunset are coming now, slowly, cold on my cheeks. “I think I ache for things I may never have. I long for purpose, for life, and yet sometimes I think I’m too afraid to live.” I pause. “Do you ever worry, that there’s something out there that you’re missing?”
“I do,” he answers quietly, pulling back the edge of my hood. His warm lips brush against the rim of my ear and I close my eyes to intensify the feeling. “The feeling that you won’t be happy until you find it.”
“Yes,” I say, relief flooding through me at the realization that he understands. “Do you know what yours is?”
He pauses. “I have an idea. It’s becoming clearer day by day.”
Josh and Gemma are…well, like fire and ice and they come together to form this insanely combustible and addictive force that I couldn’t pull myself away from. They’re so different and yet have so much in common…it’s like a balance that shouldn’t work but was absolutely perfect. I loved their connection with art…it was almost like even with all the cultural differences, the things that should have made it harder for them to connect…art was their base line – the thing both of them had a deep love and appreciation for…no matter what, they both understood how much it meant to the other and they just got it. That and sex…I mean, that’s how this whole thing got started – the one night stand that crossed two continents. Their chemistry was never a problem and that was fine by me because let’s be honest, they were damn good at it. Good is putting it lightly, Gemma and Josh are fuckin’ hot as hell…they’re sensual, their physical connection is just off the charts in my book but it was only the first step in drawing me into them as a couple. It was like every moment…every memory they made together…each leg of their journey, I was watching Josh fall in love more and more with Gemma…and despite her best attempts to hide and deny her feelings, it was the same for Gemma. It pulled at every single romantic ounce of me.
“Am I your issue?”
She shoots me a quick glance but doesn’t say anything.
I put my hand on her face, making her look at me again. “Am I your issue?”
“I…I don’t want to become attached to you,” she says, and I can see it took a lot of effort to admit it.
I frown though something inside me is growing warm. “Why not?”
She balks like I asked a stupid question. “Because.” She sighs harshly. “Attachments hurt when they’re taken away. You’re leaving.”
“So what?” I tell her. “I’m attached to you already and I’m still leaving. I almost left right now. Doesn’t mean that the pain negates everything, that none of this was worth it.”
She swallows, looking surprised. “You’re attached to me?”
I shake my head incredulously and run my thumb over her lips, marveling at how fucking clueless she is. “Gemma, Gemma, Gemma,” I murmur. “I told you how I feel about you. I told you why I’m here. Of course I’m attached to you. And I know very well that I’m leaving, but that isn’t stopping these feelings from happening. In fact, it only makes it sweeter, stronger, because I know we don’t have much time together.”
Alright…I’ve got to rant so…if you don’t want to hear it – skip this paragraph. My main issue…actually, my only issue, with this book was…Gemma. I could not, for the life of me, understand this girl. It was like she deliberately was making the wrong decisions and with very little logical thought to rationalize those decisions. At the end of the day, I know every human is different and has the right to make their own choices but when even she wasn’t happy with the choices she was making…how the heck am I supposed to buy that? I get it…everyone deals with shit in their own way…we all go through tough times and emotionally, you do what you can but for the love of Kiwi’s…I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. Her behavior was like a cycle of good then bad…and I was right along for the ride, ranging from trying desperately to understand her, barely tolerating her and wanting to murder her. Maybe it was because I was so connected to Josh…maybe it’s because I couldn’t grasp why she was acting the way she was…I don’t know…but I really cannot think of any other time that I have had this negative a reaction to a heroine…and that’s one of my crucial things while reading, if I don’t connect to the heroine…I feel lost. I absolutely hate saying this, but if I was basing the book on Gemma alone, I shudder to think of what my rating would be…I might have even DNF’d it. Okay…rant over, hopefully.
‘When that first sun rose over that deserted beach on the East Cape and my fingers captured that moment, that feeling – hazy, grand, messy, warm – I felt like my heart rose as well.
I was shining on the inside.
It’s all because of Josh. All because of this funny, sexy, handsome, generous, adorable man who knows my body better than I do, who sees the real me underneath the ice and isn’t afraid of her. Who believes in who I am and what I can do, more than I can believe it myself.
That morning showed me what he saw in me, and it was beautiful.
That morning I realized I love him. Deeply, desperately, dangerously.
I am in love with Joshua Miles, and it’s bringing me to life.
It’s killing me.
It’s making me crazy.
I think I love that part, too.
It twists and loops around us, tying us to one another. It steals my thoughts and makes me think of him. It steals my hands and makes me touch his skin. It’s brutal and kind and sharp and soft and warm and cold and freeing and imprisoning. It’s an incognito imposter taking over my world, spreading itself like a disease.
It’s a million and one things, and it’s real to the bone.
It’s in my bones.
It’s love. And I have no idea what it’s going to do next.
I can only hope that I’ll have the strength to keep it in line.’
I haven’t been this conflicted over reading a book in a while…to have undying love for one character and borderline hate at times the other, it felt like I was being pulled in two. There were some tough moments…times that I needed to rant or scream out of shear frustration…and there were a couple of times that I questioned why I was still reading and the answer is easy. Josh. He made reading this book worth every single solitary moment of dealing with Gemma’s bullshit. I can’t even explain it – after talking with my bestie about it, she flat out asked me why I was still reading and when I said his name, it slipped out…I didn’t even have to think about it. I would give this book a million stars for Josh because he’s worth every single one of them…I’m not trying to make him out to be a saint, but good grief he did everything right in my opinion and I loved every second of him. Don’t get me wrong…I’m an angst whore – I love good angst and there was some fantastic angst going on initially, but somewhere along the way, I lost the good angst and was stuck with just frustrating decisions and no logic. Eventually…I got the logic…it does come, at like 92%…and it makes sense but by that point my brain was exhausted and my heart was too bruised.
“How can you love me?” I’m surprised that’s what comes out of my mouth but it’s the truth and it’s out there, floating in the dark.
He’s surprised, too. He balks at the question, his head jerking back.
After a long moment, the silence filled by the lapping water on the shore, he asks, “Do you want the truth?” Of course I want the truth. Of course I need to heart it. But I steel myself against it all the same. “It’s not easy to love you, Gemma,” he says, his fingers sliding up through my hair, gently, affectionately, in contrast to his words. “You are not an easy person to love because you don’t seem to have any use for it. You don’t want it. But the more you push, the more I pull. I fell in love with you because it was like staring at the frozen sea. I only saw the surface but I knew there was more underneath, miles of depth that no one has had a chance to discover.”
The other thing that kept me reading…Karina’s writing. By far and away she is one of my favorite writers ever – her books are unquestionably must-reads for me. Her tone is so distinctive and I’m addicted to it. Especially with this book and the Love, In English series…since they’re not based in the US, she is forced to take you to a different place, and there is a good chance that you’ve never been there before (I know I haven’t!) – but good gravy, does she a magnificent job of transporting you. Her ability to be so detailed and yet not make it flowery, over the top or boring is…pretty awesome, if you ask me. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details but the way Karina writes it, it’s like painting a picture before my eyes – I’m a visual person and considering I have no real concept of what these places actually look like in real life, but I truly felt like she took me there. The entire book was this epic journey across New Zealand and I loved experiencing every moment of it. I can’t imagine the kind of research that was put into making this as authentic and genuine…because that’s what it felt like to me…no detail was spared…and I appreciated all of them. Something random that I really liked and seems kind of minor…the different words for things, like a chilly bin instead of a cooler (heck…I might start using chilly bin cause…it’s just fun to say) or boot instead of trunk…petrol instead of gas…some of the words I understood because they’re similar to English (UK English, not US) words…but it was a tiny detail that made all the difference to me.
‘I wonder if I’ll run into him somewhere. I wonder what I’d say.
I know what I’d say. I’d tell him I’m sorry. I’d tell him I didn’t mean to hurt him. I’d tell him what he means to me in the big, bad world, how his arms are the ones that kept me safe, that his eyes are what still coax me out of my shell. He gave me the courage to try again, to create, to lay myself bare, and that won’t stop, even after he’s gone.
I want to tell him that I love him. So deeply that I’m afraid I’ll never be able to remove it, that I’ll have to carry it with me forever, like a badge. And I want to tell him that’s not a bad thing. It’s an honor to love him.’
The ending…ahh, the ending…I have a love/hate relationship with the ending. I love it because…well, if Josh is happy then I’m on cloud freakin’ nine…so it’s hard for me to find fault in that. Alas, the way things were resolved did feel a tiny bit too easy. There were so many feelings involved…anger, frustration, sadness…and I’m all about forgiveness but even just a 15 minute conversation or something to address things that needed to be said would have been nice. I mean…Gemma made huge strides…the fact that I didn’t want to kill her by the end of the book proves that, but I definitely feel like after what happened, she owed Josh a little more. At the end of the day, even though I had my ups and downs with Where Sea Meets Sky it still gave me exactly what I ask from every book I read…heartfelt, deep, raw emotion…and through the good, the bad and the ugly, I thrived off of every feeling.
Karina Halle is the New York Times bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky, The Pact, Love in English, and other wild and romantic reads. A former travel writer and music journalist, she lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails, and devours a lot of books.
Oh I loove reading these type of books, I’m gonna def look for this one! Thank you!
I like this book, maybe i’ll buy it
This sounds like a very fun story.