Showing posts with label after the rain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label after the rain. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2018

After The Rain by Stacey Johnston



After the Rain 
Stacey Johnston




Jessica Hildreth Designs 

Women's Fiction | Drama | Contemporary Romance 


When a child is born they're a blank canvas. A canvas that is later molded by the influences of the world around them. Those influences determine that child’s future, but they are not always kind. Some of those children will enter adulthood easily, unscathed by the harshness of life, but for others, that journey is not an easy path to follow.

And then there are those, whose journeys are cut short.

He only ever wanted ….. to fit in. 
He only ever wanted ….. to be included. 
He only ever wanted ….. to have friends.

Alec never wanted for anything. 
His parents made sure of that. 
But, what Alec desperately wanted, they couldn’t buy. 
He just wanted to be normal……..

He could never see what the rest of us could. 
Smart. Funny. Good-looking. Sensitive. 
Alec only saw what his mind wanted him to see. 
And believed the false truths it told him.

BUT, I won’t allow him to become one of the lost, and when the clouds clear after the rain, I WILL make him see that he is everything WE believe him to be, and so much more…….. 


Books2Read Universal Link: https://www.books2read.com/u/boYPE1



Lying before me in a sterile hospital bed is the love of my life, my husband; a man whose fragile soul has been at the mercy of that very same evil, vile creature for as long as he can remember. A man who always put the needs of others before his own, regardless of the cost to his own personal welfare. Or, he did, until three days ago when he decided that the people closest to him, the ones who love him unconditionally, would be better off if he were dead. 

For nearly thirty years I have stood beside this man before me, watching as an unseen evil devoured him, digging its claws in, slowly destroying him. As I take Alec’s cold hand, I am hit with a barrage of memories – both happy and sad – of our life together. In retrospect, even the photos that line the walls of our family home show the face of a tormented man fighting an internal battle to stay in control. Unfortunately, fighting day in and day out, year after year, against something that powerful becomes tiring and eventually, it can take its toll. 

As I look at Alec’s pale face while he sleeps so peacefully in his coma, I wish I could find what triggered his decision to end his life. Or, at the very least, when he reached that point of no return. Understanding his reasons is all I’ve been able to think about for the past three days since we found him unresponsive in our backyard. His empty medication bottles and the bottle of Jack Daniels lying beside him were apparent signs my husband had finally lost his battle. 

Stacey Johnston was raised in Perth, Western Australia. She is a wife and mum to four children.

Having been an avid reader most of her life, Stacey finds herself most at ease when she can lose herself in stories of romance and mystery.

Stacey has a creative way of bringing suspense into her stories which keeps her reader hanging onto every word to find out how it ends. 



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Tuesday, March 20, 2018



After the Rain 

Stacey Johnston 




Jessica Hildreth Designs 

 Women's Fiction | Drama | Contemporary Romance 


When a child is born they're a blank canvas. A canvas that is later moulded by the influences of the world around them. Those influences determine that child’s future, but they are not always kind. Some of those children will enter adulthood easily, unscathed by the harshness of life, but for others, that journey is not an easy path to follow.

And then there are those, who's journey's are cut short.

He only ever wanted ….. to fit in. 
He only ever wanted ….. to be included. 
He only ever wanted ….. to have friends.

Alec never wanted for anything. 
His parents made sure of that. 
But, what Alec desperately wanted, they couldn’t buy. 
He just wanted to be normal……..

He could never see what the rest of us could. 
Smart. Funny. Good-looking. Sensitive. 
Alec only saw what his mind wanted him to see. 
And believed the false truths it told him.

BUT, I won’t allow him to become one of the lost, and when the clouds clear after the rain, I WILL make him see that he is everything WE believe him to be, and so much more…….. 


Books to Read - Universal Link: https://www.books2read.com/u/boYPE1



☆☆ #CoverReveal #Giveaway ☆ $25 Amazon Gift Card ☆☆ 


 Prologue 

When you’re little, growing up is supposed to be something you can’t wait for. If you believed what you watched in the movies, your future was going to be filled with lots of singing, talking animals and a fairytale happily ever after. 
What more could a little girl want? 
How could such innocence ever consider their lives would one day be filled with nothing but pain and regret - as mine is today. I shared the same philosophy, and dreams as every other little girl I knew. I planned to grow up, battle a villain, and find my very own prince charming who would whisk me off into the sunset. As a child I was an optimist, envisioning my life being very similar to one of those beloved Disney movies I watched endlessly. What can I say, I grew up in the eighties during a time when Walt Disney had you believing it was possible to dream big. You have to admit, even the fairy tales our parents used to read to us when we were young wanted you to believe that as well. 
Honestly, what child do you know who doesn’t become excited when they read about an ugly duckling changing into a beautiful swan? It was those fairytales, with their stories of love that had every one of us believing even we could eventually find our own happily ever after. What dear old Walt didn’t warn us about, was not every cloud came with a silver lining. He should have warned us that with the good, comes the bad. Some of those clouds are dark, hiding an evil who is content to wait and watch. I have to credit the patience of that evilness because it’s a soulless creature whose patience seems timeless. It waits in silence only surfacing to attack the weakest of dispositions where it gets into the recesses of their heart to embed itself. 
Unfortunately for its victim, once it penetrates those walls, destruction of the mind, body and soul soon follows. 

Stacey Johnston was raised in Perth, Western Australia. She is a wife and mum to four children.
Having been an avid reader most of her life, Stacey finds herself most at ease when she can lose herself in stories of romance and mystery.
Stacey has a creative way of bringing suspense into her stories which keeps her reader hanging onto every word to find out how it ends. 



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