~*Release Blitz & Review*~ The Trouble With Paper Planes by Amanda Dick

The Trouble With Paper Planes Release Blitz and Review

Author: Amanda Dick
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance, Suspense
Published: July 14, 2015

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Synopsis

I’ve always believed in what I can see, what I can hear and what I can touch. Surfing was my religion and destiny was just a fairy-tale. But one summer, over ten days during the hottest February on record, all that changed. I found hope – the kind of hope that sustains you, even when you don’t want to be sustained.

The night Emily disappeared, I was branded. She became the girl on the ‘missing’ posters, and I became the one trying to keep everyone from falling apart. I thought that somehow it would keep me from being devoured by the emptiness inside me. Five years later, I was beginning to appreciate how deluded I really was.

Then Maia showed up. New in town, with a past as mysterious as she was, she reminded me so much of Emily that I couldn’t stand to be anywhere near her. What I didn’t realise was that there were forces at play that neither of us could possibly understand.

It takes a determined soul to alter destiny. There is a loophole, a back door, and the events that unfolded during those ten days showed me how that loophole can change everything.

Do you believe in fate? If so, let me tell you my story. If not, what happened to me might change your mind.

Teasers

About the Author

Amanda Dick is a night-owl, coffee addict, movie buff and music lover. She loves to do DIY (if it's not bolted down, she'll probably paint it, re-cover it or otherwise decorate it) and has tried almost every craft known to man/womankind. She has two sewing machines and an over-locker she can't remember how to thread. She crochets (but can't follow a pattern), knits (badly) and refrains from both as a public service. 

She believes in love at first sight, in women's intuition and in following your heart. She is rather partial to dark chocolate and believes in the power of a good vanilla latte. 

What lights her fire is writing stories about real people in trying situations. Her passion is finding characters who are forced to test their boundaries. She is insanely curious about how we, as human beings, react when pushed to the edge. Most of all, she enjoys writing about human behaviour - love, loss, joy, grief, friendship and the complexity of relationships in general.

After living in Scotland for five years, she has now settled back home in New Zealand, where she lives with her husband and two children.

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Title: The Trouble With Paper Planes

Author: Amanda Dick

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance, Suspense, Women’s Fiction

Series or Standalone: Standalone

 Rating: 5 Magical Stars

Review

A few months ago, in conjunction with another blog, I had the pleasure of reading Absolution by Amanda Dick. At the time of reading, she was an unknown author to me even though she had penned more than the one book. Reading that book, experiencing it’s magic, changed reading as I knew it and made me a believer in Amanda and her ability to craft a beautifully moving love story.

Fast forward to now, and her newest release (July 14^th…mark your calendars) The Trouble With Paper Planes. The book that when I was lucky enough to receive an ARC for it, I deemed my birthday book due to the closeness of its release date and my actual birthday.

And what a birthday book it was.

I was in no way prepared for the story that would unfold once I started, or the emotional rollercoaster that it would bring me on by the time I turned the last page.

I was prepared for her enchanting writing style, the near perfect pacing (everything building in due time instead of being sped up), and the love I would have for both the main characters and their family and friends, but not at all for what I was about to get myself into.

The blurb doesn’t do this book justice. It sets you up for the basics of the story and the characters that experience it, but it in no way captures the true magic that is contained in its pages.

So this is where I sit and try to explain it without giving too much away.

It’s told in dual point of views, both from Heath and Maia (though Maia’s does not come into play until much later) and picks up five years after Heath lost the love of his life.

What I found so beautiful about Heath, especially in the beginning was that despite the passage of time that happened after Emily went missing, he was still as in love and devoted to her as he had been when they were together. There was no plethora of women that cycled through his life as he tried to bury the loss. It was the complete opposite. He was still consumed by the grief and pain that comes from losing a loved one, and not even the support and love of his family and friends could seem to break through it.

This made me love him almost instantly. That’s not to say I was a fan of what he went through, but I felt for him. His thoughts, actions, and the way he seemed to force himself to go through the motions, as tragic as it was to watch, was also equally as beautiful because it was real.

The urge to want to pull a character from a book in order to hug him has never been as powerful for me as it was with him.  

But on the flip side, Heath wasn’t the only one that captured my heart and my attention. Maia did it too.

New to town and looking a whole lot like a vision of the past that Heath just couldn’t escape, she swept in and left behind one hell of an impression. On him, his family, her family and most of all this reader.

She was beautifully written. She wasn’t weak willed or in any way typical of other heroines that are quite often present in romance novels. She was uniquely herself. Supportive, sweet, loving and fun. And as it turns out, exactly what Heath needed, even though he tried to distance himself from that fact very early on.

I figured out the way things were going to go here very early on (or at the time I hoped I had), but just when I thought I had it all figured out, we’re taken down a road that I never saw coming, one that managed to make my heart soar and break at the same exact moment. But one that was written so beautifully it was hard not to walk away deeply affected once everything was said and done.

As much as this was a romance though, it was also about a whole lot more. Family. Love. Acceptance, Strength. You name it, it was present within the pages of this wonderful story. From Emily’s mother, to her grandfather (and the truly heartbreaking yet equally moving moment that takes place with him), to her troubled brother—a man haunted by the loss of his sister and dealing with it in the only way he can— and Heath’s family, you’re taken on this rollercoaster ride of feeling that never lets up.

I want to say so much about this story that I haven’t, but a lot of things I can say would give away crucial parts of the story that I do believe that in order to get the full effect of, you must experience yourself.

But I will say this. If I had thought Absolution was moving, life altering and heavy in terms of emotion, it pales in comparison to this one. It’s not a coincidence that Maia believes in magic, believes their situation and their inevitable love to be magical.

It’s because it really is. Start to finish. A magical journey of life, one filled with loss, changes (good and bad), growth, humor and happiness (a lot of it in the form of Heath’s brother Vinnie lol), but none of these more so than love and acceptance.

Whether you’re a romance fan, like me and you enjoy emotionally driven stories, or are just a fan of reading in general, I highly recommend this story. And it’s my hope that by the time you finish, that you’ve enjoyed it and taken away as much or more than I did from my time with it.

Just be sure when you do, you bring tissues ;)

Amanda, you have outdone yourself again. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review Heath and Emily’s story. It was a true honor and pleasure.