Happy Release Day! Tyler King's book The Debt is on the shelves today! Enjoy the sneak peek after my thoughts on the book.
Author: Tyler King
Publisher: Forever Yours
Date of publication: May 10, 2016
Hadley saved my life…and I ruined hers
Hadley's my best friend. We share a house, our friends, a life.
She knows all my secrets…except one. My desperate need for her is inked on my
body, it's the best I can do. But Hadley needs to hear the words…
Growing up as foster kids, Hadley made me feel whole—sane. And
what did I do? I destroyed our chance to be together. I ran out on Hadley when
I should have stayed, and something broke between us. Now I'll do anything to
fix it.
I'll never leave her again. I won't ever let her feel afraid
again. But the more I try to protect her from my pain, the more I just make
things worse. I'm terrified that if I tell her everything, she'll never forgive
me. I'm even more terrified that it may be too late to make her mine. I have to
try to give her what she needs…it's a debt I'm determined to repay.
Wow. If you are in the mood for an emotional roller coaster of a story, then The Debt is for you. I'm not sure I have read about two characters who are more equally as messed up as Hadley and Josh. But, that is what makes them so right for each other. The two have been best friends since they were little and in foster care. Josh feels he owes Hadley a debt since she was the reason he got out of foster care and adopted. Hadley feels the same. When we meet the two, they aren't' exactly getting along though. Something had happened four years before and a mis-communication has them at odds.
I liked that these two were flawed and just struggling to get by day to day. It made me root for them to find peace with each other all the more. One thing that I liked about the book was that Josh was in therapy throughout the story. It really made me connect with his character and believe that he could work through his stuff. Because he had some serious stuff to work through! I was also glad in the end that Hadley starts getting the help she needed as well.
I thought this was a solid debut book. I think that Ms. King has a bright future and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.
Excerpt:
Hours later, just after 8:00 a.m., I was still awake when
the woman next to me stretched and reached for her phone on my nightstand.
Propped up against my headboard, I watched the silhouette of a leggy blonde
dressing at the foot of my bed. She shoved her tits into a push-up bra and
wiggled her way into a tight black dress.
“It was fun,” she said. “See you around, MacKay.”
“Later.”
She tiptoed away with her shoes in her hand and closed the
door behind her. I knew I shouldn’t have brought Kate home, but at the time I
didn’t have the clarity of mind to do otherwise. Women had always been
transient in my life. This one was no different.
I pried myself from the covers, then crossed the room and
stood at the floor-length mirror beside my dresser to inspect the new ink
peeking around the right side of my rib cage. The skin there was still tender
and swollen, a result of six hours under the needles to continue the design
that decorated my back. Bear was an artist with an implement of pain.
My eyes fell to the framed photo lying facedown on my
dresser: a younger me in a tux, standing onstage with my adoptive parents
beside a piano before my first sold-out concert. It was one of the happiest
days of my life, and I couldn’t bear to look at it.
I was skinnier then, and lanky. Hadn’t yet grown into my
body. Next to my pale, freckled parents, I stood out like one of those exotic
adopted children of yuppie celebrity parents. Dark skin. Black hair. Green
eyes. People told me I was “interesting” to look at, to gawk at. So little by
little I covered all the pretty bare flesh in tattoos.
The first piece I ever had done was of a raven with its
wings spread wide across my chest. The tips of each broken wing nailed down. I
was seventeen then. After my first sitting, I came to understand why people
said tattoos were addictive. I suppose I became a glutton for pain, because
when Bear’s wife offered to put a hole in my lip, I let her stick a needle
through my face. For shits and giggles. At twenty-one, I had two full sleeves.
My dad only asked that I keep the modifications within reason. I was a bit
fuzzy on that definition.
From the top dresser drawer, I grabbed a tube of
antibacterial ointment and applied two fingers’ worth to the new tattoo. My
stomach growled. It was empty and angry from last night. So I sifted through
the field of laundry-pile bunkers scattered around my bedroom until I found a
black shirt and dark jeans on the passable side of clean.
When I hit the landing at the bottom of the stairs, I felt a
pair of knowing brown eyes watching me from the living room. Nothing good ever
came from the morning-after ritual. Even so, I couldn’t help but glance at my
roommate curled up on the leather couch with her laptop open and earbuds hidden
under her long dark hair. She held seven fingers over her head. Hadley averted
her gaze back to the computer screen rather than look for my reaction. Like she
didn’t give a fuck.
“Don’t you have anything better to do than wait for the walk
of shame?”
“Don’t you have an appointment to get your dick swabbed for
STDs?”
“Fuck off.”
“Get bent.”
And so everything was par for the course on a Sunday
morning. I held out my middle finger as I turned toward the kitchen. That
was fun. Let’s do it again next week,
shall we? I had yet to decipher her scoring system. Asking for
clarification would only validate her participation in my sex life.
Neither of us enjoyed living together. My parents’ house in
the middle of nowhere was too big for two people and not big enough for the
both of us. Since my dad left to take a job in New York during our freshman
year of college, every day was a special kind of torture. But Hadley needed me.
And as much as I couldn’t stand being near her, I wouldn’t abandon her again.
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ABOUT TYLER KING
Tyler King was born and raised in Orlando, Florida and graduated
from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Creative Writing. As a
journalist, her work has appeared in Orlando magazine and Orlando Business
Journal, among other publications. She is a proud army spouse currently living
in Virginia with her husband.
ABOUT FOREVER
Connie di Marco is the author of the new Zodiac Mystery series from Midnight Ink, featuring San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti. Writing as Connie Archer, she is also the author of the national bestselling Soup Lover’s Mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime. Some of her excerpts and recipes can be found in The Cozy Cookbook and The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. Connie is a member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime. She grew up in New England and now lives on the other coast.
