loss

It’s the ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of my very first novel, A Broken Us!!!

Finley & Brody’s story is very near and dear to my heart. I wrote it two weeks because it just poured out of me. I gifted a very special poem to this book that I wrote when I was going through one of the hardest times in my life. It was an honor. I would share it here now but it’s a bit of a book spoiler and just better if you read it within the story.

A Broken Us is a second chance romance that covers an extremely sensitive subject matter that you don’t often see in contemporary romance. I’m so incredibly proud to bring light to it and to involve a heavy romance element along with it. It’s all about the love baby!

Happy Birthday Brody & Finley…thanks for bringing me into the world of contemporary romance where I have never been happier! And thanks to all of you who have already ugly cried with me in this story.

Sidenote: A Broken Us was originally Book 1 in my London Lovers Series but I later went on to write the prequel (Becoming Us). Since then I’ve re-ordered them so readers start with the prequel.
But A Broken Us can be read as a standalone.
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The moment those words come out of the doctor’s mouth, I feel sick.
So sick.
The life I have dreamed of…obliterated.
And Brody.
God, Brody.
How will he look at me?
How can he accept me?
He’ll know what I hid from him.
He’ll know everything.
It’s over. It’s completely over. I can’t tell him “I love Us” anymore.
Even though I do.
Even though it will kill me.
I can’t tell him anything. Everything is ruined. Pummeled. Broken.
I have to leave him. I have to give up us.
I know he’ll come after me.
I just have to do something to make him not want to.

CHAPTER 21:

I shake my head and move past him to head downstairs. He grabs my hand and pulls me backwards into his chest.

“Hey,” he breathes into my ear. “I haven’t even had a chance to say hello to you yet.”

“Hello,” I reply lightly, enjoying the feel of his warm breath on my neck. He smells awesome, like a fresh laundry detergent.

I feel his lips gently kissing my shoulder and moving their way up my neck.

“Liam,” I shake my head back and forth, feeling a shiver prickle all over my skin.

“Finley,” he growls into my neck and nips at my ear.

Goosebumps crawl straight out from the spot he nips me and I break away from his grasp.

“Friends, remember?” I say, holding my hands up defensively toward him.

He scrunches his lips to the side, “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I know, I’m sorry, but it is what it is. Let’s go downstairs. It’s family flick night for goodness’ sake.”

I start to make my way down the steps and Liam rushes up behind me, throwing his arm around my shoulders playfully. He growls in my ear, nipping at it again. I giggle into his touch and my heart hits the floor as my eyes glance down to the foyer.

Dead in my tracks, I stop. Everything around me blurs as Liam continues his descent and looks up at me, grabbing my hand. When he takes in the frozen expression on my face, I hear him say my name, barely. I can barely hear him because blood is rushing in my head. I can feel my heart beat pulsing in my eyes as I begin to feel faint.

Brody is standing in the foyer with a small suitcase in hand. Brody. In. London. Liam drops my hand and turns to look at what I’m looking at. I hear Leslie and Theo come down the steps behind me. They stop beside me when they see me frozen in place. Leslie gasps as she sees Brody.

Purchase Links!
Amazon:
US: http://amzn.to/XFDHCz
AU: http://bit.ly/1IW683e
UK: http://bit.ly/AmazonABU-UK
CA: http://bit.ly/Amazon-ABU-CA
iBooks:
http://bit.ly/iBooks-ABU-US
http://bit.ly/iBooks-ABU-UK
http://bit.ly/iBooks-ABU-AU
http://bit.ly/iBooks-ABU-CA
B&N:
http://bit.ly/ZoX8RC
Kobo:
http://bit.ly/1vsI6nM

Today is National Pregnancy Loss Awareness Day. Just saying those words is depressing isn’t it? The fact that pregnancy loss happens to so many people that we need to designate a day to raise awareness just sucks. It sucks bad. But there it is….so now what? We’re talking about it, posting about it, tweeting about it. But what’s it really doing? Who’s it really helping?

When I started writing Chasing Hope, I wanted to write it just to get the nightmares out of my head. And to show to my family the true trauma Kevin and I went through. No one knew and it was killing me that I had endured these ugly, life altering events and no one had any inkling the scary situations we were put in.

But something happened during my writing process. Something amazing. Hope found a way of sneaking in. HOPE of all things! After five losses in a row…five gory, ugly, bloody losses….how they heck could HOPE get in there? But it did. I laugh because the working titles of my book were nowhere near “Chasing Hope.” But it was like my story wanted to name itself by the time it was all over.

Maybe it’s because I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a daughter. After all our pain and anguish, I was granted a sassy, spirited little toddler with curly hair, big eyes and has miracle baby plastered all over her precious chubby face. Getting her granted me perspective. Getting her made me proud of my HOPE and not embarrassed by it.

But I know there are so so many couples out there right now that are grieving their losses without a little miracle to comfort them. And my heart breaks for them because we had those tragic, dark days too. Those days where I would hole up in our home office with the lights off and just cry and cry and cry and pray that hubby wouldn’t come in because I was just so so tired of sympathy.

So, try this thought on for size…

I am not going to give those couples sympathy today. I’m not going to give them awareness. I’m not even going to give them HOPE.

I’m going to give them a glimmer of the BIG PICTURE. The BIG PICTURE…is that someday, it will all make sense. I PROMISE you. Someday you WILL find your purpose, you will find your PEACE. You will find your own ENDING. It may not end with a child, as hard of a pill that is to swallow, it’s a distinct possibility. But you have to find a way to make yourself okay. You have to find a way to make yourself be ENOUGH. Because you are ENOUGH.

Amy Daws, Author

bestselling romance author of the Harris Brothers Series and Wait With Me Series

Happy Birthday A Broken Us!

You Are Enough

Grieve your losses today. Light your candles. Hug your spouses. But look into each other’s eyes and say, even without all of this…YOU. ARE. ENOUGH.