Spotlight & Giveaway: The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

Posted February 22nd, 2019 by in Blog, Spotlight / 73 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Rebecca Yarros to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

Hi Rebecca and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Last Letter!

 
Hi there, and thank you for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The Last Letter is about a soldier who falls in love with his best friend’s little sister through their letters during a deployment, and goes to Colorado to when the unimaginable happens.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“It might be temporary, but I was here for as long as Ella would let me stay. Because somewhere between letter number one and letter number twenty-four, I’d fallen in love with her. Fallen for her words, her strength, her insight and kindness, her grace under impossible circumstances, her love for her children, and her determination to stand on her own. I could list a thousand reasons that woman owned whatever heart I had. But none of them mattered because, even though she was the woman I loved, to her, I was just a stranger. An unwelcome one at that. Which was more than I deserved.”

“You ruined me for anyone else before you ever knew my name.” She’d ruined me from the second she’d said she regretted writing in pen. She’d had every ounce of my soul when I finished that first letter.”

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Hmmm… fun facts…

  • Though I researched the book for over six months, I wrote it in three weeks.
  • Countless K-cups were sacrificed in the making of this book.
  • I’m from Colorado, and a military wife, so it’s near and dear to my heart!

 

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

They meet through letters they write during deployment, which I adore because Beckett falls for Ella through her words before he ever sees her in person. He’s attracted to her honest, awkward nature and her devotion to her kids. Sure, there’s that initial jolt of attraction when they first meet, but for reasons I don’t want to spoil, Beckett can’t act on it, and Ella is in no position to.

 

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

Definitely the scene where Beckett first sees Ella after getting to Colorado. Because of their circumstances, he can’t tell her who he is—that they already know each other.

“Ryan sent me.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Mac…Ryan. He sent me to watch over you.” The way it came out, I could almost believe that I was here as the guardian angel, the one who would sweep in and save her from the shit I had no control over. I couldn’t cure her little girl’s cancer. I couldn’t bring her brother back. In that regard, I was actually the demon.
She shook her head and turned away, making a beeline for the front door.
“Ella.”
“Nope.” She waved me away—the second time since I’d met her—and reached for the door handle.
“Ella!”
Her hand paused on the handle, the other bracing against the door’s trim.
“I know it’s too much. I know I’m the last thing you expected.” In every single way. “If you don’t believe me, I have the letter he left me.” I reached into my back pocket, pulling out the envelope I’d folded and unfolded so many times that the creases were marked.
She turned slowly, leaning back against the door. Her eyes were wary, her posture tense. She wasn’t a deer in the headlights. She was a wounded, cornered mountain lion, all sleek lines and knowing eyes, ready to fight me to the death if I got too close.
“Here.” I walked closer and offered her the letter.
She didn’t even look at it.
“I don’t want that. I don’t want any part of it, or you. I don’t need a walking, talking reminder that he’s gone. I’m not weak, and I don’t need a babysitter.”
“I’m so sorry he’s not here.” My throat tightened, nearly closing on the emotions I kept on tight lockdown.
“Me, too.” She opened the door and left, and I raced after her like the idiot I was.

 

Readers should read this book….

If they love emotional romances!

 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently writing The Reality of Everything for release in 2019, and Great and Precious things for release in 2020!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: A signed copy of The Last Letter and a $20 Amazon Gift Card. (Open internationally)

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s the longest you’ve ever been apart from someone you love? I’m a military wife, so naturally, we’ve done the year-long deployments more than a few times!

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from The Last Letter:

Using my phone as a flashlight, I walked the shore of the lake, telling myself how stupid this was with each step until I looked up and saw the light on through his windows. Then I started up the path to his front door.

Why couldn’t this wait? Why now? What was I hoping to gain, besides the truth of whether or not Ryan had sent him? Why did it matter now and not two weeks ago when he’d shown up and altered my sense of gravity? Why— Oh. Apparently I’d just knocked on his front door.

I guess that decision was made.

Run away, the immature nineteen-year-old inside me urged. Seemed the romantic part of my development had frozen at the age I’d shoved her into yet another box and slammed the lid home.
You’re not a child, the mature part of me countered. Before I could get into any more arguments with myself that might land me in the psych ward, the door swung open. Holy. Shit. He was shirtless.

“Ella?”

And barefoot. Just workout pants.

“Ella, is everything okay?”

What the hell kind of body was that? How did a natural man have so many muscles, all hard and toned and cut in lines that seemed carved for a mouth? My mouth.

Two firm hands clasped my shoulders. “Ella?”

I shook my head, like I could shake the thoughts out, and dragged my eyes from the incredible shape of his torso past his whisker-stubbled neck, to those freaking eyes. I liked green. Green was an awesome color.

Green. Green. Green.

“Everything is fine. Sorry,” I muttered, knowing I sounded like an idiot. “I didn’t expect…” I motioned to his body.

“You thought someone else would be home?”

“No. I just thought maybe you’d have clothes on. Like a normal person.” I forced a shrug, and he let go of my arms. Then he grinned.

Ugh. He really was incredibly handsome. Annoyingly so.

“My apologies. I will remember to check with you before I work out next time. Come on in. I’ll grab a shirt.” He held open the door so I could slide past him.

And he smelled good while working out? What kind of sorcery was this? Was this guy even a real person? No one looked that good, and smelled that good, and was kind to kids. There was a flaw.

He’s special ops.

Yeah, that was a pretty big flaw. Not that I could even see this guy as a man, in the romantic sense. Like I had time for that crap right now, or even the energy. But I wasn’t stupid, either, and something had flipped in me when I’d seen him with Colt.

Guys with puppies. Guys with kids. Either one was guaranteed to snag my attention, and this guy had both.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Beckett,

If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.

I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.

My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.

And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.

So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.

Please don’t make her go through it alone.

Ryan
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and a lover of all things coffee and chocolate. She is the author of the award-winning Flight & Glory series and The Renegades. She loves military heroes, and has been blissfully married to her Apache pilot for seventeen years.

When she’s not writing, she’s tying hockey skates for her four sons, sneaking in guitar time, or watching brat-pack movies with her two daughters. She lives in Colorado with her husband, their rambunctious gaggle of kids, and their menagerie of pets. Having adopted their youngest daughter from the foster system, Rebecca is a passionate advocate for children through her non-profit, One October.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |
 
 
 

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73 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros”

  3. Jeanna Massman

    My husband and I had jobs on opposite sides of the state for 9 months. We did see each other on weekends, though.

  6. carol L

    The longest for me was about a month. I Loved the excerpt. And I do enjoy emotional romances as long as I have my box of tissues near.
    Carol Luciano
    Lucky4750 at aol dot com

  7. Didi

    A week at the most. I remember I tried LDR once and in just a couple of months we just couldn’t handle it and separated.

  9. Tiffany J

    we went on a vacation without the kids for a week and I while I loved the freedom to be just “me” and not be “mom” I missed those little faces and voices 🙂

  11. janinecatmom

    I have gone on vacation without my husband in the past. So, I would say maybe a week is the longest I have been without seeing him.

  14. hartfiction

    The longest hubby and I have been apart is when he went to basic training and tech school…I think it was a little over three months.

  15. Marcy Meyer

    I dated a guy in the military, who was stationed in Germany. It was only for around 6 months, so it wasn’t to the level of love yet. But, it was very hard to only have letters and occasional phone calls. This was a long time ago, before the internet exploded and there are more options for communication.

  16. Diana Tidlund

    Two years of only weekends but honestly the most he goes away from me is his hot rod show with his friends and family for 3 days every year otherwise he’s with me every night since my strokes 4 years ago. I spent weeks in icu and had to relearn to walk and talk and was put on disability and he became even more protective of me and refuses to leave me except for that one event every year !

  17. Kim Brewing

    3 days – he was in the hospital and we had small children so I couldn’t spend the night

  18. JenM

    After graduating, in order to get a job, I moved out of state for a year, leaving behind my then BF, now husband. Back then it was much harder to keep in touch – no Skype or FaceTime!

  20. jaimerlong

    The longest I have been away from my husband was a week. I missed him terribly, but sometimes a little time apart makes you realize why you love each other to begin with.

  25. Onyinye Elochukwu

    One year. We were living in different countries and took some time for me to relocate

  27. Debra Branigan

    I have been away from my husband of 40 years for about one month when moved. Other than that, years from family at times.

  28. Caro

    A semester back in college when I was apart from my family, at another country.

  29. laurieg72

    I’ve been lucky. The longest I was separated from my husband was only for a month when he was in grad school. We’re now going on 42 years together. I had been separated from my youngest son for 3 years. He moved out to Portland, OR . We’d tried to get together but life got in the way. We were finally able to get together the end of October for my middle son’s wedding in Tampa.

  30. clickclickmycat

    It was 3 months for me. I spent a summer at a school miles away.

  33. Colleen C.

    From sisters and parents… months at a time… then moved to be near them.

  35. Kay Garrett

    The longest I’ve been away from the love of my life was 2 weeks while being with my Mom when she had her brain aneurysm in a specialty hospital in Dallas, 4 hour from home. Even though we didn’t get to share the same home for 6 weeks, at least after the first 2 weeks I got to at least see him. I also consider my longest time from a loved one to be when our daughter died in 1988 since I will miss her each and every day until I can be with her again in heaven.

    “The Last Letter” sounds amazing and can’t wait for the opportunity to read it.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  36. Stephanie Taylor

    I’m a former military spouse (hubs retired in 2014) so we spent a lot of time away from each other. I think 5 and 1/2 months was the longest span of time we spent not even in the same country. But if I added up all the deployments, trainings, and TDY’s…that number would probably astound me.

  37. suzannah0466061145

    My husband travels almost half of each month. It is hard. But I am such an admirer of people in the military. I can’t imagine being away from him that long

  40. Natalija

    The longest I was apart from my family was 5 years, We live in different countries,

  41. Teresa Williams

    My husband owned his own drywall business and would sometimes be out of town for a week.He was in Army reserves and would be gone 2 weeks in the summer with them.

  45. Dianna

    My husband used to travel often for his job, so he would be home for a day or two then travel the rest of the week, for months.

  46. Katrina Dehart

    About three weeks away from my hubby when I went on vacation without him

  50. Ellen C.

    When we dated and were engaged, we were a long distance relationship–saw each other 1 weekend a month. Since we got married, probably a week to 10 days, separated.

  51. Anna Nguyen

    i have never been in a long distance relationship but i would do whatever i could to make it work for as long as i had to if i loved the person

  53. Martha Lawson

    A month! My husband used to work on a towboat and be gone 30 days at a time.

  54. Glenda M

    My husband has done some long for us business trips – almost 3 weeks has been the longest time. The one that felt longest was when the kids were both under 4 years old and all 3 of us got sick with different viruses.

  55. Karina Angeles

    About a week. He had conferences for work he had to attend for work.

  58. Patricia B.

    A former military wife here. My husband was also stationed in Colorado, Cheyenne Mountain. It was our best assignment. As with most military families, separation is the name of the game. I was actually separated from my family for 3 years when I was in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer. I got engaged shortly after getting back to the States. We lived about 12 hours apart, so I saw him only every third weekend. He left for Vietnam 6 months after I got back from the Peace Corps.. He was in B-52’s and we had to postpone our wedding when they extended his tour a few weeks. He got notified he was being sent back over and left again 5 weeks after we got married for another 6 month+ tour. In all he had 4 tours of 6 months + or – those first years. We had other separations of several weeks for TDY”s over the years. It can be hard, especially when you have children, but you learn to adjust. It is not a way of life for everyone. We have been retired for quite awhile now, and we still miss the military family. The FB-111 unit he was in after B-52’s was a close knit group and we really look forward to the reunions every two years.

  59. Terrill R.

    Although my husband was in the military when we married, he was no longer being deployed overseas. The longest we have ever been apart is 12 weeks.

  62. Mood Reader

    I’ve never been in long distance relationships so, I guess, a week or two while I was on vacations! 🙂

  63. Angel

    Months, I dated a fisherman, and he would go to Alaska during the season and be gone for months at a time

  70. isisthe12th

    sadly its been 9 months since I’ve seen my youngest son. He moved to another state in May 2018. I’m counting the days till I see him again, I miss him so much. Thank you