Spotlight & Giveaway: The Reality of Everything by Rebecca Yarros

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

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

 
Hi guys! Thank you so much for having me!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

The 5th book in the Flight & Glory series, where Morgan is barely holding on after the man she loved was killed in action, but the sexy search and rescue pilot next door is as determined to save her as she is to save herself.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Okay, so maybe I was in over my head.
As if the octagon-shaped house agreed with my thoughts, one of the struggling shutters on the third floor gave up its battle with the ocean breeze and came loose with a loud creak.
All three of us leaned to the right, following the slow slide of the doomed shutter until it snapped free, slammed into another shutter, knocking it loose, and finally fell thirty feet to the sand below.
“Let me get this straight,” Sam said, sliding her sunglasses down her nose to peer over the frames at the stilted beach house that—as of thirty-six hours ago—I now owned. “Will left you five hundred thousand dollars, and you bought this.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• We vacationed in the Outer Banks after one of my husband’s deployments and fell in love with people and scenery, which is why this book is set there.
• Jackson wasn’t initially named Jackson…but I couldn’t get a feel for the character so I renamed him forgetting that now 3 out of the 4 heroes in these books would have J names, lol!
• It has my favorite meet cute ever!
• When skimming through ideas for the title, my husband and I found the same quote at the same exact times while we searched our laptops and BOOM, that was the title.
• Writing F&G books always makes me crave popcorn and M&M’s, LOL!

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

While there’s definitely a physical attraction between them right off the bat, it’s Morgan’s ability to find humor in an absolutely mortifyingly embarrassing situation that really catches his attention.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Emotional, passionate, trusting, funny, endearing.
 

The First Kiss…

Explodes like a shaken soda.

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

“The minute I get off that plane, I’m coming straight for you. When I tell you that I’m coming home, I mean it. And, Morgan, you. Are. My. Home.” His eyes churned with longing and resolve.
Fuck my life, he was breaking down my own resolve.
He glanced at the clock. Ten seconds. His eyes raked over me like he was memorizing every detail of my face and body. I couldn’t help but do the same to him. This was it. He was leaving.
“I choose you. And if I have to let you lose me so you can save yourself, then I’ll hold on enough for the both of us. That’s how much I love you.”
Time was up.
He gave me one last, longing look and walked toward the door. My heartbeat matched the rhythm of his steps. What if this was really it? The last time I saw him? What if I never had the chance to hold him again? To see the light in his eyes when he smiled or the way his lips formed the words I love you? What if this was the last…everything?
My soul screamed in protest and ripped her claws into whatever was left of my defenses.
“Jackson!” I cried out as his hand reached the doorknob.
He turned, and everything I felt was so clearly etched on his own face that I whimpered.
“Kiss me.”

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

“Hey there,” I said softly.
She opened one eye, then the other—like she was hoping I’d disappeared—and I was met with a stunning set of browns, dark at the edges, paling to amber at the centers, and framed by long, thick lashes. Every word I’d been about to speak evaporated from my head. Her eyes were as striking as she was, but there was something about them—a deep, lingering sadness that I bet had jack and shit to do with the predicament she was currently in. I’d seen a flash of it on the beach, but it was even more pronounced up close, and damn if it didn’t trigger a need to save her from whatever caused it, too.
“Hi,” she answered, her southern accent thicker than honey.
“Looks like you could use some help.” I concentrated on not swallowing my tongue. The phrase stunningly beautiful wasn’t new to me, but this was the first time I’d ever been actually…stunned.
“I’m really okay,” she protested with the fakest smile I’d ever seen. It would have almost been comical if I hadn’t already seen her skin and how much pain she had to be in. “My girlfriends will be back any minute, so there’s really no reason to trouble yourself.”
Whoa. Yeah, that accent was deeper than anything the natives spoke with around here, and twice as sexy as that Irish girl last summer who’d rented out the place next to Sawyer’s.
“Trouble myself? I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but you’re kind of stuck in your staircase.”
“It has not escaped my attention.”

Readers should read this book …

for the emotion and romance…and super hot search and rescue pilots, of course!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently finishing up my February 2021 release, The Things We Leave Unfinished! I also have Muses and Melodies (a rockstar romance) coming out in October!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Signed copy of The Reality of Everything and Sea Glass necklace (domestic shipping only)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you had to pick up and move somewhere new, would you choose the mountains or the beach?

 
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Excerpt from The Reality of Everything:

I tried to pull myself together while he dampened a washcloth at the kitchen sink, but he was back faster than I could manage the herculean task.
“You got blasted with sand and a few rocks, if your cuts are anything to gauge by. I want to clean it out.” He paused. “Unless you’d rather we go to the clinic?”
“No. Here is good.” I shifted my legs so he could get close enough to do it.
He stepped between my thighs, his hips resting against the insides of my bare knees. Mercy. The flush of heat that swept over my body had nothing to do with the warmth of the blanket and everything to do with his proximity. It had to be the adrenaline, right? One of those you-almost-died coping mechanisms?
It’s because he’s gorgeous as sin, you moron.
“This one looks the worst, but it’s not too deep,” he murmured, cradling the uninjured side of my face with warm, gentle fingers while assessing the other.
“Okay.” I mentally listed every reason I wasn’t allowed to be attracted to this man and prayed my body got with the program.
One, I was pretty sure he was in love with his ex and apparently something had gone down with them last night.
Two, he lived next door, which meant when whatever I wasn’t going to allow happen anyway eventually didn’t work out, I’d be stuck seeing him every freaking day.
Three…
I hissed as the washcloth brushed over an abrasion along my cheekbone.
“Sorry.” He dabbed carefully at the skin.
“Don’t worry,” I replied, trying to keep my eyes anywhere but on his and failing.
Three, his eyes were too blue. Ocean blue. Flawlessly freaking blue. That was a con because…well, because they were too distracting. Who the hell wanted to be constantly distracted like that? I’d never get anything done.
Four, I was in the middle of some pretty intensive therapy and didn’t have anything to offer. My emotional tank was on empty, and that wasn’t fair to him.
Five—
“This might hurt.”
Exactly. He’d said it perfectly. I’d already swallowed all the pain I could take when it came to relationships.
“I know.” But it still didn’t stop me from staring at his mouth.
He applied antiseptic, taking extra care with a couple
of the cuts, and I welcomed the sting, using it to keep me grounded.
“I don’t think you need stitches.”
“That’s good.” I looked down at my hands. At least they’d quit shaking. How the hell had I let that happen? I should have known better than to take Finley so close to the construction.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” he said.
My eyes jerked to his.
“Thank me? I almost got her killed.”
His forehead puckered as he braced his hands on either side of me and leaned forward.
My breath caught.
“Morgan, that was not your fault. Steve said they were done for the day. You had no way of knowing that guy would fall. It was an accident, plain and simple.”
“It was so close,” I whispered. “She…it was so close.” Just the idea of losing—don’t go there.
He rested his forehead on mine and overwhelmed my senses. Sight, scent, touch, sound…it was all Jackson. “It was too close. But you saved her. You got her out of the way and shielded her with your own body.”
“Anyone would have done it.” My heart rate picked up again.
His head lifted as he cradled my face. “No, a lot of people would have dived the other way—to safety. You deliberately put yourself between Finley and a hundred pounds of sharp, pointy bronze. That’s extraordinary.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “You’re extraordinary.”
Not for you. NOT FOR YOU. My sense of self- preservation screamed at me to run the other way, but a craving for him raced through my veins, flipping on switches that had lain dormant for almost two years. All that adrenaline had been replaced with something far more dangerous: need.
He lowered his head—
The door burst open, and Jackson retreated.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Two years after the man she loved was killed in Afghanistan, Morgan Bartley is trying to put the pieces of her life back together. The reno on her dilapidated beach house in the Outer Banks might be just the distraction she needs to keep her debilitating anxiety attacks at bay and begin to heal her heart…if she can ignore the ridiculously handsome guy next door.

At twenty-eight, single-dad Jackson Montgomery’s life revolves around his five-year-old daughter and his job as a search-and-rescue pilot for the coast guard. He’s no stranger to saving a damsel in distress, and though his gorgeous new neighbor is clearly in distress, she’s no damsel. She’s stubborn as hell with walls a mile thick, and the dog tags hanging from her rearview mirror give him a pretty good clue as to why.

It doesn’t matter that their attraction is undeniable—she swore she’d never fall for another pilot, let alone a military man. There are some wounds time can’t heal, and some fears too consuming to conquer.

She’s a barely breathing heartbreak on the edge of recovery.
He’s a crash waiting to happen.
Together they could have it all…if they can endure the coming storm.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Rebecca is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over fifteen novels, and is always ready to bring on the emotions. She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward from her Flight and Glory series.

She loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for eighteen years. She’s the mother of six children, ranging from kindergarten to law school, and is currently surviving the teenage years with two of her four hockey-playing sons. When she’s not writing, you can find her at the hockey rink or sneaking in some guitar time. She lives in Colorado with her family, their stubborn English bulldog, and a feisty chinchilla. Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October.

Visit her website at www.RebeccaYarros.com for more!
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