Blog Tour: Hello, My Love by Evy Journey

This blog tour is hosted by Pump Up Your Book. To view the entire schedule, click here. 

Summary:

In this modern-day tale inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, bright, beautiful law student Elise Halverson looks forward to a promising career. Falling in love is low in her priorities.

Well-known playboy Greg Thorpe is engaged to be married when he meets Elise. He finds her so unlike the women he used to date and he’s deeply intrigued. Distrusting the image she has of him, Elise avoids him.

But Elise’s parents invite Greg to their frequent dinner parties. There, Greg and Elise butt heads. She’s surprised to find that, behind his rich playboy persona, he’s intelligent and engaging.

The night before his wedding, they give in to their mutual attraction. Although Elise expects nothing more from that night, Greg is in for trouble. His jilted fiancée strikes back, intent on revenge.

Two years later Greg and Elise get a second chance but they find that the way to their happy-ever-after is not so easy.

At the core of this women’s fiction is a literary and realistic romance spiced with a twist of mystery. Hello, My Love is Book 1 in the series Between Two Worlds, a family saga about three strong women.

Review:

When I first heard about Hello, My Love I was instantly intrigued. As any longtime reader of my reviews and/or blog knows, I love contemporary fiction. Plus, I'm always eager to read anything inspired by a Jane Austen book. 

Hello, My Love was well-written and well developed. Basically, if you love slow-burning, intricate romances - this book is for you! However, I had one slight problem with it: I wasn't truly able to connect with the main characters, Greg and Elise. 

Hello, My Love tells the story of Greg Thorpe and Elise Halverson.  Greg Thorpe was once considered one of the most eligible bachelors. Wealthy, successful, and handsome, Greg had no problem getting what he wanted in all facets of life; however, that's all soon to change with impending marriage to a women who he really doesn't know if he loves or really even likes. Elise is law student, passionate about her schoolwork and not much else. She doesn't have the time for romance or relationships and no one has ever really managed to change her mind on the manner. That was until Greg. Thrown together by Halverson family dinners, Greg and Elise go from enemies to friends to something more....but will they get their happily ever after without tragedy?

The romance in this was well developed. Spanning over two plus years, Hello, My Love shows the ups and downs of Elise and Greg's fatal attraction. The good as well as the bad times are seen time and time again, and forever, I was left to wonder if they'd ever achieve their happily ever after. I thought Evy did a fantastic job of making this a slow-burning, intricate relationship. We first see Elise and Greg as enemies, fighting and never getting along. Then we see them as friends, or really friendly fighters, agreeing to disagree. Then we see them as something more and then again nothing and so on...It was interesting to see the book really dig deep into their relationship and the events that kept causing them to come together again.

The writing in this was also strong. I felt that Evy did a great job of situating between time periods as well as covering a very large time gap in one book. It was ambitious but well done to say the least.

There's a lot to like about Elise and Greg. They are both strong, resilient characters. I liked the fact that they both cared a great deal about their careers, especially in the case of Elise. However, I could never truly connect to them. They were likable, don't me wrong, but I could never get past the surface and forge that connection. Sometimes that made it hard for me to get through certain parts of the book.

However, even with that slight problem I had, I still suggest you give this a try if you love slow burning romance reads, similar to Jane Austen's classic tales. While Elise and Greg weren't always my cup of tea, it doesn't mean that they won't be yours!

Grade: B

Hello, My Love is now out!

Source: Publicist provided eBook for blog tour - thanks Dorothy!

About the Author:

Evy Journey has always been fascinated with words and seduced by beautiful prose. She loves Jane Austen and invokes her spirit every time she spins tales of love, loss, and finding one’s way—stories she interweaves with mystery or intrigue and sets in various locales. SPR (Self Publishing Review) awarded Evy the 2015 Independent Woman Author bronze for her writing.

She’s lived and traveled in many places, from Asia to Europe. Often she’s ended up in Paris, though—her favorite place in the world. She’s an observer-wanderer. A flâneuse, as the French would say.

The mind is what fascinates her most. Armed with a Ph.D., she researched and spearheaded the development of mental health programs. And wrote like an academic. Not a good thing if you want to sound like a normal person. So, in 2012, she began to write fiction (mostly happy fiction) as an antidote.

Evy’s latest book is the contemporary women’s fiction, Hello, My Love.

Author Links: 

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Book Links: 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Want to read an excerpt from Hello, My Love? Click read more to get a view into Elise and Greg's relationship! 

“Going to your parents’ dinner tonight?” Elise could not help smiling at the text message.

She texted back: “Yes. See you.”

Greg had been sending her text messages for some time. Often, they were greetings, in the morning, at night, on school holidays; or good luck wishes on exams, debates, and mock trials. Sometimes, he asked her opinion or a question about a legal matter or some fact of interest to either of them. She answered most of those messages although he told her she did not need to, if they were the usual greetings.

Before they met, Elise had known Greg—from numerous news reports—as the young, progressive owner of a growing internet-based business, and one of the country’s twenty-five most eligible bachelors. The consensus in the media, especially among women reporters: tall, dark, and handsome. But Greg also had a reputation as a playboy, whose many romances were fodder for gossip columns. While Elise hesitated judging looks and personality, sight unseen, she was certain of one thing. She distrusted the likes of men such as Greg.

But that was a year ago.

Since he began consulting with her father, Dr. Halverson, an economics professor, Greg had been to many dinners at her parents' home. There, Elise got to know him better.

Now, when curious acquaintances learned she knew Greg, they invariably asked, and Elise hardly ever varied her answer: “Yes, to news reports. Greg Thorpe is tall—taller than my father who’s more than six feet. Dark—tanned from jogging, bushy hair the color of French Roast woven with golden strands. And beautiful—clean-cut, cleft chin, smiling greyish blue eyes, and, yeah, lean. But, I think, muscular. I’m not sure. I haven’t seen him without his clothes on.”

It always amused her that her incantation never failed to elicit sighs from young women.

Elise was about to slip her iPhone into her shirt pocket when it rang. Greg—she expected that. He often answered her text messages within minutes of her sending them, usually by texting. Once in a while, he called instead.

“Hello, Elise. How’s the light of my life this afternoon?” Greg said, in his teasing voice.

“Greg, hi. That’s quick. Aren’t you busy?”

“Not for you. And I’m glad you picked up. I was afraid you’d turn off your phone again.”

“I can't turn it on in class, when I'm studying, or when I’m at work, and that’s almost my whole day.”

“Are you staying over at your parents after dinner?”

“I don’t plan such things. Depends. How late it is when dinner ends, whether I have some easy way to get back to my apartment, how guilty I feel about not having seen my parents for a while, etc., etc.”

“I see. It’s Friday so I thought you‘re staying the night with them. Can I give you a ride home?”

Elise protested. “But I live across the bay. That's sixty more miles of driving for you, both ways.”

“Less than an hour in my fast powerful car.”

She smiled. Only when she opened up to him a few months after they first met did she realize that Greg had a wry, often self-mocking, sense of humor.

She teased him back. “But don't you need your beauty sleep? Aren't you getting married in two days? I’m surprised you’re even coming to my parents’ dinner party. I always thought weddings were exhausting. Don’t you need to rest up for yours?”

“Think of this as my last fling.”

“Isn't that when your buddies get you all soused and cavorting with some pretty young things? You definitely need stamina for that.”

He groaned. “I’m afraid you have this unflattering image of me. But, believe it or not, that prospect doesn’t excite me. I feel too old for all that.”

“Thirty-two’s not old. To me, old is decrepit. You’re not quite there yet.”

“I'm glad you think so. Twenty-year olds think thirty is old”

“I turned twenty-three a few weeks ago,” she said, her smile replaced with pursed lips.

“That still makes you a young thing in my book. What if I cavort with you?”

Elise scowled. She couldn’t think of a quick retort, which she knew Greg had come to expect from her. It was not that what he said irritated her. And she didn’t actually dislike it. But she felt a vague sense of unease in her chest.

“I'm kidding. I know you're not the cavorting type. But we’re buddies, right? Well, more like sparring partners, maybe. Don’t buddies kid around?”

That’s it, Elise thought. I’m not the pretty, young cavorting type. At least, I didn’t think he thought so. It didn’t annoy her, but it did bother her in some way. She did not answer.

He added in a softer voice, “Am I wrong?”

She picked up an edge to his voice and she hesitated through the ensuing silence; for her, an uneasy silence relieved only by his audible breathing. He was going to wait until she said something.

“I guess we are…friends, or whatever you wanna call it. That makes everything all right, then; kidding included. So, yes, you can take me home tonight. What’s sixty miles between buddies? No guilt, on my part, that you're going out of your way. I gotta run.” She hung up and did not wait for his reply.