Before
We Say Goodbye
by
Julie MacLennan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Life
is about to change forever for four strangers who share a train
journey just before Christmas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
‘I’m
leaving you!’
The
young woman at the end of the phone screamed in fury as Damien Hunt
calmly rose from his desk and walked towards the window.
The late
afternoon sun was slipping silently below the horizon in a last
brilliant blaze of crimson defiance. The irony was not lost on him as
he witnessed the magnificent rays disappearing from sight at exactly
the same moment as Stella Milner was doing her best to elicit a
response, any response, from him.
‘Do
you hear me? Are you even listening? What’s the matter with you?’
She was
almost hysterical now and he could tell that his continued refusal to
answer her was only inflaming an already volatile situation. But not
for the first time he recognised it as his escape route and said
nothing.
‘Damien?
Damien! Will you answer me?’
The
silence on the line was deafening and Damien could hear her start to
cry.
He
closed his eyes. There was a part of him which felt guilty,
responsible for the situation in which they now found themselves. But
only a part of him.
Mostly
what he felt was a dreadful and overwhelming weariness.
It was a
feeling which was unfamiliar to him and yet it had crept up on him
lately, invading his thoughts during random moments and making him
doubt everything. Including himself.
And now
it was telling him that there was no point in prolonging this
conversation.
He let
the phone fall to his side as Stella continued to rage against him.
They
both knew that she was right. She wanted only what she deserved.
There was only one problem.
He
couldn’t give it to her.
Couldn’t
give her the commitment and the stability that she hadn’t cared
about in the beginning but seemed now to crave. He couldn’t give
it, and more importantly he didn’t want to give it. Not to her. Not
to anyone. Not ever.
Her
voice became louder now and he reluctantly raised the phone to his
ear again.
‘Can’t
you even speak to me now, Damien? What do you think I am? Some little
tramp? A one night stand? You really think that you’re better than
me, don’t you, Damien?’
Still he
remained silent.
When she
spoke again, her voice was lower and she sounded more in control.
‘Okay,
if you won’t speak to me on the phone, you leave me no choice.
We’ll just have to have this conversation in front of everyone in
your office. I’m coming round.’
‘No,
Stella. You’re not! This isn’t getting us anywhere. I’m trying
not to say the things I should say at this point but if you push me
into it, I’ll hurt you. And I don’t want to do that.’
The characters, their lives, their story.... The emotions, the sadness, the lost of their spirits for Christmas... I can't really put into words how each person made me feel. Each one of their lives affected me differently. The author did such an amazing job in making you connect with each characters as they live their journey. When reading the book it's really as if you are them, you are living their life and feeling each and every thing they feel. This book will draw you in deep enough that you don't sense the reality around you. A great job by this author! A fantastic book that I would recommend to everyone!
*Received for an honest review*
*Received for an honest review*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Julie
MacLennan lives and works in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.
This is
her first published novel although she has been writing for as long
as she can remember.
Some of
her earliest memories are of sitting by her grandfather’s chair and
being fascinated by the books he read. Later, encouraged by her
grandmother’s gift for writing and her mother’s imagination, she
began to transfer her own short stories and poetry to paper.
Her
shared love of football with her father inspired her to write the
poem “Farewell, Our Friend” which was read out and televised
around the world at George Best’s funeral in late 2005.
More
recently, she was honored to be asked by the Royal British Legion if
they could use another of her poems, “The Promise”, as part of
their commemoration of the First World War.
She is
now working on her second novel.
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