A Guest Post by Elise Stephens + eBook Giveaway

Moonlight and Oranges
by Elise Stephens 

Release Date: April 5th, 2012 

Buy : Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

A timeless tale of young romance. Lorona Connelly is ready for a change from her carefully planned, bookish life. When sparks fly at a costume party, she embraces a chance for romance with the handsome Kestrin Feather. However, she quickly realizes that even love and destiny may not be enough to overcome the reality of an overprotective mother-in-law and Kestrin's long, tarnished history of relationships. 
When Lorona's curiosity leads her to Kestrin's journal, doubt plagues them both with insecurities and threatens the relationship. Can true love overcome the odds, or was their whirlwind romance just a frivolous crush? Author Elise Stephens shares a journey of young love, fate, and wounded trust in the story of Lorona and Kestrin, a couple who must learn to overcome their fears to share a life together.

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Burning and Rebuilding Bridges

Something that’s always been pivotal for me in relationships, friendships, any kind of human connection, is making things right after things turn sour.  The temptation to let everything go up in flames after a bad fight and just walk away is huge for many people, but I have yearning that pulls me in the opposite direction—I walk right into those flames.

Rebuilding a bridge hurts and it’s harder than walking away, but I’ve spent much of my life doing just this.  Maybe it’s because of who I am – my mother always called me a peacemaker.

I remember when I was in college I told a friend that it didn’t matter how much recognition and awards I got (I was a smarty pants in school), if things weren’t “right” with my friends, nothing else mattered. 

I can sense tension in a relationship a mile away, even if that particular friend or significant other refuses to talk to me about it.  I have trouble sleeping, thinking clearly, and doing my job, etc, until I have found or made peace with that glitch in the relationship. 

This part of me factored hugely into my writing of Moonlight and Oranges.  Lorona’s fierce determination to see things through is what makes her such a different and challenging woman for Kestrin.  She’s seen the horror of a bridge burned and left smoldering in her own parents’ divorce and she’s not interested in creating another devastation of her own.

Kestrin, on the other hand, has left such a long line of burned bridges and failed relationships behind him, it’s hard to see Lorona through the smoke, but he tries very hard to clear the air.

I’m not so naïve as to think that every relationship is salvageable.  I’ve had a friendship go dead for years before anything began to slightly warm again.  And even now it’s only lukewarm, but hope is alive again. 

Friendships that have fallen out can revive, but both parties have to be willing.  Love affairs that have broken off can return to understanding friendships.  I’m on good terms with every man I’ve dated and I’ve never had a vicious breakup.  I’m not saying that was all my doing, but that’s my story.

I cried for each of my break-ups, but deeper than getting even or wishing he would jump off a cliff for making the worst decision of his life (choosing not to be with me), I always felt a burning desire to go further and make things right between us.  Often that meant apologizing.

With my ex boyfriends, I was very interested in still being friends.  With my family, I can’t live with the idea of being so angry that I never talk to them again.  It’s just not an option for me.  And with my husband, I try to never go to bed angry at him.  It’s too awful to be so far away from the person sharing my bed.

There are also definitely those relationships that are so toxic, we’d be fools if we didn’t run away.  But I want to challenge us to look at what terms of peace might look like and see if it’s just our stubborn pride and anger stopping us from making that peace happen. 

Bridges should be rebuilt far more than left in the ashes.                                                        

About the Author

Elise Stephens received the Eugene Van Buren Prize for Fiction from the University of Washington in 2007, where she also received her degree in Creative Writing. Moonlight and Oranges is her first novel and was a quarter-finalist for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband where they both enjoy swing dancing, eating tiramisu, and savoring the flavor of local live theater.  Visit her at www.elisestephens.com.

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