Product Details:
- Title: With No Regrets
- Author: Julie N. Ford
- Paperback: 340 pages
- Publisher: White Star Press; 1 edition (May 26, 2015)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1939203651
- FTC FYI: I received a review ecopy in exchange for
- an honest review.
Book Description:
Living With No Regrets Is Harder Than It Seems:
Finley isn’t exactly sure when her life began to feel unfamiliar. She suspects the transformation started long before she caught her husband and fellow garden club member doing the white-trash-two-step on her new Bernhardt sofa. Now free from the shackles of a loveless marriage, and with her children off to college, she’s finally able to go searching for the missing pieces of her heart. Finley’s best friend, Cathyanne, is already working hard to ensure that Finley finds true love this time around. But when Finley is unwittingly tossed into the arms of two men—their sexy trainer and her neighbor, a popular country star—Cathyanne fears finding the right guy will be more complicated than she ever could have imagined. For Finley, building a new life feels as impossible as flying a paper airplane to the moon. But maybe, just maybe, with the right help, she will find her whole heart—even if it’s in the very last place she thinks to look.
Praise for With No Regrets
“The imagery is beautiful, the romance very well done and realistic.”
Rachel Ann Nunes.
Finley is a spunky and snarky Southern woman with a lot of sass! The
romance is swoon-worthy and satisfying. And underneath it all, it's got a
great message. Definitely worth a read!
I have loved the books written by Julie Ford. You know that you will definitely read a good romance. This book also had a lot of humor and some very spicy characters. The women in this book are Southern, sassy, and don't take things lying down. They stand up for what they want and what they believe in. This can also cause problems along the way. Friendship is a big focus in the book.
Finley is the main character who is forty and now a divorced, single mom. Yes, I could totally relate to her thoughts and feelings with starting your life over again mid-life. It's a scary time for a woman in this position and Julie captured exactly how I felt right after my divorce. The characters are shown as humans with faults and stumbling along the path of life. The characters though are good Christian people who in the end find ways to lift each other up.
Finley is confused a lot because of the three men in her life: her cheating, ex husband Roy, her new, younger boyfriend Josh, and her really good friend, country singer Quinton. Now I was just way jealous of this character to have so many options in which to have man troubles. But, through it all and her interactions with them she learns many things about herself and grows from it all in the end.
This book will have you laughing at the funny characters, but the story will also bring you to tears in a few places. If you like stories like Steel Magnolias, you will love With No Regrets. This cast full of characters that will stay on my mind for a long time to come. I may even keep talking with a Southern accent for a while too. Bye Y'all!
Content: moderate innuendo, kissing (including heavy making out), talk of affairs; mild Southern religious elements; mild language .
Excerpts: With No Regrets
Excerpt 1:
“All
right, I think we’ve given Finley enough food for thought on her first
day.” Careen waved her arms in a settle-down motion. “As I explained
earlier, each week we focus on one step, and then at the following
meeting report on the progress we’ve made toward completing that step,”
she explained. “So for the benefit of our newest member, how ’bout we
recite the ‘Five Steps to a New Beginning’ before moving on.” She
pointed to a rolling chalkboard. “All together now.”
“Number
one: Subjugate fear,” she started, and the rest of the group joined in.
“Take chances. Learn from and consent to the unexpected.”
“Number two: Defy the rules, embrace the guidelines. Rules emphasize the result. Guidelines focus on the journey.
“Number three: Smash the box. Look outside your comfort zone for the best answers and the greatest opportunity for growth.
“Number four: Brimful heart. If one’s heart is hollow, one’s actions are hollow.
“Number five: Letitgo. Leave the past, live the future.”
Following
along with the words scrawled onto the powder-smeared chalkboard,
Finley felt a cool sweat breaking out on her forehead. Only five goals,
but each one felt like one gaping pit of quicksand after another.
Take
chances and defy rules? Smash the box? Letitgo? What did any of that
even mean? Brimful heart. Finley pressed the heel of her palm to the
center of her chest and felt nothing, nothing but an empty hole where
her heart should be. Just because she hadn’t been particularly sad to
see Roy pack his things and go, didn’t mean his absence hadn’t left a
gap in her life. His leaving had been like pulling a random peg from a
Jenga tower, only to find that it was the last piece still holding the
structure together.
Careen said, “I know these goals can seem overwhelming at first, but taking the first step is the hardest part.”
“Amen to that,” Burlie-Jean agreed.
“Though
some of us are further along than others, we’re all on the same path,”
Careen went on. “Everyone progresses at his or her own pace. One step at
a time, one week at a time until we find our new normal,” she said,
then zeroed in on Finley. “So start with number one, only number one . .
.”
Finley watched Careen’s lips spill words of hope and
encouragement. If only she could bathe in the completeness each syllable
offered until the possibility adhered to her skin, remolding her, body
and soul, into the kind of woman who knew what it meant to be happy, one
who refused to settle for anything less—
“Finley?” Careen
said, causing Finley to start. “This coming week, your first task is to
identify a fear and then make an attempt to overcome that fear. Do you
think you can do that?”
Having already put too much of herself
on display for these strangers’ entertainment, what Finley really
wanted to do was leave and never set foot inside this circle again.
“I’ll surely give it a try,” she promised, though, obviously, she had no
intention of doing any such thing.
“Good.” Careen appeared cautiously optimistic. “Okay, who wants to share next?”
Excerpt 2:
Packed
like corralled cattle between four wood paneled walls, the riotous
crowd filling the bar overwhelmed the echo of Finley’s boots as she made
her way through the darkened hallway. Built during the early days of
Nashville, Tootsie’s was rumored to have launched Willie Nelson’s career
as well as other famous performers like Kris Kristofferson, Patsy
Cline, Waylon Jennings, and in more recent decades, Quinton Townes.
At the end of the hallway, and through an open door, Finley spied her neighbor.
Jagged
locks of ashy-blond hair peeked out from under a worn cowboy hat to
poke at the frayed edges of his western shirt. A dimple split his right
cheek as he smiled, his head bent toward that of a young woman.
Finley
moved closer, watching as the groupie handed Quinton a cocktail napkin.
“Will you sign this for me?” she said, adding a coy smirk.
Quinton
ran his smoky gray eyes over the woman’s skintight T-shirt as he
slipped the paper and pen from her hands, his fingers lingering a touch
longer than necessary on hers. “Who should I make this out to?” he
drawled in that slow, Texas way of his.
Gazing out from under a pair of mascara-laden lashes, she said, “McKenna,” and then bit down on her plump bottom lip.
Finley
rolled her eyes. This one was young, even by Quinton’s standards.
Likely, not much older than her daughter Royanne, or Quinton’s own
estranged daughter, Annie, for that matter. Because she hadn’t known him
back when he was married, it was hard for her to imagine him as
anyone’s daddy. But then he’d become a father long before the world had
known his name. Before his solo career had taken off and he’d mistakenly
boarded a high-speed train running on tequila and cocaine, barreling
headlong into the blinding lights of one forgotten arena after another.
Before he’d traded the unconditional love of a wife and three children
for the fleeting admiration of his fans. Before the cheers of the crowds
had echoed into a deafening abyss where there wasn’t enough booze or
blow in his empty hotel room to silence the void. And certainly before
he’d woken up one morning a homeless, washed-up one-hit-wonder with
nothing but a broken-down Mazerati to call his own. The very day he just so happened to have entered Finley’s life.
Meet Author Julie N. FordA graduate from San Diego State University with a BA in Political Science, Julie N. Ford also earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Alabama, which has only made her better able to recognize the unhealthy, codependent relationship she has with writing. Professionally, she has worked in teaching and as a marriage and family counselor. She is the author of six women’s fiction novels, including Count Down to Love, a 2011 Whitney Award finalist. When she’s not writing, she entertains delusions of being a master gardener, that is, when she’s not killing the unsuspecting plants in her yard with her good intentions. She lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, two daughters, and the cutest Scottish fold cat you’ve ever seen. She loves to chat with readers.
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