Synopsis
If you had one chance to be with your soul
mate, would you fight for it?
Sometimes the hardest fight isn't finding love, sometimes its fighting against the ticking clock of your life.
Stalked by the shadow of a foreboding disease, seventeen year old, Harper Kennedy finds herself starting a new life in Albany Missourie. With a ticking time bomb, a wall of quotes, a shell of a father and a brother who has no one else, Harper tries to get life in order for those she may be leaving behind.
But fate is cruel when it delivers temptation in the form of
Vaun Campbell into her life; Vaun who is kind and sweet and completely out of her league on so many levels. How can Harper find love only to have it ripped away so soon? How can she put Vaun, who has faced more than his own fair share of loss and grief in the past, through all that again?
…How can she not?
Vaun Campbell has been to hell and back again after losing his mother. He has seen the way disease destroys the ones he loves…has seen them fade before his eyes. He never thought he’d find someone to bring the sunshine back to his life until he laid eyes on Harper; the graceful girl he watched float across the dance floor, who stole a little piece of his heart forever.
So Harper must fight for more than just her life, she must fight for her little brother, her father and for Vaun; who promises her a future.
Sometimes the hardest fight isn't finding love, sometimes its fighting against the ticking clock of your life.
Stalked by the shadow of a foreboding disease, seventeen year old, Harper Kennedy finds herself starting a new life in Albany Missourie. With a ticking time bomb, a wall of quotes, a shell of a father and a brother who has no one else, Harper tries to get life in order for those she may be leaving behind.
But fate is cruel when it delivers temptation in the form of
Vaun Campbell into her life; Vaun who is kind and sweet and completely out of her league on so many levels. How can Harper find love only to have it ripped away so soon? How can she put Vaun, who has faced more than his own fair share of loss and grief in the past, through all that again?
…How can she not?
Vaun Campbell has been to hell and back again after losing his mother. He has seen the way disease destroys the ones he loves…has seen them fade before his eyes. He never thought he’d find someone to bring the sunshine back to his life until he laid eyes on Harper; the graceful girl he watched float across the dance floor, who stole a little piece of his heart forever.
So Harper must fight for more than just her life, she must fight for her little brother, her father and for Vaun; who promises her a future.
Review:
When I began this
story I wasn’t sure how I would handle it, see cancer touched my life a little
over 3 years ago and unfortunately the outcome was not good. I wasn’t totally
sure I would be able to make it through this book.
With that said I
am so glad that my first feelings were wrong!! This book is so much more than a
story about a girl that has cancer. It is about 2 people who have lost so much
in life at such an early age that find one another. I truly believe that there
is one person out there that is your true match, and this book absolutely
describes that feeling in every way! Sure Harper and Vaun have their issues but
I can honestly say that their love for one another is refreshing! As the end of
the book was quickly approaching there was an unexpected twist that nearly
broke my heart, but that was just another bump in the road that occurred for
this sweet couple! I hope to see more of these two J
I whole heartedly
and then some give this a 5+ star rating!!
EXCERPT:
In one swift, deliberate movement I have her
under me. My hands braced on either side of her head; they look big compared to
her petite face. Her long hair is spread across the red blanket and I know I’ll
keep that damn rug forever. I want to tell her about my tattoo, about my
mother, but not now. I study her, her wide bright, blue eyes. They’re most
phenomenal in the world; like the colour of the Blue Jays in my mother’s
nesting box. I gaze at her for the longest time, our breaths mingling and that
in itself has me thinking how much more I want her. Not just as friends, screw
friendship. I want her to be mine, to hold her, to kiss her, to keep safe. I
don’t even realise I’m getting closer to her until she licks her lips, almost
touching mine and I can see she can’t deny what she’s feeling any more than I
can. As soon as her eyes flutter closed I close my lips down on her and taste
the deliciousness of my blue bird
Kerri's Story/ Bio
Some might say I
shouldn’t be alive today…I like to think that I’m exactly where I should be!
I’m a cancer survivor. A very lucky and thankful survivor. I had to fight hard
and go through more than most teenagers and I hope I reflected some of the
emotion into Harpers story. But firstly, let me tell you a little about my
fight against non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I was a typical teenager, 11 years old and
just started high school and liking boys. I loved running and one day during a
track run my groin began to hurt. Nothing outrageously out of the norm for a
runner who didn’t stretch well and I put it down to a strain. I had a lingering
cold, just like normal kids in the mountains, but what wasn’t normal was the
lump in my groin. At eleven I didn’t know it shouldn’t be there. I thought it
was just a gland, no biggy. I was very wrong. I went on for weeks with this
cold and antibiotics, I and my children have been through them just this
winter. The only difference was, this wasn’t just a cold. My last visit to the
doctor, he was placing me on stronger drugs and asked if there was anything
else bugging me and that’s when I said those three dreadful words…’My lump
hurts.’ You can imagine the look between my mother and the doctor. From there
it all happened quickly and was quite scary. I was rushed after hours for an
Ultrasound and then straight to the Hospital. I didn’t even get to go home and
grab Pyjamas, a book or anything. The very next day I was shipped to
Campbelltown Childrens Hospital for more tests. Four scans and loads of needles
later lying in a cold, hard hospital bed I remember my Dad coming into the
room, his eyes bloodshot and he was crying. That’s when I learned I had two
weeks to live. You couldn’t get much crappier odds then that. I cry now
thinking of my Dad. For my parents who had their own pain. As a mother now,
it’s more heartbreaking then going through it myself. I have no idea why, but
they started me on aggressive Chemo anyway, denial maybe, I don’t know. It
doesn’t matter now either, because it saved my life. I went through endless
days of being sick, I would get sick as soon as I entered the hospital which
was all in my head, but tell an 11 year old that. The smell for many years
still made me sick. Scans, needles, drips, doctors and nurses. Day in, day out.
That was my life and my monster. But you know what hurt me the most? Losing my
hair. Pft. Sounds ridiculous, right. But imagine a teenage girl with long brown
hair who attracted boys turning into a girl with no hair and was dying. Yeah I
had beat the clock, but essentially, that’s what I was…a dying girl fighting
for a little bit of normal. Needless to say, I beat that clock, beat it to
pulp. I have had a couple of scares since, but I’m still kicking it strong and
even showed all the specialist wrong by having two wonderful and gorgeous girls
of my own after they swore I would not be able to have children. Although hubby
thinks he is Superman and I let him. He is another story all together, he is my
Vaun. I met Michael when I was sixteen at a party and let’s just say, from then
on we have been living out a dream. He didn’t care about odds, illness or my
lack of child bearing capabilities, he wanted me. He loved me. And so, here I
am, surrounded by love, disease free and using it all in a book for you to
read. My fight against the monster and my survival with love is all there for
you to read mixed in with a great dash of fiction. Since writing this I have
found a beautiful boy who is fighting his own monster and his family need our
help. So I’m donating 50 cents in every e-book and $1.00 in every print to go
to Chase and his family for as long as it works. His story I have added after
mine. Show him the love too. I hope you enjoy my story and I look forward to
hearing your feedback and reviews. Love, Kez
Author Links:
Website: www.kerri-williams.com
Twitter: @authorwilliams
Chase Michael Stooksbury
was born 6/10/07. He weighed 5 pounds 10 oz. He was 7 weeks premature and was
transferred to Children's Mercy Hospital where he was on a ventilator for his
first 5 days of his life. His mom was finally able to hold him on day 5. He was
able to come home on day 10.
He was a happy, healthy,
active little boy despite being a bit small for his age. At age 2, Chase and
his older brothers both caught H1N1 flu. Jeffery and Trey were better in 2
weeks. Chase was still battling high fevers. One Saturday in November, Chase
woke up unable to walk well and still had a high fever. After a little fluids,
TLC and some rest he was doing ok. The next day, he was unable to at all. He
was taken to the local (small town) hospital and treated for pneumonia. After 3
days, Chase had gotten worse. His physician, Dr. Angelia Martin, ran more
tests. So Chase's mom, Tera and her friend Miranda Floyd waited. The tests had
a couple of possible diagnoses: rheumatoid arthritis or leukemia. He was
admitted to the small hospital while Dr. Martin consulted colleagues at
Children's Mercy hospital. He was soon transferred to Children's Mercy for more
tests.
The tests found a mass on
his adrenal gland, spinal column, and billions of micro tumors engulfed his
tiny little body. The diagnosis was neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a rare
disease in which a solid tumor (a lump or mass caused by uncontrolled or
abnormal cell growth) is formed by special nerve cells called neuroblasts. Normally,
these immature cells grow and mature into functioning nerve cells. But in
neuroblastoma, they become cancer cells instead. In comes Dr. Allen Gamis and
his nurse Joy Bartholomew. They would see him through his chemotherapy regimen.
In the next few months
Chase underwent stem cell harvest and transplant, chemotherapy, GCSF
injections, radiation, surgery. These prompted many trips to Kansas City from
Albany, MO via ambulance.
On Mother's Day 2010, Tera
got the best mother's day present: He was FREE of disease. In February 2011,
Chase was considered in remission.
He led a healthy and
active life until May 15, 2013 when he began having problems walking again.
(This literally happened over night!) He was diagnosed with stage 4 relapse
Neuroblastoma with a mass on his spine and in his bone marrow. He was started
on chemotherapy immediately. He was on one particular regimen for 2 months.
When further tests were done it was determined that his cancer was not
responding to the chemotherapy. He has started a new chemo regimen and will
have tests again in 2 months to determine the response.
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