TUESDAY POTPOURRI: “IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by The Purple Booker.

Today I want to share an e-ARC from NetGalley, a book by a beloved author that I will be starting soon:  It Happens All the Time (e-book), by Amy Hatvany, is a provocative and compelling novel about two friends whose lives are changed by a drunken kiss.

 

 

 

Intro:  (Tyler)

I don’t see the gun until it’s pointed right at me.

“Drive,” she says, shifting her upper body toward me.  We are in the cab of my truck, me behind the wheel, Amber in the passenger seat.  Her arm trembles, from uncertainty or the weight of the weapon, it’s impossible to tell.

I look at her, blinking fast.  “Amber, wait—”

“Shut up.”  Her voice is stone.  Unyielding.  She cocks the hammer with her thumb and I jerk to the left, toward the driver’s side window.  My shoulders hunch up around my ears and then—I can’t help it—I say her name again.

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Teaser:  (Amber)

My already racing pulse sped up more.  How would I tell Daniel anything?  How would I tell him that I’d flirted with Tyler for weeks, how I’d dressed slutty for him last night, then danced with him like a stripper, kissed him, and let him lead me upstairs. (53%).

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Synopsis:  I want to rewind the clock, take back the night when the world shattered. I want to erase everything that went wrong.

Amber Bryant and Tyler Hicks have been best friends since they were teenagers—trusting and depending on each other through some of the darkest periods of their young lives. And while Amber has always felt that their relationship is strictly platonic, Tyler has long harbored the secret desire that they might one day become more than friends.

Returning home for the summer after her college graduation, Amber begins spending more time with Tyler than she has in years. Despite the fact that Amber is engaged to her college sweetheart, a flirtation begins to grow between them. One night, fueled by alcohol and concerns about whether she’s getting married too young, Amber kisses Tyler.

What happens next will change them forever.

In alternating points of view, It Happens All the Time examines the complexity of sexual dynamics between men and women and offers an incisive exploration of gender roles, expectations, and the ever-timely issue of consent.

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Do the excerpts grab you?  Would you keep reading?

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