The Charly Stevens Series by Two Sharpe Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Awakening
The
Charly Stevens Series Book 1
by
Two Sharpe
Genre:
Cozy Mystery
What
do you do when tragedy comes into your life and takes everything
away? Charly Stevens’ life was turned upside down when a drunk
driver took her beloved husband Kevin from her, making her a widow at
24. Charly has two choices, stay in the dark pit of despair that has
become her life for almost a year, or take a chance and enter the
world of the living and move forward again. Lucky for Charly, she has
some excellent friends who support her, but she will also have to
face the next step in her life when a man from her past reappears and
shows definite interest. Charly gets caught up in a murder
investigation with some unusual help from her rescue dog, Lola. After
Kevin was taken, he finds a way to help Charly realize her place in
the world again with Lola’s help.
Mrs.
Paulson was just sitting down at the table with a cup of coffee in
front of her, and there was a second cup sitting in front of the
chair across from her, steam rising from the cup.
I
smiled and slid into the chair across from her, all the while trying
to figure out how she knew I was coming, there is steam coming out of
the cup meant for me!
“Almost
a year ago,” stuttering at first. Just saying it out loud felt like
someone just stuck an ice pick in my chest. “How did you know?”
Mrs.
Paulson, “EJ” as she told me to call her again, began “I was
married to a wonderful man, Harold, for 36 years. We were never
blessed with children, but Harold and I loved animals something
fierce and we spent our love on our animals. Harold was such a
wonderful man, he would give you the shirt off his back...actually,
that’s how we met,” she said with a wicked little smile.
I
chuckled as EJ continued, a sparkle in her eyes, “Harold was always
helping people, he would deliver meals to people who were sick or
injured. We both volunteered at the local animal shelter to help them
find people to adopt the animals that came in. One night, Harold was
on his way home after delivering meals and a drunk driver came
careening through a red light and struck my Harold broadside, he died
instantly according to the police.”
I
made an audible gasp and my hands started shaking while tears fell
down my cheeks. EJ smiled a half smile and put her hand over mine,
“Harold and I had 36 beautiful years together, I can’t
complain.”
I
grabbed a napkin from the holder and dried my face and blew my nose.
I was just about to say something when EJ continued.
“I
took Harold’s death hard, he was my everything. I didn’t handle
it well at all, I kind of checked out for a while. About a year after
Harold’s death, I began having this vivid dream with Harold and me.
It was the same dream every night. Then one night the dream changed.
Harold said something in the dream that he never had before. I didn’t
think much about it at first and then I found that the things he was
saying to me in the dream, were real.”
“It
took me some time, but I eventually pieced together what he was
telling me, and I ended up finding Pookie. He was abused, emaciated,
and in terrible shape, but I found him just where my Harold told me
to look in my dreams. That was 15 years ago.” EJ looked over at me
and smiled, then she patted my hand and said, “You can take a
breath now dear.”
I
didn’t realize I was holding it as I let out my breath loudly and
took several more to steady myself. This was unbelievable, EJ had
just given voice to what I have been thinking for several days, I
thought I was just going mad!
Taking
another breath, I said, “That is a lot to take in. I have to say I
have been having a similar experience, but I thought I was going
crazy.”
EJ
started laughing and said, “Dear, do you think I thought I had all
my cookies in the jar after all that happened to me? It took me a
long time to let my mind accept what was happening.”
“Is
that it, is that all that happened? You found Pookie?” I asked
after taking a few moments to process.
“I
figure that each of us that have been given this gift are given the
responsibility that goes along with it. It was not only for my
benefit that this happened. Over the years Pookie and I have helped
rescue over 100 animals that were lost or being abused. And over
those same years I have asked myself all the time why this ability,
this gift? All I can think of is that Harold and I shared a love and
passion for animals. I think maybe when someone is taken suddenly,
the way Harold and your Kevin were, their love, or at least some of
it, stays here with us. Maybe that is how this connection or bond is
formed.
“Harold
came to me in my dreams until I found Pookie and then believe it or
not, Pookie was the one that helped me find the others. I think
Harold might be speaking to me through Pookie. If you pay close
enough attention, they are speaking to you in their own way. I
stopped asking questions a long time ago and just started paying
attention and trusting my instincts...and Pookie’s.” She smiled.
Acceptance
The
Charly Stevens Series Book 2
Charly
Stevens has come to accept that it is time to move forward with her
life, so she and Lola are plowing straight ahead… into even more
mystery and intrigue. With the help of her faithful friends Hadley
and EJ, the team takes on a case to find a missing dog and they
inadvertently cross paths with Charly’s new love interest, Riley
Jordan. Riley and his partner, Tank, are investigating a string of
break ins in the surrounding area and find clues that link back to
the murder of Riley’s father, when Riley was young. Working
together to help solve the case is exhilarating for the new couple,
but it also places both of them in harms way. Come along on this next
adventure in the Charly Stevens series: Acceptance.
Tank
walked with me to Riley’s door and she squeezed my shoulder, then
went down the hall to the nurse’s station. I stood at that door
taking deep breaths trying to pull myself together until, with a
shaking hand, I pushed the door open. When I saw the big strong man
that had become such a big part of my life lately lying in that bed
with tubes hanging out of him and the machines making noise all
around him, I sucked in a ragged breath and the tears started falling
again.
I
saw movement and then Riley lifted his head and turned toward me and
as soon as he saw me, that brilliant smile lit up his face. I slowly
made my way to his side and when I got there and looked down into his
eyes, I started sobbing. His eyes were puffy and his face was pale
with multiple small lacerations. Riley lifted his arm, the one
without the splint on it and took my hand and pulled it to his lips.
His lips were dry and the kiss was weak.
He
smiled again and said, “It’s ok Charly, I’m going to be ok,
alright?” looking up at me to make sure I believed him.
I
just bent down and laid my head on his shoulder as he brought his arm
around me holding me to his chest, letting me cry it all out. When I
finished, not sure how long it took but I finally was able to pull
myself together, I pulled my head up and looked him in the eye.
“You
promised not to break my heart, getting yourself killed certainly
qualifies as breaking my heart,” I said, but there was no hostility
there, something else entirely.
I
didn’t realize until right this moment just how much Riley has
taken over my heart. I am in love with this man and the realization
of that slammed into me like a truck going 100 miles an hour. How
have I gone from where I was, to this place so quickly. Then I
thought how long it has been and realized it has taken quite a bit of
time to get to where I was at that moment, to allow me to feel
something for someone again. I am just going to have to accept that
to love someone is to live with the chance that you can lose them. If
my past taught me anything, it was to show those who you love how
much they mean to you each and every day. To take chances when they
arrive and never second guess your feelings. Life is short.
I
brought my lips down to his and I made sure he understood what he
means to me. And then to torture him for almost giving me a heart
attack I leaned into his ear.
“It’s
too bad you got hurt, I just put clean sheets on my bed, but I guess
you have your own clean sheets here,” then I gently bit his earlobe
and a moan escaped his lips and when I pulled my head back I saw
goosebumps on his arm. I finally let myself smile at him as he
returned the smile.
“Sure,
hit a guy while he’s down. Trust me, I will get my revenge,” he
said as he took my hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on it.
Now I had goosebumps.
Absolution:
Coming soon....
Kevin
It’s
been a couple of months since the last terrifying adventure I had to
watch Charly go through but as usual, she came through it with the
help and love of those around her. I am very proud of the way she has
embraced life again, it wasn’t easy on her. For a time, I didn’t
know if she was going to make it, but she is flourishing now. With
new love in her life and her animals near her, she is slowly
returning to the vivacious woman I fell in love with. I would have
said into her old self, but she has become something so much more.
She is becoming better and stronger.
Less
than 2 years ago, I was brutally ripped out of her life by a drunk
driver and now she is rebuilding her life with another man. A man
who, ironically, is one of the officers who showed up the night I was
taken to let her know what had happened. While I first felt jealousy
toward this man, he has proven time and again that he is in love with
Charly and there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. Since
that is the bare minimum Lola and I would accept for Charly, he
hasn’t suffered the wrath of the Frenchie…. yet. He had better
keep a smile on her face. While Lola is all cute and cuddly, you mess
with Charly and you will see the Bull in Bulldog come out…. with a
vengeance. Just ask Victor Michaels.
Lola
and I have been working together over these last several months and
she has really honed her skills. She has helped return a young boy to
his mother and has rescued several other animals that would have
certainly perished without her and Charly’s intervention. Charly
and Lola somehow found themselves involved in 2 separate murder
investigations but continue to come out on top. I can see Charly
growing stronger each time the two of them (or 3 or 4 depending on
which of her team is along for the ride) rescue a pet. I hope she
doesn’t get too complacent, the hard part is in front of them and
not behind….
Two Sharpe Publishing was created as a company to publish some books that my daughter and I wrote together. This was not something Amanda nor I had ever even dreamed of, but then life has a way of sending you down the path that it wants… regardless of where you were planning on going.
On
September 16, 2015, Amanda’s husband Kevin was on his way home from
work late one night and was waiting for traffic to clear in the left
turn lane about a mile from their home. A drunk driver coming
from behind Kevin, at what was estimated 75 mph in a 45 mph zone,
veered out of the travel lanes and struck Kevin in the rear of his
Dodge Neon with a full-size SUV. Kevin was killed instantly in
the crash.
Several
months after Kevin’s death, Amanda wrote an autobiography of her
life with Kevin called Stolen and
she asked me if I would help edit the book. Once we put the
finishing touches on Stolen, we decided we would cowrite a fictional
series called The Charly Stevens series.
People
deal with the loss of a loved one in many different ways. After
starting the Charly Stevens Series, we came up with another fictional
series called Road Rage The Blog. It is a real time blog written by
Simon, a man who has a great deal of rage, especially when he gets in
a car.
Once
we had an idea for the above projects, we needed a Social Engineer to
handle publishing, website development, cover art, and social media
for our company. We were lucky enough to convince Kris Spoon to
join our team. Kris has a wide range of experience in the world
of publishing and social media and has used those unique skills to
create a platform for not only the works we have created to date, but
for those to come. We hope in the future to be able to help
other authors bring their works to life through our company.
Thank
you for reading about Two Sharpe Publishing!
-Amanda,
Kris, & Scott-
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the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts and a giveaway!
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