“She no longer needed to be a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.”
Previously published in 2018 as The South Beach Connection Trilogy: Landslide, Wanderlust, and Continuum — Where the Ocean Meets the Sky combines those three books into one, as the author originally intended. Although heavily edited, combined, and relaunched since their initial release, the overall story remains. Literary fiction meets contemporary romance — a love made in the stars. A connection not to be forgotten.
This fictional story began in 2013 as a dream. A literal dream. A girl named Annie Baxter — twenty-five, a photographer, a woman mourning the loss of a loved one — meets Cal Prescott — a man twenty years older, a man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. The two lock eyes at a party in the summer of 2014, thinking what they are about to start with each other is temporary. But they soon find that there really is no such thing.
The author habitually put off writing what became of that dream as she was then part of the Jehovah’s Witness religion — the JWs openly condemn (based on their interpretation of scripture) what she wanted to write about. Partly, sex outside marriage. In addition to the intense subject matter, the author was also aware of how the time involved in writing such a novel would affect her participation in said religion. Members of the JW religion spend countless hours each week worshipping, and outside activities (activities considered more than a passing hobby) are often frowned upon. Nevertheless, as with most muses when they are begging to be heard, the characters would not stop speaking to Amber. And in the spring of 2014 she began to put down what she’d spent months imagining into the notepad of her iPhone, using her index finger nonetheless, and by the summer of that same year she had her first draft.
In 2018 the story was published as a trilogy — as she initially feared the book was just too darn long for it to remain one volume. In 2022, she unpublished the trilogy and got busy rewriting this epic story, ready to release it as she’d truly intended: as one huge-ass book. One that will consume the reader.
Hadley’s stories contain codes, keys, and this one contains many. It focuses heavily on needs. Our society sometimes teaches, whether subliminally or consciously, that we must be self-reliant to the point of exclusion of others while at the same time we are told we should not hesitate to ask for help when needed. We are told to be fiercely independent yet we are lonely. We are told everything we need is within us yet we came here for connection. Therein lies the conundrum. Is it okay to need someone? And if we do, might our expectations be shattered? Will our hearts be broken?
In this story, Cal’s and Annie’s hearts mend as they slowly begin to realize it’s okay to need someone. That doing so doesn’t take away from who they are individually and that needing someone only makes their hearts open wider.
Where the Ocean Meets the Sky is written in a literary style combined with open-door bedroom scenes. Poems begin each new section. Rules of writing may be broken as this book follows no preconceived ideas about the craft, mirroring the characters and their own journeys. Cal and Annie are off to follow their hearts, and they don’t need to conform to anyone else’s ideas of who they think they should be.
Quote:
“Seconds later, Annie climbed back onto the window seat. On her knees, nose pressed to the glass, she looked out at the ocean, imagining what life felt like before she understood what it meant to experience anxiety and panic and unending grief.
She closed her eyes, inhaled, and summoned the magic.
And when she opened her lids again, Annie felt a hundred tons lighter.
Like a weight had been lifted.
As though clouds had parted.
She could breathe.
Palms on the warm glass, staring out at the water — this was how she felt when near Cal. A comfort that couldn’t be described. No thoughts. No questions. No resistance. Only stillness. And ocean. And sky.”
Author Bio:
A.R. Hadley writes imperfectly perfect sentences by the light of her iPhone.
She loves the ocean.
Chocolate.
Her children.
And Cary Grant.
She annoys those darling little children by quoting lines from Back to the Future, but despite her knowledge of eighties and nineties pop culture, she was actually meant to live alongside the Lost Generation after the Great War and write a mediocre novel while drinking absinthe with Hemingway. Instead, find her sipping unsweet tea near a beautiful garden as she weaves fictional tales of love and connection amid reality.
Book Info:
To request a review copy of Where the Ocean Meets the Sky or to schedule an interview with A.R. Hadley, please visit https://www.arhadley.com/ or email her @ arhadleywriter@gmail.com.
Purchase Where the Ocean Meets the Sky: https://books2read.com/u/497Xkp
Add the title on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197125231-where-the-ocean-meets-the-sky
Publisher:
Chameleon Media Productions, LLC
chameleonproductions@yahoo.com
Media Contact
Contact Person: Amber Hadley
Email: Send Email
City: Daytona Beach
State: Florida
Country: United States
Website: https://www.arhadley.com/
