BLOG TOUR STOP: Then There Was You by Melanie Dawn: Review, Book Trailer, Playlist, and Giveaway

Chris King never saw it coming…

In some ways, closing the book on my first love was the worst day of life. I was gutted, and yet I was completely at peace with my decision. I walked away knowing that I did what was best for her, unsure if I could ever recover. Little did I know that one concert would change the entire course of my life. There I stood, signing autographs and snapping pictures with fans when a familiar face in the crowd catapulted my mind back in time—Salem Honeycutt, once a balm to my pain and a calm in my storm. Yet again, her smiling face gave me hope. Only one question remained: did she still see me as a wayward teenage boy who was completely off limits, or could she see the man I’d become…focused and driven, yearning for another chance at love?

For Salem Honeycutt, postpartum bliss seemed like a lie…

No one told me that I’d hate my baby when I brought her home from the hospital. No one told me that I’d want to put a pillow over my husband’s head and smother him in his sleep. No one told me that I’d want to slap every person who gave me the ever-so-cliché advice to ‘cherish every moment.’ No one told me that I’d despise my life the minute I became a mother, but I did. Then I met Chris King, the kid who made me want to pull myself up from the dark recesses of my mind and face each day. This kid, whose passion for life and talent for music, touched my soul deeper than I could ever touch his. Chris gave me a reason to live. I was once affectionately known as Mrs. H., Chris’s juvenile detention counselor. This is our story.

***ARC was given by author in exchange for an honest review***

Let me start by saying that I love authors who willingly explore what some would call taboo subjects or ones that are not readily explored or accepted in society. Melanie Dawn gives readers an inside look at one mother’s struggle with postpartum depression; she also illustrates that love is ageless, and it only takes one person who cares to change someone’s life forever.

Then There Was You is the follow-up book to So Much It Hurts. In book one, Chris King had to let the love of his life go a second time, and it destroyed him. When book two begins, old wounds are reopened due to one chance encounter, and it sends Chris to the depths again, but just when he thinks all hope is lost, his angelic protector, a woman he hasn’t seen for 14 years, reenters his life and opens his heart to the possibility of a second chance at love.

Heading in to Then There Was You, I didn’t know who Chris King was. I didn’t have a chance to read book one before diving into book two, so I went in without the background knowledge of Chris’ relationship with Kaitlyn and the devastation he felt. I have to say…I’m glad I didn’t know…I almost think it would have been too much for me. Just the small glimpses into the pain he felt in the flashbacks and the discussions of Kaitlyn gutted me. I can’t imagine experiencing it first-hand in So Much It Hurts. It doesn’t mean that I won’t go back and read book 1 – I definitely will – I just feel like it made it a bit easier to get through the emotional beginning without balling my eyes out.

I love when the main characters have a back story; it’s even better when their past is one where they connected…a place where the bond originated. It makes it easier to understand why, even after fourteen years, the connection is still as strong, even though both characters have been through so much separately. Sometimes flashbacks in romance stories can lose readers…some find it hard to mesh the two time periods together. I didn’t experience that at all with Then There Was You. The flashbacks were essential to understand where Chris and Salem started their friendship, and even though it was at a juvenile detention center, and Salem was Chris’ counselor, their age difference has always only been 6 years, and yes, it definitely would have been an issue if there were feelings beyond friendship back then, but there wasn’t. They both needed each other back then – they supported each other – they were there for each other when both of them felt no one else was, and now, fourteen years later, those feelings do change to love.

I loved Salem…I felt her pride at helping those struggling boys at the center; as a teacher myself, I definitely understand the need to help someone who everyone else counts out. I also sympathized with her struggle with motherhood. I remember those first few months when I was sleep deprived and emotional, and maybe if her asshat of a husband would have gotten off his butt to help, she wouldn’t have struggled so much. But postpartum is a real issue, and Melanie Dawn illustrated it beautifully.

Chris King doesn’t do anything halfway. He loves hard…he plays hard…he fights hard. His life has not been easy, but he battled through the ups and downs and made something of himself, just like Salem always knew he would. He’s a great hero because he’s real. His struggles are ones a lot of people deal with, and while every choice he made was not the best, he grew up to be a man he could be proud of.

Then There Was You is a powerful story about two people’s struggles, both separately and as a couple. Both Salem and Chris are dynamic characters who readers are allowed to see at their lowest and highest points in life. What hooked me into the story from the very beginning was how real both the characters and their situations were; their stories were definitely not easy ones, but they were worth the tears that I shed to hear them.

4.5 poison apples

Melanie Dawn is a thinker, a dreamer, and a hopeless romantic. When her head isn’t in the clouds, she spends her time as a jack of all trades to her family. Melanie resides in the hills of North Carolina with her husband, her three children, and her cat. She enjoys lazy summer afternoons cruising around the lake on the pontoon boat with her family.

Melanie graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BA in Psychology and earned her MA in School Counseling from Appalachian State University. She spent the first six years after graduate school as a middle school counselor. Those were years she deems as some of the best years of her life. That is, until she had children of her own. The last seven years have been spent as a stay-at-home mom. She has learned some tough life lessons, like what the inner absorbent pellets of a diaper look like scattered in the washing machine. She has also learned the strength of the willpower of a two year old lacking a nap. Through it all, Melanie has learned how to roll with the punches and appreciate the time she has been able to spend at home with her children.

Now that her last child has started Kindergarten, Melanie is ready to add a new chapter in her life. That chapter begins with her debut novel—So Much It Hurts.

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