Title: Sweet Soul
Series: Sweet Home #4
Author: Tillie Cole
Age group: New adult
Genre: Contemporary romance
Release date: 15th December 2015
GOODREADS LINK https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25912332-sweet-soul
Blurb
One shy lost soul.
One silent lonely heart.
One love to save them both.
Life has never been easy for twenty-year-old Levi Carillo. The youngest of the Carillo boys, Levi is nothing like his older brothers. He isn’t dark in looks or intimidating to everyone he meets. In fact, he’s quite the opposite. Haunted by a crippling shyness and the tragic events of his past, Levi spends his days with his head buried in his books, or training hard for his college football team. Too timid to talk to girls, Levi stays as far away as possible and completely on his own… until he saves the life of a troubled pretty blonde, a troubled pretty blonde that might just be the exception to his rule.
Elsie Hall is homeless. Or at least that’s all anyone ever sees. Everyday is a fight for survival on the cold streets of Seattle, everyday a struggle to find food and keep warm. Alone in life—a life that’s dangerous and cruel—her will to keep going is an ever-losing battle. In her world of silence, Elsie has given up hope that her life will contain anything but constant struggle and pain… until the beautiful boy she has severely wronged comes to her rescue at precisely the right time.
New Adult novel—contains sexual situations and mature topics. Suited for ages 18 and up.
Review
Fragile souls.
Souls drowning in darkness and sadness.
Shattered souls that remain silent and lost because their guiding light has been extinguished.
Souls that have been protecting their hearts so that they don’t get made fun of or bullied and so that they aren’t let down by someone else leaving.
A shy, lost boy and a silent, lonely girl hiding in the shadows, holding on to a past that will never be again – both waiting for a light to be let in to give them back their sweet, loving soul.
Tillie Cole is so talented at crafting stories that elicit every single ounce of feeling out of her readers; as she bears her characters’ souls, we see them at their weakest and most broken and then we witness their rebuilding and the mending of their scarred hearts. Cole’s Sweet Home series has to be one of the most emotional journeys I have taken with a group of characters since I started reading romance stories. Rome and Molly; Austin and Lexi; Axel and Ally – all of these couples have experienced pain and heartache on a number of levels, both alone and with one another…their pasts have defined their presents/futures for so long that they didn’t know if they would ever be able to pull themselves out of the darkness, but by working together, they save each other, heal their ouls, and become the people they are meant to be.
I didn’t think that Cole could break my heart any more than she already has with her writing and complex characters, but with Levi’s story, she does just that, because out of all of the Carillo brothers, he never had a choice to escape the way that he had to live and to do the things that were demanded of him, and by the time Austin got him out of those circumstances, the damage had already been done, and it seemed irreversible even after his life started to be a lot brighter and easier than it was. He needed someone to save him…someone to show him that they wouldn’t leave him…that he was worth staying and fighting for…that he could let go of his past and start living in the present. But regardless of how much better his life is, he still feels lost in his head…in the past, and his soul is yearning to feel more than fear and sadness, but he has to find the girl his momma saw as being the one for him, and that definitely hasn’t happened yet.
Until her.
Elsie, like Levi, is lost in the darkness. Her past has left her broken and silent, refusing to speak for fear of judgment and bullying. Words have destroyed her and forced her inward, never exposing what’s truly in her heart and soul because no one cares to hear it…no one cares to see her as a human being who deserves compassion and kindness, which only further breaks her down. She needs a guiding light – a way to crawl out of the darkness and not be afraid to speak…to dream…to love because it is only through a lit path that she will be able to find her voice and the strength to fight against her insecurities and it’s through that journey that she’ll find her twin soul – a sweet and loving soul that will give voice to her words in a way that they will never be silenced again.
It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is over-rul’d by fate.
When two are stript, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should lose, the other win;
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
The reason no man knows, let it suffice,
What we behold is censur’d by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?
Levi and Elsie’s souls spoke to each other before words were ever said, and through that silent exchange, they understood that they would be the light they both needed; they knew it wouldn’t be easy because they’ve been curled up into themselves for so long, but through the words Tillie Cole crafts for them and the honest meaning behind them, Levi and Elsie are able to find tangible things to hold onto in the present instead of focusing on a past/a person that does not have the ability to come back…to shield them from the pain and roughness of life. They need to be one another’s shield now and Cole takes readers on that life changing, soul bearing journey.
Once again, I’m in awe of Tillie Cole’s ability to create characters that readers can fully understand; they’re so transparent that we can’t help but identify with them and feel every ounce of emotion that is brought out of them by words and deeds. Levi and Elsie’s story is one of great sadness as well as great triumph and the lessons taught and learned through their text will resonate with many readers and understand how complex yet fragile our souls are.
A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
4.5 Poison Apples
Excerpt
Elsie grabbed her pen and paper; I took her hand. I walked her out of the pool house to the kitchen door. I opened the door, and Elsie walked through. When she glanced over her shoulder, I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Elsie smiled and walked up the stairs to her room. Just as I was about to shut the door, Lexi appeared from the darkened dining room, a sleeping Dante in her arms.
I opened my mouth to say something when Lexi beat me to it. “Dante woke up for a feed a while ago. I was in the dining room when I saw Elsie run by and leave. I panicked at first thinking she was running away, then I saw you by your pool house. Saw you let her inside.”
My face was on fire as Lexi spoke, rocking my nephew in her arms. I didn’t say anything, but I clearly didn’t need to. “You like her. A lot,” Lexi stated. Unable to lie to my brother’s wife, I nodded my head.
Lexi moved closer. “You’re taking her out tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
Lexi nodded, then went to walk back up the stairs. Before she did, she turned round, and looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself. Needing to know what it was, I questioned, “What?”
Lexi looked in the direction of the stairs, in the direction Elsie went, and she said, “I think she’s been through more than we can understand, Lev. I’ve tried to talk to her every day, but she avoids conversation completely.” Lexi sighed and added, “I think she’s really broken inside. Severely. I think there’s something dark in her past that’s haunting her.”
My heart ached, and just as I turned to go back to my room, I whispered, “Then we’re the same. That’s what makes her so special to me.”
“Lev…” I heard Lexi hush out softly, but I was out of the door and into the pool house before she could react.
My mind raced with what Lexi said, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t already see. Elsie didn’t speak, she was too timid and shy. She’d lost her mamma, like I had lost mine. And I could see she was lonely, just like me.
Taking off my jacket, I walked to the table to clear away the mugs, when I saw a piece of paper was lying on the top. I wondered what it was. Suddenly I recognized Elsie’s handwriting.
Moving round the table, I dropped to the seat. The paper was folded in two, my name written across the top.
My heartbeat picked up speed as I opened the paper. At first I was confused by the centralized column of words, then my heart burst apart when I read a poem that Elsie had written:
Alone and lost, appeared this saint,
With pretty gray eyes, darkness can’t taint.
He stole her from cold, from blustering storm,
Kind and gentle, he took her from harm.
Fearful of dark, he created her light,
A jar of gold, chasing demons of night.
Telling stories of love, he brought to her life,
A moment by his side: no pain, no strife.
He gifted her poems, a gesture on whim,
With every word read, she could see only him.
She counted the days until he returned home,
The boy with his light, the girl not alone.
Invisible to all, a shade wandering in dark,
He brought back her faith, with his pure kind heart.
I love poetry, Levi.
Thank you for the book.
Elsie x
Giveaway
Kindle Fire
Author Bio
Amazon & USA Today Best Selling Author, Tillie Cole, is a Northern girl through and through. She originates from a place called Teesside on that little but awesomely sunny (okay I exaggerate) Isle called Great Britain. She was brought up surrounded by her English rose mother — a farmer’s daughter, her crazy Scottish father, a savagely sarcastic sister and a multitude of rescue animals and horses.
Being a scary blend of Scottish and English, Tillie embraces both cultures; her English heritage through her love of HP sauce and freshly made Yorkshire Puddings, and her Scottish which is mostly demonstrated by her frighteningly foul-mouthed episodes of pure rage and her much loved dirty jokes.
Having been born and raised as a Teesside Smoggie, Tillie, at age nineteen, moved forty miles north to the ‘Toon’, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where she attended Newcastle University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts honours degree in Religious Studies. She returned two years later to complete a Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching High School Social Studies. Tillie, regards Newcastle to be a home from home and enjoyed the Newcastle Geordie way of life for seven ‘proper mint’ and ‘lush’ years.
One summers day, after finishing reading her thousandth book on her much loved and treasured Kindle, Tillie turned to her husband and declared, “D’you know, I have a great idea for a story. I could write a book.” Several months later, after repeating the same tired line at the close of another completed story, she was scolded by her husband to shut up talking about writing a novel and “just bloody do it!” For the first time in eleven years, Tillie actually took his advice (he is still trying to get over the shock) and immediately set off on a crazy journey, delving deep into her fertile imagination.
Tillie, ever since, has written from the heart. She combines her passion for anything camp and glittery with her love of humour and dark brooding men (most often muscled and tattooed – they’re her weakness!). She also has a serious side (believe it or not!) and loves to immerse herself in the complex study of World Religions, History and Cultural Studies and creates fantasy stories that enable her to thread serious issues and topics into her writing — yep, there’s more to this girl than profanity and sparkles!
After six years of teaching high school Social Studies and following her Professional Rugby Player husband around Europe, they have finally given up their nomadic way of life and settled in Calgary, Alberta where Tillie spends most of her days (and many a late night) lost in a writing euphoria or pursuing a dazzling career as a barrel-racing, tasselled-chap wearing, Stetson-sporting cowgirl… Ye-haw!
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
https://twitter.com/tillie_cole
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