Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Guest Post: Author Interview and Book Review: "Learning to Live" by R.D Cole



Learning to Live (Learning, #1)

(Learning, Book 1)

Synopsis:

Being alive and living are not always the same.

Trudy Love is used to being on her own and has rarely been shown affection. Between growing up in foster care and her abusive boyfriend she has no idea what life can be. At 19 she goes through something no one should ever experience and is left alone once again. Six months later she moves to Mobile, Alabama where she meets someone whose eyes bring back memories of the one person she misses everyday. Too late she finds herself caught in a storm of emotions that are unwanted, but she's determined to fight them off.

Jaxon Coleman has a good life, and for him to attend one of the finest Med schools in the country and follow in his dad's foot steps is a dream come true. However, dreams can change in life and when he meets Trudy he knows his will never be the same. Jax knows she has secrets she is unwilling to share, but he's never given up on something he wants and he wants Tru.

Can Trudy stop resisting her feelings and welcome the chance to live a different life than she pictured or will her defiance and haunted past eventually take her out of Jax's reach?

After tragedy living is not easy, but with the right person it can be learned





Review: 
5 Stars


In Learning to Live, we are introduced to Trudy Love, who from a young age has lived a rough life, making it hard to open her heart to love and trust. After experiencing such loss, she began taking steps to gain control over her life. She wanted to finally have the life she had always dreamed of having. While attending college, she meets Jaxon Coleman, who is determined to have Trudy in his life, and she's determined to keep him at bay. 

Trudy starts off seeming weak, battered, and broken, but as time goes on, we watch her grow into a strong, independent woman, who won't let any man abuse her. She learns to open up to new friends and develop a relationship with Jaxon's sister Jazz. For the first time, she feels like she is living and is scared it will come to an end.

Jaxon is the fun loving, charismatic, determined sweet heart you can't help but to fall for. He loves his family and lives a good life. Jaxon wants Trudy in his life and unlike a lot of the men we read about, doesn't try to win her over by dominance but with love and affection. He shows Trudy kindness and tries to teach her that he will always put her first.

This story really touched my heart.
You can't help but connect with Trudy and Jaxon. You feel for Trudy and all she has gone through and hope she finds her happily ever after. You also can't help but to route for Jaxon and pray he can break through Trudy's walls. 

This book will capture your heart, break your heart, and put it back together again. It will keep you page-turning and not wanting to stop until you get to the end. I really love this book and the writing style of the author not only makes it easy to connect with the main characters, but the secondary characters as well. 

Learning to Live, touches on a lot of real life issues that I really think a lot of people will truly connect with and love as much as I did. The story between Trudy and Jaxon is such a good one that it will leave you with a book hangover. There is so much I want to say about this book but at the same time I really don't want to give any spoilers away. This really is a book you have to read for yourself. I truly can't wait for the next book to come out and will be sitting here on pins and needles until it does. 

Thank you so much R.D. Cole for such a great read and putting yourself out there like you did. I hope you continue with your writing and allowing us (the readers) into your world.

I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend this book! 
I think I will have this book on my mind for a long time to come!




***ARC provided to ABBY in exchange for an honest review, thanks R.D. Cole!



Release Date:
August 30, 2013 


Interview:


I had the great pleasure of interviewing R.D. Cole for her first book, Learning to Live.
 It was such a pleasure to talk with her about this book. I enjoyed this book immensely, and felt honored to have the chance to write not only the review for the book, but the interview as well.

What inspired her to write in the first place was wanting to put her story out there. Sharing herself, some of her real life, some fictional. She had gone through a lot in her life and putting it into words was like getting it out of herself. The idea of the story Learning To Live came from life experience  When she was young she to had gone through similar events that Trudy had gone through and through this, a story was born.

The characters Trudy and Jaxon came from her past but mixed with her dream. The life Trudy ends up having with the happily ever after, is what she would hope others would have who have gone through similar things. Jaxon is a lot like her husband, sweet and caring and full of love. Her happily ever after.

She hopes with this story, the readers can connect to what the characters in the book go through and can relate and at the same time, enjoy a great read and a HEA.
The character Jazz, she would say is like her other side. The goofy, fun loving, rock that you can count on, but have fun with. The best friend you want in your life that you know will always be there. With David, she wanted someone who could be the normal frat guy, the asshole who sleeps around and has fun, but yet is not a bad guy. The character Jamal was fun to write, he was her Diva and she had to have her Diva lol.  Ashton was the typical bitch that you just wanted to claw her eyes out, the mean girl. With Mason, she wanted that sweet guy, the guy everyone loved, the guy with the big heart that cared about everyone and yet was goofy and fun.

A lot of the story stems from real life events however, the story is fiction. She wanted to write a story that had the hard life with the happily ever after. This is R.D. Cole's First book and she hopes you enjoy it as much as she enjoyed writing it.





Review and Interview done by:
ABBY!


About the Author:
R.D. Cole


My name is Robin and I live in Alabama. I grew up on an army brat and traveled a lot until we finally settled down along the Gulf Coast when I was 4. My husband is 9 years younger so I guess that makes me a COUGAR. I have a 9 yr old little girl who’s blind as well as autistic. My life is not boring with them two in it. Believe me. 

I’ve always loved creating and I would constantly draw on my walls. My two hobbies growing up were painting and reading. Writing is something I wanted to do but didn’t think I could, until I woke up at three a.m. a few months back and started.

After that, the story took over. Even though some pieces of my life experience are within it, it is Tru and Jax’s story now. I have truly fell in love with this story and hope you all do too.


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