I'm very excited to bring you another extract from a new release. Today I have an extract from chapter 1 of With or Without You by Shari Low. The book is out now and you can click here to order your copy. Don't forget to check out the other stops on the blog tour for more exclusive content and reviews!
Here's what it's all about:
Have you ever
made a life-changing decision and then wondered if you made the right one…?
A clever,
captivating and bitterweet story of what might have been. Perfect for
the fans of Jo Jo Moyes and Marian Keyes.
When Liv and
Nate walked up the aisle, Liv knew she was marrying the one, her soul mate and
her best friend.
Six years
later, it feels like routine and friendship is all they have left in common.
What happened to the fun, the excitement, the lust, the love?
In the closing
moments of 1999, Liv and Nate decide to go their separate ways, but at the last
minute, Liv wavers. Should she stay or should she go?
Over the next
twenty years we follow the parallel stories to discover if Liv's life, heart
and future have been better with Nate… Or without him?
Chapter One
One Minute After
Midnight.
1st
January 2000
It felt like one of
those arty black and white prints, where a couple stands in the middle of a
room full of people, the crowd’s expressions rapt with excitement and
celebration, while the man and the woman in the centre face each other, lost in
the moment, frozen in time, oblivious to all around them.
Everyone who looked at the picture
had a different perception of what those two people were thinking, of what was
going on in their lives that was so startling that it completely detached them
from their surroundings.
Now I knew.
The bloke had just told his wife
that he wanted to call off their separation.
And the woman wanted to cry. Or
scream. Or fall into his arms. To be honest, she wasn’t one hundred per cent
sure.
Actually, that’s not true. She was
one hundred per cent sure about what she should do, she just wasn’t one hundred
per cent sure she had the courage to go through with it.
‘Nate, I…’
Before I could answer, the others
crowded around us.
Sasha smothered me in kisses. ‘Happy
New Millennium gorgeous!’ I hugged her tightly. ‘You’re going to be great
without that boring fart,’ she whispered in my ear. Sasha came from the ‘in
your face’ school of life. She said what she thought, was completely fearless
and, with her Morticia Addams hair and vampish make-up, you just knew that she
was never going to be fluffy or dippy. It made some people run a mile from her,
but I loved that she made no apologies for saying what she thought and living
her life the way she damn well pleased. She’d supported my decision to call it
a day with Nate right from the start, which sounds brutally harsh, but as one
of my two closest friends, I knew she was only taking that stance because she
truly believed it was the right thing for me.
‘He wants to try again,’ I hissed.
‘No surprise there. I knew he’d
change his mind.’
She had a point. In his working life
as a PE teacher, Nate was organised and structured, but outside of the
professional environment, my horizontally laid-back husband liked consistency
and tended to avoid anything that could involve drama or uncomfortable
situations. He’d have stayed married forever despite knowing it wasn’t right,
just to avoid the hassle of splitting.
Chloe moved in next and wrapped her
arms around me, hugging me tightly. ‘Happy New Year!’
If Sasha was Morticia, Chloe was her
arch-nemesis in the fight for good, always looking for the positive in any
situation and giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.
If I ever decided to switch sexual preferences,
then Chloe would be my perfect woman: funny, caring, smart, and tough enough to
handle just about any situation. Having a friend like her could make a girl
feel inadequate, but she would find that thought hilarious because she had
absolutely no ego or awareness of her brilliance at all. She was beyond
beautiful too. Thanks to the genetic mix of her Jamaican mother and her Irish
father, she had a stunning Afro, piercing green eyes and the most banging,
curvy body I’d ever seen. My 36B’s and apple-shaped figure just couldn’t
compare.
‘Are you okay?’ Chloe’s mouth was
still at my ear, so her words couldn’t be overheard, and neither could my
reply.
‘He’s just said he wants to try
again.’
‘I knew it! Say yes. Please say yes.
You two belong together.’
About the author
Shari Low has published twenty novels over the last two decades. She also writes for newspapers, magazines and television. Once upon a time, she got engaged to a guy she’d known for a week, and twenty-something years later, they live in Glasgow with their two teenage sons and a labradoodle.
Follow Shari
Twitter: @sharilow
Facebook: @ShariLow
About the book
Follow Aria
Website: www.ariafiction.com
Twitter: @aria_fiction
Facebook: @ariafiction
Instagram: @ariafiction
Thank you so much to Shari for stopping by and sharing that extract with us today!
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