Adding To The Circle (A Sequel To Soldiers)
“Adding to the Circle” is the sequel to “Soldiers”. While it is a stand-alone book, it would probably add the to depth of the story if you read “Soldiers” before you read this book.
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Some wounds are just too big to completely fix, but sometimes our friends (both old and new) can make them smaller and provide us with the cement we need in order to rebuild and move forward.
As former soldier turned rock star, Michael St. James, slowly gets to know his beautiful neighbor, while spending several months at his home on Kauai, he finds some of the joy that had left him when he lost his wife. He is now a single father who has been stuck in the memories of the life that he had wanted. He must struggle with the war that rages between his enjoyment and the painful guilt that he has because he survived.
Leilani Drake is a soft spoken and very beautiful native of the island. She manages the family’s successful hotel and restaurant businesses, and she is healing from her own broken heart. Just like Michael, Leilani is not interested in anything more than a friendship that started when his little girl and her yellow lab met and fell in love with one another. Leilani is trying to cope with a family that has been fractured and broken for decades, a business that is leaking some serious money, and the terrible message that was imprinted on her brain and continued to make her unable to explore any romantic relationships.
Lou has been Micheal’s best friend and his closest ally for over twenty years. He has devoted himself to managing not only Micheal’s two successful businesses, but he has kept both Michael and baby Mackenzie Lehua alive. Lou knows that it is past time to step back from his role as protector of Michael and Mackenzie. He has loved those two as much as any human could love another and he would never place them in harm’s way…but he was aware that he’d allowed Michael to become a near recluse since the terrible tragedy. He’s met a nurse at VA outpatient clinic in Lihue and he is going out on a real date, the first one in years…and he has a new spring in his step when he thinks of the beautiful Desiree Kalani.
Waiting for the editing on Adding to the Circle, and filling my time with the 5 amazing grandsons! Today was the kickball game with the kids against the adults… We lost (by too many points than our old egos were able to handle well!) It was intense and hard played, and so much fun! Camping trip on Wednesday in Hershey, Pa., and a slow journey down the coast and ending up in South Carolina where two of the boys will be living for the next few years. I’ve already started the plot for a book that takes place down there… I’ll be able to work on One Square Mile during the driving…. Hoping that your summer brings you some moments of Joy!
We’ve been on vacation and doing lots of fun things with the grandsons. On Tuesday David, and two of the grandsons (Ryan David and Josh) and I were crossing from Ocracoke Is. to Cedar Is. on the North Carolina Ferry System. That leg of the journey was just over two hours and gave me lots of time to sit outside with the sea breeze and watch for dolphins with the boys. At one point my overactive imagination developed a plot for a book that had an opening scene on a ferry and a stranger pushes a woman overboard (of course she is rescued by the handsome pilot! But I digress…LOL). The 14 yo grandson, Ryan, asked me if I had ever written a book about the Outer Banks since I’ve spent so much time there and I enjoy the area so much. The following is a dialogue that happened between Ryan and me:
ME: A s a matter of fact I haven’t but I was just imagining a scene for one.
RD: Really? What was in the scene?
ME: Well, the cars are driving onto the ferry, just like we did, and the pilot of the ferry notices a woman in a red Jeep who looks very upset. At some point the pilot decides to look for the woman to make sure she is OK. He can see her Jeep from his wheelhouse and he heads down the stairs to find the woman just as a stranger is wrestling the woman to the edge of the ferry and then he throws her over the side. What do you think?
RD: Uma, that’s just like every adult mystery novel!
ME: Really? (with raised eyebrows and a wounded ego) What about if she falls to the bottom of the ocean and becomes a mermaid?
RD:Uma (exasperated)! That is just like every kid’s book these days!
ME: (Snort and a raised eyebrow!)
I still think my scene has merit….
What do you think?