Hi dear friends,

As promised I am back this month with a daily challenge about my Top 4 Authors (it’s like pulling teeth to only choose four so I think you’ll have a fifth week and six week with my contemporary adult then YA fantasy favorites as well).

This challenge is organized by Collectors of Book Boyfriends (Angy is behind the scene) and Totally Bex (with …Bex of course!). Join us if you’d like! The more the merrier.

This week I will gush about Suanne Laqueur.

Introduction first: I discovered Suanne thanks to my friend Danielle @prettymessreading. Her review of This man I Love was so enthusiastic (I linked it to her blog name)! And if there is one thing you have to know about Danielle it’s that she is honest through and through! Like she said it can get messy on her blog sometimes!

I thought that if that book caused such a reaction I had to read it!

I will go back to the book below as it’s the first book I’ve read from Suanne but yes it began my love affair with Suanne. Not only her books but the woman too! No, take your mind out of the gutter we are not lovers 😉 . But I adore that woman because she is smart, generous, outspoken (even if she told me she used to be shy), courageous, she cares, she….

I was lucky to meet her at RARE London 18 after months of chatting online and I can’t wait to meet her again! Seriously I went back to her table more than once to chat books and life and ….

So yes this week I’ll be very talkative about her books as they are just …BRILLIANT!

Back to today’s topic: First Book Read

My first Suanne’s book was The Man I Love

Synopsis

“A watershed moment exists in every man’s life, Fish—the moment when you stop being your mother’s son and start being your lover’s man. When you transition from protected to protector.”

Erik “Fish” Fiskare is only a college junior when a gunman walks into the campus theater, intent on stopping the show. From the lighting booth, Fish sees his girlfriend, Marguerite “Daisy” Bianco, get caught in the line of fire. Everyone runs away from the stage but Fish, in a watershed moment, runs toward it.

Spanning fifteen years, The Man I Love explores how a single act of violence reverberates through a circle of friends. At the center are Fish and Daisy, two soul mates who always brought out the best in each other. Both are hailed as heroes after the shooting, yet the tragedy starts to bring out the worst in them, tearing the circle apart.

Soon, Fish is running again—not toward Daisy this time, but as far away as possible. But can you really leave the one you were born to love? And is leaving always the end of loving?

“You never got over her, Fish. You just left. You may think that’s closure, but it isn’t. You may think a woman like Daisy comes along twice in a lifetime, but she doesn’t.”

Fearlessly touching on today’s social and mental health issues, The Man I Love follows Erik Fiskare’s journey back to the truth of himself and a woman he can’t forget. With its gripping story and an unforgettable cast of characters, this epic novel of love and forgiveness lingers long after the last page is turned.

It is very difficult to explain to others what I went through reading Suanne’s book.

I tried to sum it up saying: “It’s a story of great love and utter devastation. A tale of surviving events so dreadful you’re pushed into the dark pit of depression. It’s intense, desperate, gut wrenching and yet brilliant in its execution. The author could make her characters shine so bright, exhilarated just to snuff their lights out mere moments later and throw them on the long journey of reinventing themselves. They become better, stronger but have to pay the price as they stumble and fall so many times.
It was like a slap in the face. I could not breathe anymore. Bile gathered in my throat. I was cold all over. What happened pushed my buttons so hard I wanted to stop reading, stop suffering, stop…just make it stop!
The main and some of the side characters were battered, broken beyond belief physically and/or emotionally. Suanne Laqueur spared absolutely no pain to Erik and Daisy.”

And I concluded  “She pushed me way out of my comfort zone but I can honestly say Suanne Laqueur is a brilliant author.”

This book at that moment made me fall utterly, desperatly and madly in love of Suanne’s writing.

Meet me tomorrow to know all about her latest release.

Now do tell me do you know Suanne’s books? Give me one of your top 4 authors and the first book you’ve read by this author. Why did you love it so much?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie