Blog Tour: TALANIA – A Trip Down Memory Lane by Crystal D. Spears

Synopsis

What happens when you literally get a second chance at love?

Evelyn Beaumont can’t remember anything from the time she was 14 until she was 19. She lost five years of her life because of brain cancer. Now she is a 20 years old survivor and enrolled in college, determined to reclaim her life. There she meets Tristan Monroe, but it isn’t the first time they’ve met. In fact, Tristan and Evelyn were once in love. It was a love so strong that it shattered him when, after the three years they had spent together, she never came back to Laguna.

Evelyn wants nothing more than to have her memories back. With the help of Tristan and his brother Drake, they take Evelyn on an emotional journey filled with videos, photos, and memorabilia…a walk down memory lane.

While they stroll down memory lane, Evelyn must learn to deal with Tristan’s rock star fame and the ever-present groupies. She struggles to find herself and to learn to love again.

Is their love strong enough to overcome the memory loss? Is it strong enough to survive whatever comes their way? Will all the proof Tristan shares with her be enough to show her how deeply they loved each other? Will love find Evelyn once again?

Excerpt

Past:

 “Hi, I’m Evelyn.” She sticks her beautiful tanned hand out to shake mine. I am dumbfounded, at a loss for words. I mean, I just hit this girl in the head with a volleyball and she is being polite.

“Um, sorry about the volleyball. I’m Tristan.” I shake her hand in return and the air around us crackles and pops. I pull my hand back quickly. What the hell was that?

“Well, Tristan, next time try not hitting a girl in the head with the volleyball when you’re ogling her.” My mouth drops open. I am busted.

“I…I…I’m sorry.” I mean, what the fuck else is there to say?

“It’s all right.” She laughs and it is such a beautiful laugh.

“So how old are you Tristan? You look like you’re around seventeen.” She cocks her head to stare back at me.

“I’m…I’m fifteen,” I stammer out. What in the hell is wrong with me?

“Well, you look older. I’m fourteen. It was nice meeting you Tristan.” She points to a beach house. “That’s where I’m staying if you ever want to visit.” With that, she walks away, her beautiful long chocolate brown hair waving in the wind.

Present:

I glance down, pulling her hand to me. The air crackles and pops at the first touch of her skin against mine. It’s as if I can breathe again. Four years of air rush into my lungs at once, overwhelming me. I look closely at the symbol on the bracelet. I can’t breathe. This cannot be what I think it is. Tears are stinging my fucking eyes. This cannot be happening.

“This…this is a cancer survivor bracelet,” I whisper.

I look up into Ev’s beautiful chestnut eyes and she nods, releasing my grip and lifting her hair as she tilts her head. Three long scars hide underneath her hair.

“Brain cancer. I had a tumor, and it came back three times. I can’t remember the years from when I was fourteen up until nineteen,” she whispers, letting her hair fall back down.

Drake and I gasp at the same time. This whole time I thought she left me, left us, and she was fucking dying of cancer. I cannot breathe. Someone needs to get me some fucking air. I eye the tequila, hesitating before I start downing it straight from the bottle. After I am satisfied, I let the bottle slip from my lips.

Review  3.5 stars

Wow – what a powerful premise for this book! This is the story of Evelyn, who has fought and beat brain cancer and in the process lost a large part of her teenage memories. She is in remission and only wants to make a new start. By chance, she meets up with the one person who can help fill in those memories – Tristan. As you can imagine, this was a very difficult and heartbreaking moment for him to realize that she doesn’t remember him or any moment they shared. He becomes determined to give Evelyn’s memories back to her, piece by piece.

I really loved the way the memories were intertwined with the current time and there were moments, both past and present, that made me laugh and tear up. I did have a difficult time fully connecting with Evelyn. And maybe because of that, I felt I could have handled more depth and explosiveness to really suck me in to everything that comes along with her battle with cancer and trying to get her memories back.

It was certainly painful to read about all she has had to deal with and continues to deal with and how it impacts not only her life, but her family’s, Tristan’s, Drake’s, and her other friends. In the end, I was left with hope but felt a bit uneasy wondering what’s going to happen next.

About the Author

Crystal resides in Indiana with her family, her dog Dozer and two fancy rats. She enjoys the outdoors and in the summer you will rarely catch her at home. Her other passions aside from writing are singing, dancing and photography. She is a retired blogger and professional book reviewer.
She began writing at an early age, short stories and poems for school. It wasn’t until she was around nineteen did she venture more into the writing world. While writing Talania she discovered the depth she could achieve if she just kept on going. So… she did and now she is developing the beautiful story Underneath the Willow Tree.

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