Honor hurts…all the time. The doctors say she’s fine – it’s all in her head. But Honor feels pain. What she doesn’t know is…it’s not her pain– it’s everyone else’s.
Seventeen year-old Honor Stevens is not an ordinary teenager. Sure, she looks like one on the outside…but on the inside, there’s a whole world of pain going on. Honor is an empath. That means she can feel other people’s pain – like that of the girl who is about to be raped in the woods, or the girl who is dying of cancer, or her mom…who is suffering a heart attack. What she doesn’t know is what Ethan Sutherland comes to town to tell her – she can save these people. But at what cost? For every life Honor saves, she knocks years off her own.
When Ethan comes looking for her, he isn’t counting on falling in love. Now that he has, he wishes he hadn’t told her about her abilities. Though he tries his best to talk her out of saving every soul, Ethan loses the battle – Honor’s too nice for her own good.
Then there’s the matter of Ethan’s estranged, morally corrupt half-brother, Storm – he loves Honor too. And because Honor is intrinsically empathic, she’s aware of Storm’s softer side and begins falling for him as well.
When the two brothers are forced to work together against a group of evil empaths who are after Honor, they need to put their differences aside and focus on saving the one girl they both love.
A Touch of Honor is a paranormal love story of a different kind. In a world gone mad with vampires and werewolves, A Touch of Honor tugs at the heartstrings with a girl out to heal the world…one person at a time.
Pulling into the high school parking lot in my mother’s VW, I spot this awesome looking bright orange Challenger in a front spot. I’m not one for noticing cars much, but this one is crazy cool with its black stripes on the hood and black rims on the tires. I know I would have noticed it before. Either someone got a new car, or someone new has come to school.
But the Challenger conveniently slips my mind when walking into school, I spot, through the glass windows of the main office, the most handsome boy I think I’ve ever laid eyes on. Even better looking than Ethan (though I feel really bad for thinking that). This boy’s hair is a beautiful yellow blonde and his skin, flawlessly pale with a deep dimple that graces his cheek. At the angle I am standing, it’s difficult to see the color of his eyes, but I’m sure they are as exquisite as the rest of him.
The first period bell rings and I’m so caught up in gazing at this wonderful piece of Heaven that I am now late for class, and nowhere near my locker to get my things. This, come to think of it, is now a fortunate coincidence, because now I have to enter the main office to get a late pass. As I’m opening the door, the six foot god slips his sunglasses on and turns to walk out the door. But not before he pauses in front of me and smiles. “Hey, Angel,” he says, than floats away.
I can barely remember my name when the receptionist asks if she can help me. “Oh. Yes. Um…who was that boy?” I ask instead of requesting my pass.
“A new student.” She’s annoyed. “Do you need a pass?”
A new student? Wow. He just seems too…together to be a student.
“Honor. Isn’t it?” The secretary attempts to pull me from my daydreaming. “Do. You. Need. A. Pass?”
“Oh. Yes. Please. Thank you.” I shake my head back to the present.
In my first period class, French, I find myself too distracted to pay attention. Yesterday I was falling so hard for Ethan, and today…I cannot get that newer new guy out of my head. Incidentally, I find it hard to concentrate all morning. Not only am I pining over some beautiful boy I don’t even know, I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having the ability to heal people. Such a huge responsibility. One that doesn’t come without huge repercussions.
At lunch, Ethan is in a horrid mood. My own mood makes me aware of this. God bless him, though. He is actually trying to hide it. My emotions inform me of that, as does the plastic smile he’s wearing on his face.
“Hi, Sweetheart,” he says, sending tiny tingles through my body. New guy from the office who? Seeing Ethan sitting across the table from me reminds me of just how hard I was falling for the original new boy. “How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s better. The doctor wants to run a few more tests, but she should be coming home in a couple days.”
“Great,” he says to me, though his mind is elsewhere.
“Ethan. What’s bothering you?” I reach across the table and put my hand on his.
He squeezes my hand. “Nothing, Honor. Nothing I can’t handle.” But I still feel his apprehension. Ethan is brooding over something. “Honor?” I’m asked after several silent seconds – seconds I use to take a bite of my sandwich. “Can we go up to the reservation again…after school?”
With my mouth full of turkey and Swiss on rye, I mumble, “Sure.”
My heart feels heavy for Ethan. I’m not loving being able to feel his emotions. I just hope his anguish is a result of someone else’s…and not his own.
“Everything’ll be fine, Honor.” But it isn’t fine. Ethan is alone with his thoughts the rest of lunch period, while I chat with Tamlin about nothing in particular.
Walking into seventh period Math, my breath catches. The beautiful boy from the main office is talking with the teacher. His back is to the door, but I know it’s him. There is no mistaking the blonde mass of beauty. For a high school kid, he is abnormally tall, having probably three inches over Ethan, who, according to Ethan, already towers at six-feet two-inches tall (even though I thought Eeth was taller than that).
I advance slowly to my desk, not paying too much attention to what I’m doing when I walk into a desk, dropping my books and splaying them across the floor, grabbing hold of everyone’s attention in the meantime – something I am not particularly fond of. Hustling to the floor to pick up my mess, a long pale arm slips around me and reaches for my fallen books. When I turn to see who my Samaritan is, I am staring right into another set of violet eyes. And they burn right. Through. Mine.
But the Challenger conveniently slips my mind when walking into school, I spot, through the glass windows of the main office, the most handsome boy I think I’ve ever laid eyes on. Even better looking than Ethan (though I feel really bad for thinking that). This boy’s hair is a beautiful yellow blonde and his skin, flawlessly pale with a deep dimple that graces his cheek. At the angle I am standing, it’s difficult to see the color of his eyes, but I’m sure they are as exquisite as the rest of him.
The first period bell rings and I’m so caught up in gazing at this wonderful piece of Heaven that I am now late for class, and nowhere near my locker to get my things. This, come to think of it, is now a fortunate coincidence, because now I have to enter the main office to get a late pass. As I’m opening the door, the six foot god slips his sunglasses on and turns to walk out the door. But not before he pauses in front of me and smiles. “Hey, Angel,” he says, than floats away.
I can barely remember my name when the receptionist asks if she can help me. “Oh. Yes. Um…who was that boy?” I ask instead of requesting my pass.
“A new student.” She’s annoyed. “Do you need a pass?”
A new student? Wow. He just seems too…together to be a student.
“Honor. Isn’t it?” The secretary attempts to pull me from my daydreaming. “Do. You. Need. A. Pass?”
“Oh. Yes. Please. Thank you.” I shake my head back to the present.
In my first period class, French, I find myself too distracted to pay attention. Yesterday I was falling so hard for Ethan, and today…I cannot get that newer new guy out of my head. Incidentally, I find it hard to concentrate all morning. Not only am I pining over some beautiful boy I don’t even know, I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having the ability to heal people. Such a huge responsibility. One that doesn’t come without huge repercussions.
At lunch, Ethan is in a horrid mood. My own mood makes me aware of this. God bless him, though. He is actually trying to hide it. My emotions inform me of that, as does the plastic smile he’s wearing on his face.
“Hi, Sweetheart,” he says, sending tiny tingles through my body. New guy from the office who? Seeing Ethan sitting across the table from me reminds me of just how hard I was falling for the original new boy. “How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s better. The doctor wants to run a few more tests, but she should be coming home in a couple days.”
“Great,” he says to me, though his mind is elsewhere.
“Ethan. What’s bothering you?” I reach across the table and put my hand on his.
He squeezes my hand. “Nothing, Honor. Nothing I can’t handle.” But I still feel his apprehension. Ethan is brooding over something. “Honor?” I’m asked after several silent seconds – seconds I use to take a bite of my sandwich. “Can we go up to the reservation again…after school?”
With my mouth full of turkey and Swiss on rye, I mumble, “Sure.”
My heart feels heavy for Ethan. I’m not loving being able to feel his emotions. I just hope his anguish is a result of someone else’s…and not his own.
“Everything’ll be fine, Honor.” But it isn’t fine. Ethan is alone with his thoughts the rest of lunch period, while I chat with Tamlin about nothing in particular.
Walking into seventh period Math, my breath catches. The beautiful boy from the main office is talking with the teacher. His back is to the door, but I know it’s him. There is no mistaking the blonde mass of beauty. For a high school kid, he is abnormally tall, having probably three inches over Ethan, who, according to Ethan, already towers at six-feet two-inches tall (even though I thought Eeth was taller than that).
I advance slowly to my desk, not paying too much attention to what I’m doing when I walk into a desk, dropping my books and splaying them across the floor, grabbing hold of everyone’s attention in the meantime – something I am not particularly fond of. Hustling to the floor to pick up my mess, a long pale arm slips around me and reaches for my fallen books. When I turn to see who my Samaritan is, I am staring right into another set of violet eyes. And they burn right. Through. Mine.
J.P. Grider, born in Paterson, New Jersey as Julianne Pellegrino, was raised in Haledon, New Jersey, the oldest of six siblings. Her love of writing started early in her childhood, when she started writing poetry in-between homework assignments. As part of a school work program as a Journalism major in High School, J.P. Grider worked as a freelance reporter for a local newspaper, writing feature stories about exceptional high-school classmates. She studied Television Production and Film Writing at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Communications.Two of J.P. Grider's novels have won awards in the Textnovel Writing Contest, with her recently published, Unplugged (A Portrait of a Rock Star) reaching Semi-finalist position. Though Unplugged is not her first novel written, it is the first to be published. Her second novel, Maybe This Life, published Summer 2012, was actually her first attempt at writing a novel. After completing the whole manuscript, Grider decided to scrap the whole thing and rewrite Maybe This Life from scratch. In Grider's opinion, the difference between the two were night and day.
Currently, J.P. Grider is working on a Young Adult Paranormal love story and continues to work on stories in her main genre, Contemporary/Paranormal romance.
Click Above for Schedule
Thank you so much for hosting this giveaway. It is so nice of you. I appreciate it. xo
ReplyDelete