Because of Ellison Tour Stop!

When I was nineteen years old, I lived for sex, drugs and a good party. I had it all - good looks, a fast car and a hot girlfriend. Nothing in life was more important.

That was, until I met Ellison James….

Since the moment I first saw her she was a raging bull; tackling me in the mud and throwing out insults as fast as her tongue could form the sound.

She was snarky
She was rude
And she pissed me off like no other woman could.

I lived beside her for a summer and in the three months that I walked by her side...

She opened my eyes
She changed my life
And she made me a better man

Well in a completely different and more personal way than ever, M.S. Willis has brought me to my knees.  Because of Ellison is not a dark and twisted story that we have come to expect from this author.  This is a story of love, redemption, death and the idea that we all have a story that makes us react to life in ways that others don’t understand. 

Hunter was 19 and found himself at the dead end of patience with his parents.  They were never the nurturing, loving kind of parents.  His father was successful, his mother a social addict, and raising Hunter was not high on their list of priorities.  It was easier to throw money and material items at him and say they were great parents.  With the partying, drugs, drinking and loose behavior with women, he found himself on a private plane heading to Florida after his parents gave up on him.

His Uncle Bill and cousin Lily was going to take him in for the summer teach him responsibility and honor, but what Hunter found was a real family and Ellison.  She was a fire cracker who had me laughing and I label her as the queen of nipple twists.  That was how she ended up keeping Hunter under control.  She had lost her mother in the same accident that took Lily’s mom and they both lived next to each other on the same property along with their single fathers. 

This story showed us the lives of Hunter and Ellison, the back and forth between them and the love that was finally acknowledged and allowed to grow.  I struggled through the part of Ellison’s father’s illness and death.  M.S. Willis wrote it so realistically; it took me back to those final nights of my father before he died of cancer.  Her writing has always been a style that sucks me into the scene, but this time it invaded my mind with the memories and I could feel the pain and panic in Ellison.  I loved how Hunter stood by and waited for her to declare she needed him, even if he had to do it standing in the cold with bags of frozen peas on his swollen nipples.  She added enough humor in the book to help get through the rough times that we were going to endure with Ellison and Hunter.  I don’t see any way you can read this book and not just fall in love with those two. 

It is times like this I wish I had an expansive vocabulary to explain this book.  While it brought back painful memories for me, it also warmed my heart and it was so touching, I was sad to end it.  She also gave us a clear message that we can’t always judge a person by their actions, we must see through the person to reach their soul.  Ellison was a ray of sunshine in everyone’s life that she came in contact with.  While she wasn’t someone you wanted to cross, she was the type of person we all wish we had in our lives.  Beautiful book, so worth the read.  I am sure I will be re-reading this over and over just to remind me of what we leave behind and what we take with us as we go through life.   

Those must have been fighting words, because the next thing she did was slam her hands against me with such force it almost knocked the air out of my chest.  I tried to hold on, but when she took both my nipples between her fingers and twisted, I released her in response to the pain.

“Fuck!  Ellison, that shit hurt!”

“I know it did, that’s why I did it.  And you can expect that reaction from me every time you think you’re going to overpower and force me to stay still when I don’t want to!”

“Well, then fine!”  I shoved my chest out at her and held my arms out to my sides.  “Go ahead and rip them off then, El, because you can expect that I’m going to hold you every day until you stop breathing!”

She looked at me like I was nuts.  Her voice was a whisper when she asked, “Why can’t you just go home?”

We stood staring at each other for a few seconds.  It was eerily quiet where we stood, almost as if the birds and bugs had stopped to watch, curious to find out what would happen between us.

We locked eyes and I walked up to her.  Grabbing her by her chin, I tilted her angry face up in my direction and held on when she tried to pull away. 

“I am home.  Why can’t you just accept it?”

         

M.S. Willis is a romance novelist whose debut novel, Control, was released in 2013.  Although currently writing in the romance genre, Willis has plans to expand her literary pursuits into multiple genres and has no fear conquering difficult subject matters in her writing.  Willis is a native Floridian who is also a photographer and musician.  When not absorbing herself in written, visual or musical expression, Willis is an adrenaline junkie, a ‘closet’ video game enthusiast, and an avid outdoors person and nature lover.

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