BLOG TOUR STOP~ NEVER GOODBYE by Kerri Williams
Synopsis
If you had one chance to be with your soul mate, would you fight for it?
Sometimes the hardest fight isn't finding love, sometimes its fighting against the ticking clock of your life.
Stalked by the shadow of a foreboding disease, seventeen year old, Harper Kennedy finds herself starting a new life in Albany Missourie. With a ticking time bomb, a wall of quotes, a shell of a father and a brother who has no one else, Harper tries to get life in order for those she may be leaving behind.
But fate is cruel when it delivers temptation in the form of
Vaun Campbell into her life; Vaun who is kind and sweet and completely out of her league on so many levels. How can Harper find love only to have it ripped away so soon? How can she put Vaun, who has faced more than his own fair share of loss and grief in the past, through all that again?
…How can she not?
Vaun Campbell has been to hell and back again after losing his mother. He has seen the way disease destroys the ones he loves…has seen them fade before his eyes. He never thought he’d find someone to bring the sunshine back to his life until he laid eyes on Harper; the graceful girl he watched float across the dance floor, who stole a little piece of his heart forever.
So Harper must fight for more than just her life, she must fight for her little brother, her father and for Vaun; who promises her a future.
EXCERPT:
In one swift, deliberate movement I have her under me. My hands braced on either side of her head; they look big compared to her petite face. Her long hair is spread across the red blanket and I know I’ll keep that damn rug forever. I want to tell her about my tattoo, about my mother, but not now. I study her, her wide bright, blue eyes. They’re most phenomenal in the world; like the colour of the Blue Jays in my mother’s nesting box. I gaze at her for the longest time, our breaths mingling and that in itself has me thinking how much more I want her. Not just as friends, screw friendship. I want her to be mine, to hold her, to kiss her, to keep safe. I don’t even realise I’m getting closer to her until she licks her lips, almost touching mine and I can see she can’t deny what she’s feeling any more than I can. As soon as her eyes flutter closed I close my lips down on her and taste the deliciousness of my blue bird.
REVIEW
Holy Frack!! I absolutely love this book!!
"I don't want to lie to him, but I don't want him to know why the doctors told me I can't dance anymore. Not yet. I want today. Pfft, I guess for now that the sun is setting I want tonight with him; no illness or pity, just us and the idea of a future together. I want the teenage romance where you get to sit with your boyfriend during lunch and talk about prom I want tonight and then, in the morning, I'll let him down gently because that's the kindest thing to do for both of us."
She meets Vaun at a party at his house and instantly there is a connection. Neither of them can take their eyes off of the other. He wants her, but she is fighting. She does start to feel her wall of resistance breaking down as she learns more and more about him. Can she put him through everything she will have to go through in the coming months? Will there ever be a chance for them?
"Is saying no to an us a forever deal?"
I think this over for a second and know I could be totally honest with my answer. "No," I say, because if I survive this disease, the treatment, and he still wants to be with me then I was going to jump at it. If I die... he'll forgive me since I did him one astronomical favor. Because who the hell in their right mind would want the tragedy of dating a dying girl?"
Vaun has already experience watching his mother wither away from asbestos. It nearly broke him, now he has Harper to put him back together. He will stop at nothing to have her. They both know they want each other, but she just really wants to protect him from the pain. Will he still want her when he realizes he may just lose her? How could he possibly survive without her?
"Blue Bird, I never want to say goodbye. I want to be with you. I want to feel you, taste you- Christ-all-mighty- I just want to be with you. I'm your best friend and one day you'll let me say the words boyfriend because no matter what, no mistake that's what I am."
This book is written from both Vaun and Harper's point of views. The characters are so real, so genuine. You feel everything they feel and it all leaps off of the page at you. This book isn't all serious though and I believe that is what will keep the reader engaged. I laughed and when I say laugh I mean I couldn't even catch my breath, but at times I surely cried out every last tear I had. I mean I'm emotional, but this book surely took my emotions to an all new level. I love this book and I absolutely love what Kerri Williams is doing with this book to help Chase, and by raising awareness, others in the same situation.
5 stars from Alyssa
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Kerri's Story/ Bio
Some might say I shouldn’t be alive today…I like to think that I’m exactly where I should be! I’m a cancer survivor. A very lucky and thankful survivor. I had to fight hard and go through more than most teenagers and I hope I reflected some of the emotion into Harpers story. But firstly, let me tell you a little about my fight against non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I was a typical teenager, 11 years old and just started high school and liking boys. I loved running and one day during a track run my groin began to hurt. Nothing outrageously out of the norm for a runner who didn’t stretch well and I put it down to a strain. I had a lingering cold, just like normal kids in the mountains, but what wasn’t normal was the lump in my groin. At eleven I didn’t know it shouldn’t be there. I thought it was just a gland, no biggy. I was very wrong. I went on for weeks with this cold and antibiotics, I and my children have been through them just this winter. The only difference was, this wasn’t just a cold. My last visit to the doctor, he was placing me on stronger drugs and asked if there was anything else bugging me and that’s when I said those three dreadful words…’My lump hurts.’ You can imagine the look between my mother and the doctor. From there it all happened quickly and was quite scary. I was rushed after hours for an Ultrasound and then straight to the Hospital. I didn’t even get to go home and grab Pyjamas, a book or anything. The very next day I was shipped to Campbelltown Childrens Hospital for more tests. Four scans and loads of needles later lying in a cold, hard hospital bed I remember my Dad coming into the room, his eyes bloodshot and he was crying. That’s when I learned I had two weeks to live. You couldn’t get much crappier odds then that. I cry now thinking of my Dad. For my parents who had their own pain. As a mother now, it’s more heartbreaking then going through it myself. I have no idea why, but they started me on aggressive Chemo anyway, denial maybe, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter now either, because it saved my life. I went through endless days of being sick, I would get sick as soon as I entered the hospital which was all in my head, but tell an 11 year old that. The smell for many years still made me sick. Scans, needles, drips, doctors and nurses. Day in, day out. That was my life and my monster. But you know what hurt me the most? Losing my hair. Pft. Sounds ridiculous, right. But imagine a teenage girl with long brown hair who attracted boys turning into a girl with no hair and was dying. Yeah I had beat the clock, but essentially, that’s what I was…a dying girl fighting for a little bit of normal. Needless to say, I beat that clock, beat it to pulp. I have had a couple of scares since, but I’m still kicking it strong and even showed all the specialist wrong by having two wonderful and gorgeous girls of my own after they swore I would not be able to have children. Although hubby thinks he is Superman and I let him. He is another story all together, he is my Vaun. I met Michael when I was sixteen at a party and let’s just say, from then on we have been living out a dream. He didn’t care about odds, illness or my lack of child bearing capabilities, he wanted me. He loved me. And so, here I am, surrounded by love, disease free and using it all in a book for you to read. My fight against the monster and my survival with love is all there for you to read mixed in with a great dash of fiction. Since writing this I have found a beautiful boy who is fighting his own monster and his family need our help. So I’m donating 50 cents in every e-book and $1.00 in every print to go to Chase and his family for as long as it works. His story I have added after mine. Show him the love too. I hope you enjoy my story and I look forward to hearing your feedback and reviews. Love, Kez
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Chase's Story
Chase Michael Stooksbury was born 6/10/07. He weighed 5 pounds 10 oz. He was 7 weeks premature and was transferred to Children's Mercy Hospital where he was on a ventilator for his first 5 days of his life. His mom was finally able to hold him on day 5. He was able to come home on day 10.
He was a happy, healthy, active little boy despite being a bit small for his age. At age 2, Chase and his older brothers both caught H1N1 flu. Jeffery and Trey were better in 2 weeks. Chase was still battling high fevers. One Saturday in November, Chase woke up unable to walk well and still had a high fever. After a little fluids, TLC and some rest he was doing ok. The next day, he was unable to at all. He was taken to the local (small town) hospital and treated for pneumonia. After 3 days, Chase had gotten worse. His physician, Dr. Angelia Martin, ran more tests. So Chase's mom, Tera and her friend Miranda Floyd waited. The tests had a couple of possible diagnoses: rheumatoid arthritis or leukemia. He was admitted to the small hospital while Dr. Martin consulted colleagues at Children's Mercy hospital. He was soon transferred to Children's Mercy for more tests.
The tests found a mass on his adrenal gland, spinal column, and billions of micro tumors engulfed his tiny little body. The diagnosis was neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a rare disease in which a solid tumor (a lump or mass caused by uncontrolled or abnormal cell growth) is formed by special nerve cells called neuroblasts. Normally, these immature cells grow and mature into functioning nerve cells. But in neuroblastoma, they become cancer cells instead. In comes Dr. Allen Gamis and his nurse Joy Bartholomew. They would see him through his chemotherapy regimen.
In the next few months Chase underwent stem cell harvest and transplant, chemotherapy, GCSF injections, radiation, surgery. These prompted many trips to Kansas City from Albany, MO via ambulance.
On Mother's Day 2010, Tera got the best mother's day present: He was FREE of disease. In February 2011, Chase was considered in remission.
He led a healthy and active life until May 15, 2013 when he began having problems walking again. (This literally happened over night!) He was diagnosed with stage 4 relapse Neuroblastoma with a mass on his spine and in his bone marrow. He was started on chemotherapy immediately. He was on one particular regimen for 2 months. When further tests were done it was determined that his cancer was not responding to the chemotherapy. He has started a new chemo regimen and will have tests again in 2 months to determine the response.
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