Tracy Heweitt Meyer's A LIFE, FREED Book Tour & Giveaway

Writing a Series...Rowan Slone’s life 

through three books

When I started Rowan’s first story, A Life, Redefined, I had no idea what her future held. I knew that she was a traumatized, struggling young woman and I wanted to explore her story; I wanted to dive into the psyche of a teenager who felt that self-harm was the best way to cope with the devastating events of her life.

I saw her in the eyes of so many teens, and even adults that I felt a story like this needed told. I wasn’t even sure how book #1 would end, but once I dove in, the story unfolded all by itself. I wrote her story like I was living it. I cradled her hopes and dreams as if they were my own. I cried with her pain, celebrated her achievements, smiled when something good finally happened to her.

Book #1 is a raw, gritty read that has been known to leave readers (by their own accounts) weeping. But I didn’t write her story to make readers cry. I wrote her story because life’s pains are all too common.

When I started book #2, A Life, Forward, I wanted Rowan to take a step ‘forward’. I wanted her life to model, what I hope, was real life. When we are down and out, change still happens and life can improve. But it’s not easy. Life is not easy. The foundation of her life is cracked, or even crumbling. But she wants a better life. In book #2, we see her struggling to achieve that.

A Life, Forward will likely bring about a few tears, too. How can a story like Rowan’s not? If I was to keep events true-to-life, she couldn’t run off into the sunset so soon. That was not realistic. But hope starts to creep into her life. She might not have all the answers and a golden walkway laid out before her, ready to lead her to a happy, shiny future. But she starts taking those first tentative steps.

Book #3, A Life, Freed, shows a strong, independent young woman. It has been over a year, in her life, since A Life, Redefined. Now we find her in a good place. Little Rowan Slone is an adult. She is working and going to college. She has found a new love. We, as readers, are eager to cheer on our wounded heroine who seems not quite so wounded anymore.

But our pasts don’t just shrivel up and die. She still carries her tumultuous history about her frail shoulders. As several poignant events happen in her life, she realizes she still stands on that cracked and crumbling foundation. To truly change course and move beyond the pain, Rowan learns she has to confront the past head-on. In the end, she finds what she always wanted.

And what is that?

I’m not telling…*wink*

My goal as the author of these emotional books was to follow her life as truthfully as I could. Book #1 is the hardest to read. If I had to pick a color to describe it, it would be black. I think of charred wood, sinister night skies, shadows lurking behind every corner. Book #2 would be grey; dreary, wet, heavy, but not quite as ominous. And book #3? It would have to be soft pastels like pink, orange and green. There would be threatening, dark clouds, but they would be in the distance-hovering but not overhead. A Life, Freed is about hope, forgiveness, love, family and, simply, moving on.

If you can make it through A Life, Redefined and its emotional sucker punch, then weep through A Life, Forward with its sadness and determination, then you can cheer in A Life, Freed when, by the end, our little heroine, Rowan Slone, puts the pieces to a new life together.

The stories are meant to be read in order; they are meant to show that regardless how bad life can be, change is inevitable and hope it always alive.

Cheers! Tracy

*So many heartfelt thanks to NaYa Books and More for hosting me today.*

A Life, Redefined (Book 1)
by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

Genre: NA contemporary

Goodreads   Amazon   B&N   

Seven years ago, an innocent act by Rowan Slone turned her life into a nightmare. Since the age of ten she's lived with the burden of her baby brother's death. Now she is seventeen and all she wants to do is graduate high school, go to college, and escape the loveless family she has endured all these years—the same family that holds her responsible for his death. But no one holds her responsible more than herself.
When long-time crush Mike Anderson invites her to the Prom, suddenly her future looks brighter. Rowan's younger sister, Trina, however, is determined to ruin her new-found happiness, no matter the cost. And when Rowan discovers her mother’s long-held secret, she finds herself teetering on the edge of an abyss. Can Rowan find the strength to move toward the future or is she doomed to dwell in the past?
Available here: Amazon   

A Life, Forward (Book 2)
by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

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Her father is gone. Her mother is in jail. And Rowan Slone has left her dysfunctional, violent past behind. With college looming on the horizon, she has a new job that she loves, and a safe place to call home. She is close to achieving everything she ever wanted-a sense of family, a sense of purpose, and a sense of self.
But there are cracks in Rowan's life that threaten to send her future crumbling to the ground. When her relationship begins to suffer, her father returns and her long-held secret is discovered, Rowan must find the courage to fight for the most important thing yet-herself.

A Life, Freed (Book 3)
by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

Genre: New Adult

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On her own for the first time, Rowan Slone is no longer waiting for the future. She’s living in the present, and relishing every minute of it. She has a new boyfriend. She is helping best friend, Jess, raise her five-month-old son, Jacob. And she continues to work as Assistant Manager at the animal shelter-all while settling into her first semester of college. Rowan’s stars are aligned and she’s not looking back.

But all is not as golden as it seems. Being a young mother is too much for Jess to handle, leaving Rowan to shoulder much of the burden of raising Jacob. Trina becomes involved in a religious cult causing Rowan to fear she may have lost her sister forever. And her mother has a new psychiatrist whose goal is to get Rowan into therapy, forcing her to deal with her mother, and the past, once and for all.

Adding to the rising turmoil, Rowan’s first love, Mike Anderson, returns, and wants to see her. She is surprised how much she wants to see him too. But his sudden reappearance makes her wonder if there is room in her future for the boy with the pine-colored eyes or is it too little, too late?

As the winds begin to stir, threatening to send Rowan’s carefully-built life into a tailspin, she must search deep inside herself to discover what she truly wants. Will soul-searching help her achieve that elusive sense of peace and family she’s always craved or will the pain of the past prove too great?

Preorder here: Amazon   

About the Author:

Tracy Hewitt Meyer is a multi-genre, multi-published author of new adult fiction as well as adult paranormal and contemporary romance. She has a B.A. in English and a Master of Social Work, both of which feed her true passion-a love of writing. Born and raised in the beautiful state of West Virginia, Tracy now lives in the mid-east with her family, a goldendoodle, and a bearded dragon.

Website  Goodreads  Facebook  Twitter

Excerpt from A Life, Freed, 
Book #3 in the Rowan Slone Series   
That kiss. 
Is there any way to explain a kiss like that? It could go up against any in the romance novels Jess used to read in high school. Even though I didn’t read them, she never failed to tell me the juicy parts that made even my toes curl. This kiss even rivaled those clichéd ones of history: Romeo and Juliette, Rhett and Scarlet, Princess Buttercup and Wesley, Rose and Jack. Now Rowan and Mike would be forever added to that list. 
His warm, moist mouth, his soft, earnest tongue, the feel of his hands, his body pressed against mine nearly sent my soul shooting into the stars. The sweet decadent scent of the forest settled in around us like an embrace. 
We were so tightly woven together at that moment, I didn’t think we would ever disentangle ourselves. Something told me we wouldn’t want to. 
He moved his hands from my face, making my skin grow cold with the loss of his warmth. But then he wrapped them around my waist, lifting me until I was level with him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. 
Fire tore over my skin extinguishing any coolness that I had ever felt in my entire life. His head turned. Mine tilted in the opposite direction allowing the kiss to deepen even further. 
He breathed my breath and I his. I melted; my insides softening. To him. To Mike. I had missed him. And I let him know that with an even tighter pull around his neck. 
He groaned low in his throat as he answered with his own muscles flexing around my waist.
“Rowan,” he whispered. There was so much in that softly-spoken word, so much past, so much present. Was there any future? Something told me there was. He set me back on my feet and dropped his hands. His eyes were questioning, confused, searching. 
“I’ve…” his voice croaked and he cleared it. “I’ve missed kissing these lips.” He was staring at my mouth was an intensity I wasn’t sure I could survive. 
“God how I’ve missed them.” Then kiss them again. Please kiss them again. He pulled his gaze from my lips to lock on my eyes like he had me in a vice, making it impossible for me to look away or even blink. 
 “Rowan.” His gaze burned into mine. “I love you. I never stopped loving you. Please. Please tell me there is another chance for us. I can’t not have you in my life.” He put his fingers under my chin and lifted my face toward his. His eyes traveled over my forehead, my brows. 
“I have tried to act like I didn’t feel this way.” Around the outside of my eyes, over my nose. 
“Tried to act like I didn’t miss you. Need you.” Mouth again, chin. “That I didn’t love you.” “But I can’t pretend anymore. Something in me changed when we were paired for that biology report. I didn’t even realize it until I lost you. I need you back.” 
There were tears in his eyes, now illuminating the beautiful pine color that so easily matched the evergreen trees surrounding us. 
“Please, Rowan. Is there a future for us?” But I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. What was he saying? Half of my brain and body were still back there with that kiss. How did he recover so quickly from it? The other half of my brain and body were relishing the closeness of him, the feel of his touch. I was all senses and emotions and feelings and things totally unrelated to forming coherent thoughts or processing what he was saying. I must’ve waited too long to answer because he stepped away from me, his hands falling to his sides. His eyes were still on mine but the tears were gone. What I saw there was sadness the likes of which I had never seen in him before. 
“I’m sorry. I guess it’s too late.” He turned. I stared at his broad shoulders as they moved away from me. He was all muscle and height and gorgeousness; familiarity and strangeness; attraction and obsession. 
 “Mike, wait.” 

The Giveaway

(5) ebook copies of A Life, Redefined (Book 1) by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

a Rafflecopter giveaway