Excerpt – Shooting Stars Above by Patricia Leavy
Synopsis
For fans of Colleen Hoover comes an emotionally charged contemporary romance about a internationally best-selling novelist and a federal agent fighting to heal past wounds.
A powerful contemporary romance that explores the incredible healing power of love.
Tess Lee is a world-famous novelist. Her inspirational books explore people’s innermost struggles and the human need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel—but despite her extraordinary success, she’s been unable to find personal happiness. Jack Miller is a federal agent working in counterterrorism. After spending decades immersed in a violent world, a residue remains. He’s dedicated everything to his job, leaving nothing for himself.
The night Tess and Jack meet, their connection is palpable. She examines the scars on his body and says, “I’ve never seen anyone whose outsides match my insides.” The two embark on an epic love story, but old traumas soon rise to the surface as Jack struggles with the death of a loved one and Tess is forced to confront her childhood abuse. Can unconditional love help heal their invisible wounds? Together, will they be able to move from darkness to light?
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Excerpt
“So, what do you do?” she asked.
“I’m a federal agent with the Bureau—counterterrorism. I joined the military right out of high school, Special Forces. I was in the field, often deep undercover, until about a year ago, when I took a desk job as the head of my division.”
“Wow, you’re like the real-life Jack Bauer. You even look a little like him, with that whole rugged, handsome hero thing you have going on,” she said.
He blushed and ran his hand through his light brown hair. “I promise you I’m no Jack Bauer, even on my best day. People thought that character was so tragic, but the real tragedy is that Jack Bauer doesn’t exist, and you’re stuck with guys like me.”
She smiled. “What made you choose that line of work?”
“My parents raised me and my siblings to value community, to be patriotic. My father was in the military and then became a firefighter. The idea of service always seemed important. I wanted to serve my country, to protect people. It’s hard to explain, but when I see someone innocent being threatened, I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to protect them. I know it sounds cliché, but I feel like it’s my purpose in life.”
“That’s noble,” she remarked.
He shook his head. “The lived reality often isn’t. When you spend most of your life in the abyss, it gets pretty dark.”
“A residue remains, right?” she asked.
He looked at her intently, a little surprised. “Yes, exactly.”
“I understand. You convince yourself it’s all been for something that matters more than you do, that whatever part of yourself you sacrificed was worth it, because it simply has to be.”
He looked at her as if she had read his innermost thoughts. “Yes,” he said softly. “Tell me, what do you do?”
“I’m a novelist.”
“What are your books about?”
“That’s a difficult question to answer. I guess I wanted to write about everything: what it means to live a life, why it’s so hard, and how it could be easier. To walk people through the darkness, in a way. Perhaps my goals were too lofty, and in that respect, each book fails more spectacularly than the one before.”
The bartender smirked.
Tess wistfully said, “Maybe reality can never live up to our dreams.”
About the Author
Patricia Leavy, PhD is a novelist, sociologist, and arts advocate (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is widely considered the world’s most visible proponent of arts-based research, which merges the arts and sciences. Patricia has published over 40 books, nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She has received over 100 book awards. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In recent years, her passion has turned to penning romance novels.
