Reviews From Beyond the Book: My Beginning Tour with Author LaQuette

Love is an ideal dream for most, and an unattainable illusion for many. We all want it—need it. Depending on who you ask it’s either the most sought after thing in our lives, or the most feared. Either way, love is a huge component of what brings meaning to our lives. So what happens if you’re never fortunate enough to have it? What happens if you walk through life from the cradle to adulthood without ever truly having known love?

My book, My Beginning, was born out of several questions. The first, can you truly love someone that you’ve never met? Although the main characters know of each other through mutual and familial connections, they have not had contact with one another. How then can love have lived in their hearts? Can mutual love of a treasured friend and family member be enough of a tie for two complete strangers to bond and fall in everlasting love?

For many of us, we scour our workplaces or clubs, or friends of friends, or various social connections to deepen our dating pool. Would you ever consider that it could flourish from a helping hand extending beyond the grave?

Well, that’s what happens in My Beginning. Death is not the end of love, it’s the Genesis of it.

Take a moment to read this excerpt:

“Angela Johnson was a special woman. She had the ability to see what a person’s need was, and would do her best to meet that need even if it meant inconveniencing herself. She was kind, gentle, and a great listener. She had the ability to just listen to you, without passing judgment, without inflicting unwanted advice, she just listened and let you vent if that was what you needed. I know there was many a time when I would just talk to Sister Johnson, because I felt there was no one else that could listen objectively. There were times when I felt I couldn’t talk with my family, or even my husband for that matter, but Sister Johnson was always there to do nothing more than listen to me talk.

“I found it so amazing that over the many years that our families were intertwined, that as close as Drew has been to my family over the years, and as close as I have been to Sister Johnson, this is the first time that either of us has laid eyes on one another. But even though Drew and I have never been formerly introduced, Drew, I have to tell you that I feel as if I’ve known you for years. Many of the conversations I had with your mother were spent with her expressing her pride in her beautiful son.”

Genesis paused for a moment watching Drew. He slowly raised his head, and looked up at her. For the first time in the ten years since Genesis had first heard her brothers mention Drew’s name, she saw his face. His smooth skin the color of buttered toffee was covered by a thin shadow of dark brown hair. Genesis wondered if Drew usually wore a beard, but when she looked closely at him she realized the unruly tight curls that were beginning to creep up on his head probably meant he needed both a haircut and a shave. The raven circles that were his eyes were filled with unshed tears. The redness of his eyes told the story of his weariness and his pain. The droop between his shoulder blades voiced the heavy burden Drew was carrying.

Loss usually had that effect on people; it had a way of beating a person down until they were weak with a broken spirit.

Genesis understood loss all too well, more than she ever wanted to admit. Still, she realized this moment wasn’t about her grief, but the grief of Angela Johnson’s son. She took in a slow breath and continued to speak.

“Drew, if there’s one thing your mother always wanted you to know, it was how much she loved you, and how proud she was of the man you are. She worried for years that she would never be able to teach you how to be a proper man, because your father died when you were so young. But in the end, you surpassed all of her expectations, and when she died, she died knowing that she had done her job and been a good mother to you.

“Your mother called me a few weeks ago and told me she needed me to come to New York. I didn’t ask any questions, I got myself together and found my way to her doorstep. She told me she wasn’t long for this life, and she wanted to make sure she asked a personal favor of me while she still could. She said, ‘My boy, Drew will hurt when I’m gone. He doesn’t have any other family other than the Lawrences. Please,’ she said to me. ‘Please, sing His Eye is on the Sparrow at my homegoing. I’ve always loved hearing you sing that song; it’s always given me untold comfort. I want that for my boy, I need for him to feel that.’ So I slowly nodded my head and told her no matter where or when it happened, I would stand for her at that time and sing this song for you, Drew.” Genesis nodded to her mother, and Charlotte began to play the first notes of the somber song.

Something began to happen as Genesis sang; the sadness in the room began to be slowly blanketed by a gentle relief. People began to stand and clap, and dance in the aisles. The congregation was cheering her on, but to Genesis, the only person she saw, or even cared to see at that moment was Drew. As she continued to sing her song, she stepped out of the pulpit, and walked to where Drew was sitting. She placed a hand on his sagging shoulder trying her best to comfort him through the words of her offered song.

As she sang, tears fell from her eyes and onto his shoulder. Drew stood for the first time during the ceremony, he clapped, he released the tears he had been holding back, and he allowed the celebration of his mother’s spirit and life to fill him.

As Genesis sang, she watched Drew raise his hands and just release the pain, the hurt, the sorrow he’d been bearing in the moment. When the last notes of the song passed through her lips, she opened her eyes, and they immediately locked with Drew’s. No words were shared between them; she stepped into his awaiting embrace and the two just held each other until there were no more tears to cry.

Her sense memory of what it felt like to be wrapped in Drew’s arms brought the electric static she’d felt traveling across her skin back to her remembrance. She’d needed to hang on to him, for as long as she could. Fortunately, the cover of grief had made it appropriate for her to melt into the strange man’s arms in the middle of her father’s church for the entire congregation to see.

The unexpected rattle of turbulence snatched her from her reverie. The shaking cabin seemed to shake her mind clear of the vivid images flashing before her eyes. That day of Angela Johnson’s funeral, Drew and Genesis had shared something profoundly intense. Now a year later, her devotion to her brother, her fondness of Drew’s late mother, and the intense momentary experience shared between herself and Drew had her traveling three thousand miles to help a man she barely knew.

BLURB

Genesis Lawrence left her home and family in Brooklyn, New York ten years ago and never looked back. When you've spent your entire life protecting yourself from the ones that are supposed to love you, running to the other side of the country seems like the best idea ever. Emotionally bankrupt, she begins rebuilding her life after failed familial connections and a broken marriage leave her too raw to ever believe happiness exists for her. Work as a Physical Therapist in her rehab clinic is all she knows and all she wants. Drew Marrack has spent the last year of his life trying to end the soul-searing pain of losing his mother by any means necessary, even if that means ending him—literally. After a tragic accident and a resulting disability that devastates the tattered remnants of his world, only one name can give him a brand-new start: Genesis. Pain, heartache, secrets, and tragedy from the past bring them together, and then fight to tear them apart. Is new love strong enough to give them the fresh beginning they both need, or is this simply the beginning of their end?

AUTHOR BIO

A native of Brooklyn, New York, LaQuette spends her time catering to her three distinct personalities: Wife, Mother, and Healthcare Provider. Writing: her escape from the everyday, has always been a friend and comforter. She loves writing and devouring romance novels. Although she possesses a Masters degree in English Lit, she'd forego Shakespeare any day to read something hot, lusty, and romantic.