Stay by Garnet Christie
Title: Stay: A Copperslane Romance Novel
Series: Copperslane #2
Author: Garnet Christie
Genre: New Adult Romance
Light Beauty & the Beast Retelling
Release Date: November 23, 2021
BLURB
Two names––opposing meanings.
Lizzie:
DuBois––a name of pain. The root-word of heartbreak.
Saber was the boy terrorizing our school halls. His uncle was the man who exterminated the happiness in my life by taking my parents from me.
I’ve spent the last seventeen years shutting out the nightmares, piecing my existence back together.
But the bandages are fragile.
Saber’s return to Copperslane shreds through the tender healing I’ve tried to nurture.
I’m left with two hopes.
That Saber doesn’t stay and he’ll stop looking at me like he understands pain.
Saber:
I never thought a name could be a light. But in my darkest moments, Eliza is the single hope I’ve ever known.
She was the candle guiding me out of the abyss.
Seeing her reawakens dreams once lost––that her love is mine.
Unfortunately, our twisted past weaves only suffering for my flower.
And her thinking that I know nothing of pain shreds through my heart.
Now I’m wondering if I should stay, and if she's my fiore at all anymore.
Stay is an adult novel and while it is not a dark romance, some of the subjects matters this book touches on are dark. Not all themes are explicitly shown, however, topics include abuse––physical and verbal, many scenes dealing with alcoholism, recalls of death, as well as foul language. Reader discretion is advised.
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EXCERPT
Beginnings:
My first day of kindergarten, all I remember walking in was seeing a boy—one with hair black as night, and eyes so green and clear I could have been gazing through Mom’s stained-glass suncatcher.
When I learned his name was Saber, I remember “oohing,” completely awestruck. I’d never heard of such a name. It sounded special, matching the boy I saw.
From the unusual way he talked to the expensive clothes he wore, nothing about him blended in. Head to toe, he was exceptional.
I still remember the heart flutters that happened when he stood close to me one day, fixing a broken toy.
“All you need is some muscle behind it,” Saber announced to my playmate as he snapped the red and blue action figure’s knee into place. The glossy white teeth gleaming against his naturally dark skin transfixed me—holding me into place— stealing my heart until the organ didn’t even live in my chest anymore.
That was the day I knew I wanted to marry him.
Me being five years old didn’t matter. I’d met my husband. I even told my mom that when I went home. All she said: “Honey, that is sweet, but remember that you’re young and so much can change.”
Goodness if she wasn’t right.
Not only did life change in the most terrible of ways, but so did Saber.
For him, helping fellow classmates morphed into shoving them to the floor. Laughter transformed into sneers and punches. The “let me help you’s” turned into “get off me, you’re stupid, and I hate you.”
As the years passed, the only part of Saber I could see was those eyes that reminded me of Mom’s kitchen window—but even those glowed differently. Hatred had devoured the kindness that once shined. They grew darker as each year passed.
Eventually, the kid who was going to be my husband became the one I cowered away from in the hallways of our school—more than that, his last name, DuBois, became a representation of an agony cutting so deep that it hollowed my existence, making me believe that death could be a sweet blessing.
And so, the flames of my affection were snuffed out. Never to be revived again.
Or so I thought.
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AUTHOR BIO
Garnet Christie is an author and Midwestern native living in the desert. Though she misses trees, Garnet admits there is an acrid beauty to the place that has been home for twenty years.
She loves serving up Alpha males who are searching for their happily ever after, and paring them up with women who are equally, if not more, reluctant.
When not writing, Garnet is found reading, dancing, and spending too much money on K-pop merch. All the above is achieved by drinking too much tea, avoiding sleep, and eating chocolate. Garnet also adores Italian food and will go to great lengths to hunt down a fantastic plate of Chicken Marsala that comes with a cannoli.
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