Untouched
(Florence, Arizona #1)
by Lauren Hawkeye
Alexa Kendrick has no recollection of the car accident that left her scarred and sent her life careening wildly off course. When the half-sister she thought she’d never meet shows up at her door with an invitation to a new life, Alexa finds herself in Florence, Arizona, a town notorious for being populated with more prison inmates than actual citizens…a town that has done its best to hide its own dark secret.
After Ellie is called out of town, she leaves her sister with the keys to her flower shop and Alexa finds herself swapping lives with her sibling: running Ellie’s business, living in the house left to them both by their absentee father…and forging a smoldering relationship with sexy-as-sin penitentiary officer, Nate Fury—a man with his own demons.
But arranging flowers by day and tangling with the only man who has ever seen her real self by night isn’t enough to silence the mysterious panic that fuels Alexa’s dark dreams. When Nate brings home a book written by an inmate, one describing an unspeakable crime, the shackles binding Alexa’s own lost memories begin to shatter. And as the devastating truth comes to light, she realizes that Nate holds the key to unlocking her past, as well as her heart.
The complex story of the Kendrick sisters continues with Alexa's story. It has been a year since her car accident and still she cannot recall what happened. Her last known memory was of her sitting having a drink at a bar. Nothing after that until she woke up days later in the hospital. She cannot help but feel stuck in time and unable to move on with her life until she is able to recollect what happened to cause the accident.
As she decides to spend some time with her half sister Ellie in Florence, Arizona, she can feel the exhilaration that she is about to resolve a great puzzle.
Once again, Lauren Hawkeye has given us an emotional, thrilling and moving story of a young woman paralyzed by events that traumatized her. The writing is superb. I was in the story with Alexa, feeling her anxiety and desire to finally remember and move on with her life.
The love story between Alexa and Nate proceeds at the speed of light. There is a mutual attraction that unequivocally draws them together. Nate is a prison guard at the local penitentiary. He is also broken and seeking to disappear into an ordinary life unable to reconcile his feelings of loss and recrimination.
Plot twists, serendipity, fate, whatever you call it, our story brings together a cast of characters who have irreparably affected each others lives. As the secrets begin to unravel, all will be known to the reader's dismay. This is one gem of a story. Be prepared... this is not a soft and fluffy story. This is real, raw, and emotional story pain and survival.
Lauren Hawkeye/ Lauren Jameson never imagined that she’d wind up telling stories for a living… though when she looks back, it’s easy to see that she’s the only one who is surprised. Always “the kid who read all the time”, Lauren made up stories about her favorite characters once she’d finished a book… and once spent an entire year narrating her own life internally. No, really. But where she was just plain odd before publication, now she can at least claim to have an artistic temperament.
Lauren lives in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada with her husband, toddler, pit bull and idiot cat, though they do not live in an igloo, nor do they drive a dogsled. In her nonexistent spare time Lauren can be found knitting (her husband claims that her snobby yarn collection is exorbitant), reading anything she can get her hands on, or sweating her way through spin class. She loves to hear from her readers!
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