Renewing Forever (This Time Forever book 2) by Kelly Jensen Virtual tour | Spotlight, Excerpt & #giveaway @RiptideBooks @kmkjensen @TTCBooksandmore ~ '

Renewing Forever is the second of a series of standalone novels focused on older characters who think love has passed them by. Frank and Tom's story is a true second chance romance, reuniting childhood friends and first loves separated by an argument and thirty years of misunderstanding. I hope you enjoy reading about their renewed friendship and their plans for forever.

A neglected resort, a lost chance at love, and one last chance to renew forever.

Frankie and Tommy once dreamed of traveling the world together. But when seventeen-year-old Frank kissed Tom, their plans ended with a punch to the jaw and Frank leaving town without looking back. Thirty years later, Frank’s successful career as a journalist is interrupted by his uncle’s death and the question of his inheritance—the family resort where his childhood dreams were built. When he returns to the Pocono Mountains, however, he finds a dilapidated lodge and Tommy, the boy he never forgot.

Tom’s been keeping the resort together with spit and glue while caring for Frank’s uncle, Robert—a man he considered father, mentor, and friend—and his aged mother, who he refuses to leave behind. Now Robert is gone, taking Tom’s job with him. And Frank is on the doorstep, wanting to know why Tom is still there and why the old lodge is falling apart.

But before they can rebuild the resort, they’ll have to rebuild their friendship. Only then can they renew the forever they planned all those years ago.

Buy links: Riptide | Amazon

Small towns and second chances.

Simon, Frank, and Brian think love has passed them by. Each is facing down his fiftieth birthday—Simon in a few years, Frank next year, and Brian soon enough. Each has loved and lost. But for these men, everything old really is new again, and it’s only when they return to their roots that they’ll find their second chances and the happily ever after they’ve been waiting their whole lives for.

This time it’s forever.

This series includes:

Building Forever — releasing October 15, available now!
Renewing Forever — releasing November 12, available for preorder!
Chasing Forever — releasing December 10, available soon!

Excerpt...

Chapter One

As a writer, Franklin Tern held a specific disdain for dark and stormy nights. They were nature’s taunt—an opening he was supposed to take advantage of, and fought against. No one, not even a prize-winning journalist, could surmount such a cliché.

Such nights were also unwelcome when he was driving.

Phone pressed between his shoulder and his ear, Frank turned the wheel just enough to guide his sleek black BMW Z3 away from the lake forming along the side of Route 447. More than an inch of standing water might swallow them whole.

Lightning flashed overhead and thunder boomed. His friend Simon shouted through the phone. “The story was great!”

“The story was depressing. The whole trip was depressing, which, as you well know, is not my thing. I am not hard-edged. I’m fluff. Pure and simple.”

“But that’s why the article was so effective. I could feel you, Frank. Your horror, and how out of place you were.”

“Gee, thanks.” Feeling the phone slip, Frank hitched his shoulder up a little higher. “I’ll have to send you the full piece when I figure out how not to sound horrified.”

“I was trying to tell you I thought it was good.”

“Whatever.”

“Are you still going down to Texas to cover the church bombing?”

“What? No. What would make you think I’d do a story like that?”

“Something you posted on Twitter.”

“You’re on Twitter?”

“Charlie signed me up.”

Frank ground his teeth—his instinctive reaction to any mention of Simon’s partner, with a little desultory weather hate slipped in on the side. “I haven’t posted to Twitter in weeks. Keeping my phone charged quickly became secondary to . . .” Not cringing at the devastation humanity could heap upon a natural disaster. Pushing those thoughts aside, “Can you believe I willingly flew coach to get out of there?”

Also, what had his idiot PA been posting on Twitter?

“I can’t believe you went to Puerto Rico,” Simon said.

“Neither can I.”

Where the hell had the road gone? He tapped the brakes, slowing from a crawl to a near standstill, and guided his precious around the river now spilling across the blacktop. The turnoff to Bossen Hill must be coming up soon.

“Listen, the storm of the century is blowing through the Poconos right now.” Mild compared to the tropical storm that had recently ravaged a still-recovering Puerto Rico, but enough to compel him to concentrate. “I have no idea where my earpiece is, and I need to focus on the road.”

“What are you doing in Pennsylvania? Is it bad up there? Wait, didn’t you land just a few hours ago?”

“Personal business. Maybe a story.” Because everything was a story, wasn’t it? “I’ll call you next week?”

“Come down on Friday. I’m learning to grill.”

The car jerked as Frank’s foot gave the brakes an involuntary tap. “You’re going to cook outside?”

“With hot coals and all.”

Frank swallowed the question about whether Charlie would be there. Of course he would. Simon lived with Charlie now, in an extremely cozy house with a ready-made family. “I’ll bring wine. And pictures of hell.”

“I promise not to say they’re great. Drive safe, hmm?”

“Will do.” Frank tossed the phone onto the front passenger seat and gripped the wheel with both hands. “C’mon, baby. Just another few miles and we’ll get you out of this storm.”

In response, rain lashed the windshield, blurring the road. Leaning forward, Frank peered through the fevered swish of the wipers. Had he missed the sign? A flash of white peeked out of the wet darkness. He didn’t need to read it to know what it said: Bossen Hill Family Resort. Turn right 1000ft.

The disquiet of his thoughts calmed a little as he remembered the day they’d planted the sign. His older brother, Matty, had made it in shop class—chiseling the letters into a plank before painting them black against white. Then he’d invited Frank to help him measure the distance back from the turn and dig a hole for the post. That had been a good afternoon and typical of summer in the Poconos.

Sudden thunder boomed, vibrating up and in from the road and the air. The car shook. Frank could just make out the turn ahead and flipped on his blinker to warn all the other idiots out on the road that he was going to attempt a right turn without hydroplaning or ending up in the gully that swallowed the forest on this side.

Except, no one else was out this late during a monsoon.

Not a monsoon, Frankie. You’ve seen what a real storm can do.

He managed the turn with a minimum of fuss and powered his way up the narrow and winding road. That the drive would have been any easier tomorrow morning was debatable. Returning home to claim a legacy left by his dearly departed uncle didn’t fit into such categories as easy or moderately difficult. It was what it was.

The forest lining each side of the road flashed into stark relief as lightning and thunder crashed together. The storm had moved right on top of him. Frank pressed his foot down, knowing it was probably the wrong thing to do. But he really wanted to be out of the rain. The pitch of the engine rose, and the rear wheels spun against the road before grabbing hold and propelling him over the crest of the hill. Lightning flared again, blinding in its intensity.

When the world faded back to reality, something large and bristly lay across the road in front of him. Frank blinked a few times, unsure if the sparking obstruction was an afterimage or something actually blocking the road. No, that was a downed power pole, and if he didn’t stop or turn or both, he was going to—

If not for the river flowing down the road, he might have safely avoided floating across the center line while white-knuckling the wheel, lips clamped together over the yell pushing against his vocal cords. For a moment, he thought he wasgoing to make it. The world stilled and the thunder of the storm seemed to rumble more quietly. Time slowed, catching the flash of sparking electricity in single bright frames. His urge to shout was under control, not going to happen, so not going to happen . . .

Then the wheel jerked from his aching fingers and the car slid sideways. The shout cut loose. Watching himself flail and panic was like having an out-of-body experience. A terrible grinding scrape shuddered through the floor. Metal shrieked and the car came to an abrupt halt, sound cut in half by the dying of the engine.

Adam Levine endeavored to fill the pause, detailing what lovers did. Frank stared dumbly at the radio. His heart was beating too rapidly for the song, and the sound of his yelling and cursing echoed in his ears. But he was alive. That was good, right? And the storm continued outside the car, which could mean any number of things. It took a while to pin the most obvious: he hadn’t wrecked his baby too badly. The fact he was looking at the top of the trees rather than the middle of the trunks probably meant he was wedged halfway down a ditch, but he was breathing and thinking and still listening to Maroon 5.

“Jesus.”

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories about the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas, and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, cowritten with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Connect with Kelly:

Website: kellyjensenwrites.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kellyjensenwrites/
Twitter: twitter.com/kmkjensen
Tumblr: kmkjensen.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/kmkjensen/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/kellyjensenwrites/

To celebrate the release of Renewing Forever one lucky person will win a $25 Riptide Publishing gift card and a swag pack of stickers, art cards, and bookmarks! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 17, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!