Review: Bleeding Heart by Amber Stokes

Book Blurb

Five bleeding hearts. One profound journey.

Summer 1886

Sally Clay's livelihood has been snatched away, but in its place arises an opportunity to escape from her sordid past and an unrelenting, unwanted suitor. Boarding a train with a heartsick rancher and an enigmatic miner, she leaves Virginia City behind and heads to Northern California, waiting for the chance to make right what went wrong three long years before.

But the road to revenge is far from smooth. Sally soon learns that the jagged pieces of a broken heart can far too easily wound the hearts of others - and hers isn't the only heart that's broken. Tragedy and fear dog her steps as she flees from the redwood forests to the high desert and back again. Will her bleeding heart ever find a way and a place to heal?

A desperate soiled dove. Three men who come to care for her. One man determined to claim her.

All on a journey that will show them what true love really involves.

Buy Links

Amazon

Her e-book is on sale for $.99!!!

Author Info

Amber Stokes has a Bachelor of Science degree in English and a passion for the written word - from blogging to writing poetry, short stories, and novels. After her brief time at college in Oregon, she is now back home among the redwoods of Northern California, living life one day at a time and pursuing her passion via freelance editing and self-publishing.

Bleeding Heart is now available in Kindle format on Amazon and in paperback on CreateSpace and Amazon!

Visit the book's Pinterest board for a glimpse at the characters and setting.

Learn more about Amber's freelance editing business at her website. 

My Review

(Written and Provided by Amber McCallister)

 

Bleeding Heart by Amber Stokes is an exquisite, heartfelt story of epic love and bitter loss. You will lose your heart to the depths of emotion and the heights of pleasure that you will experience in this unforgettable journey of the beauty and misery that this world has to offer. I was mesmerized by the enduring strength despite the inherent weakness of each of the characters. The fact that they never really gave up on hope and love reinvigorated my own hope for the future.

On the day we are born, the journey of our life is laid out before our feet like a warm, inviting blanket wrapped around us. As we grow, so does our path. While we make our choices and take turns off the path, it remains steady ever pointing to its ultimate destination. Trees, hills, and mountains block our view of the end of our journey from our physical eyes, but in our heart, we know that it ends in the fulfillment of a promise. That promise is what keeps our feet walking when they should stop. It fuels the beating of our heart when this act would defy all reason. It breaths hope into our dead, lifeless souls when this world has ripped from us the best that we had to offer.

We need to realize that the hardships we may have to endure by choice or by design shape and mold us into who we were always meant to become. Without those times, we would not be able to recognize and cherish the purity of the human spirit. True friendship would wither and die from not being returned. Love would be only a word used to beguile the naive. Honesty would become a concept that was known only in ancient times. Our hearts can endure more than they should be able to, and as a result, hope can be reborn to those who need it the most. Our first instinct should be to reach out to those in need and offer shelter to those who wander the dark, cold nights. Will you be the arms of hope and allow those who are desperate for it to be hidden within it in order to heal until they are ready?

Amber Stokes is a wonderfully, talented author who deeply touched my heart with her marvelous story of pure, life affirming hope amid terrible loss and suffering. Oh, how much we need to hear messages like this one! This message needs to be shouted from the rooftops and declared to the masses that while the night might be overwhelming and blinding, the light of the rising sun will shine on us again. We just need to wait. We just need to heal. We just need to love again.