Stories and Swag!: Blog Tour and GIVEAWAY: Becoming More by Bayli Lane

Title: Becoming More

Author: Bayli Lane

Genre: New Adult Romance

Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17841306-becoming-more

BOOK DESCRIPTION

At first it was all freedom, fun, and games for Lilly Fairfield. Being a freshman in college was supposed to create some of the best memories of her life, especially with her best friend, Lauren, and longtime boyfriend, Sander, by her side.

But the excitement begins to slip away when the people closest to her start to change. They begin moving in a direction Lilly doesn’t want to go, forcing Lilly to be faced with a decision. Should she fight for her relationships with both Sander and Lauren or move on to something different? Something unknown. Someone like…

Colton Davenport. Colton isn’t Lilly’s typical type. He's shockingly sexy with his colorful tattoos, shiny silver lip ring, and ear gauges. His smile alone leaves her breathless. Then again, she hasn’t had a specific type other than Sander. When she meets Colton she feels an automatic attraction that stuns her into utter stillness. She can’t look away, doesn’t want to look away.

Lilly must decide between a life with Sander, a life she always thought she wanted, and an unknown path with Colton.

Will Lilly make the right choices for her future, Becoming More?

**This book is a New Adult Romance - intended for a mature audience.**

BUY LINKS

Amazon US: http://amzn.com/B00EH7EGBG

Paperback: http://amzn.com/1492141372

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/becoming-more-bayli-lane/1116394895

EXCERPT:

“Are you okay?” Lauren says.

I look at her and realize that I have a waterfall of tears spilling down my cheeks and into my lap, “No, Lauren, I’m not.”

She gets up, comes to my side and hugs me, “It’s okay Lilly! He’s probably still kind of drunk or something. Maybe he was still really worried from not knowing where you were last night. There are a whole lot of reasons as to why he’s acting like he is. Maybe he’s nervous for classes to start, and he feels like he has to do really well or something?”

I listen to her give me every excuse she can think of, and I welcome the relief I feel from her words. She’s probably right. He’s must be stressing about a lot of things right now and just doesn’t know how to deal with those feelings. Tomorrow I’ll call him and plan a time for us to meet up and have a civilized conversation. Surely by tomorrow he will have calmed down enough that he’s back to normal. I embrace Lauren’s excuses for him. Tomorrow we’ll talk. I’ll explain how I feel, and he will feel horrible for making me feel that way. We’ll kiss and make up. I give Lauren a placid smile and wipe the last of my tears away.

“Thanks Lauren, you’re right. It’s probably nothing serious.”

She gives an encouraging smile, “Of course I’m right! Now may I go back to my nap?” she asks.

I laugh and gesture to her bed, “By all means.”

She falls into her bed and turns onto her stomach. Moments later I hear her heavy breathing. Thank God I have Lauren to talk some sense into me. Of course Sander loves me. He’s just going through something. We will get through it, no doubt about it.

PLAYLIST

1. Cosmic Love- Florence and the Machine

2. Poison & Wine- The Civil Wars

3. Run- Snow Patrol

4. Paradise- Coldplay

5. Just Say Yes- Snow Patrol

6. The Offering- The Avett Brothers

7. Give Me Love- Ed Sheeran

8. Feel Again- One Republic

9. Sad- Maroon 5

10. Never Let Me Go- Florence and the Machine

11. Way You Are- Kris Orlowski

12. Bloodstream- Stateless

13. Erase Me- Kid Cudi

14. End of all time- Stars of Track & Field

15. In my veins- Andrew Belle

16. Rain Falls Down- We The Kings

JENNIFER D.'S REVIEW

When I saw this blog tour sign up I was soooo excited to read and review it. I have been watching Ms Lane’s page and have been so excited about this book! I was not disappointed! This was a great debut coming of age novel. The cover also grabbed my attention! That cover model is gorgeous! Just made me want to read it more! The author takes us on a journey of being excited for leaving for college with your boyfriend and best friend and the little bumps that happen along the way called life.

We start with Lilly, her best friend Lauren, and Lilly’s boyfriend Sander all leaving for college. They all have been best friends for as long as Lilly can remember. Her boyfriend Sander and her have been together for since high school and she is looking for having this time away from their parents and experiencing college together. They are the perfect couple, they have dreamed and talked about how life will work out for them. They are in for the long haul and college is just the first stop in their life together. Until Lilly meets Sander’s roommate Bryan. As soon as Lilly meets him she sees a change in Sander that is not for the good. She just chalks it up to meeting new friends and being a guy thing. On their first night out they decide to venture to a Frat party that Bryan’s friends are hosting. Lilly, Lauren and Sander all get separated and feeling defeated that she cannot find anyone she decides to leave and go back to the dorm.

On the way back, she stumbles across a group of friends that invite her to another party. Being that it is her first night away at college, she decides to hell with it and goes with them. Little does she know this new group of friends will change everything. At the new party, she is instantly drawn to the uber sexy full of tattoos bad boy Colton. She has a boyfriend but she cannot stop her attraction to him. He is so different than Sander who is the clean cut pretty boy. They become friends but she feels this deep down connection to him that is so different than what she knows with Sander.

“There’s something absolutely terrifying about that realization… the realization that someone can take over my thoughts so completely, that someone can snatch up a place in my heart before I even know his name.”

Lilly soon discovers college has a way of changing people. It seems like everyone she thought she knew is now someone different. Lauren her best friend and roommate is never around, she has become a heavy drinker and party girl and becomes distant from Lilly. Sander and Lilly seem to have opposite class schedules and hardly have time for each other. He also seems like he is changing and is not the same Sander she knows and loves.

Since meeting her new group of friends, she has been spending more time with them. Being around and spending time with Colton awakens a fire inside Lilly she never knew was there. She knows she loves Sander and plans to spend the rest of her life with him but there is something about Colton that make her feel alive that she never got with Sander.

“Any man lucky enough to kiss you should treasure it. He should take that gift and lock it way so tightly that no other man can get anywhere near you. He should do everything in his power to make sure no one else gets to take the sweetness of you”

“If you ever let me kiss you, I’d make sure you’d never want to kiss another man again. I’d make sure you’d never even think of another man again.”

It seems like she’s living a double life with two sets of friends. When they come together, secrets are exposed that will force Lilly to take sides. It causes Lilly to struggle with what she feels in her heart and what she thinks is right for her to do. When she thinks she’s made the right decisions, more secrets come out the crumble her existence. It had me shaking my head!! I had a feeling that this secret was brewing but wasn’t quite sure. When the dust clears Lilly is left to examine herself and who thought she could trust.

It’s a wonderful story about love, heartbreak, lies, secrets, and betrayal that had me turning the pages and wanting more! My heart broke from Lilly and I wanted her to have the HEA she so deserves! I myself never went away for college so I love these types of stories of growth and figuring out life as you go along the way. I so cannot wait to see what else the author has in store for us as this was a great debut novel!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bayli Lane didn’t realize how much she loved creating a world from nothing until college. She went to Marian University where she majored in Communications but in her spare time wrote and read. Her love for reading is what really brought out her desire to create her own novel. After starting loads of stories and not finishing them, she finally decided it was time to put her passion to work. Becoming More is her first novel but certainly not her last. Bayli lives with her husband, Tim, in Indiana where she is probably sitting with a large cup of coffee and her computer working on her next book.

AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorbaylilane

Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7061310.Bayli_Lane

GIVEAWAY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway