Blog Tour: Review of Skipping Stones by J.B. McGee

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They say there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Not everyone will grieve in this order, nor will everyone go through every stage. It’s during the stage of denial when Alex Hart meets Andrew Foster. He takes her one-step closer to acceptance: the stage when new, meaningful relationships are formed. The stage when the realization occurs that this is now the new state of normal.

Just when Alex thinks she is on her way to healing, she enters the bargaining phase. That’s the phase where you wonder what you could have done differently. You wonder “what if?” Specifically, what if the ones you loved hadn’t left you?

Leaving…this is what makes heading off to war so difficult and frightening for Alex. She knows all too well what it’s like to be the one on the losing end of life, which is why she’s made it her personal mission in life to save as many lives as possible. The extreme high she gets from treating trauma victims turns into Alex’s own form of therapy, or so she thinks.

When faced with her world being turned upside down, Alex may just find that her true therapy is in the one who has always saved her.

Jenn says:

I adored this book and believe it or not I am having trouble writing this review because I want to do justice to the book!  Its an amazing story of heartbreak, love, and fate that makes you look at life a little different.  This is truly one of those books that pulls at your heart strings and will stay with you love after you have read it.

We start the book with Alex spending her summer vacation with her grandparents in South Carolina.  Being a Cali girl myself I love the southern references.  I think I was a southern belle in a past life or something because I love it! But anyways…  Soon after the books start tragedy strikes and from the beginning my heart is ripped out of my chest.   Alex has to deal with death and loss at such a young age of 15.  She finds herself at the lake down the road from her grandparents’ property where she meets Drew.  He’s a little older and not someone she has seen around the town before.  When they meet, he is able to help her get through her heartbreak and makes life more bearable.  He is able to fill the void of in heart that was missing. 

“While I don’t know much, I do know he’s been the only person able to get me to feel like I’m not connected to a lead ball that is sinking into the ocean., thousands of miles beneath the surface.  He’s been the air my lungs can’t seem to find in the any other way or place.”

But just as quickly as him coming into her life, he is gone.   It’s like he never existed.  Nobody knows him and nobody knows where he or his family went.  If it wasn't for the deep connection that they shared she would have thought she dreamed him.   Even though their time was short lived, she knows he was the one who will always hold her heart.

Years go by and Alex cannot let go of finding Drew.  She is determined to find him but there are always dead ends.  Because of events that happened when she was younger, she decides to become a doctor but also enrolls in the Army to help with the costs of college.  Then 9/11 happens… She is shipped overseas and in a brief second before an explosion, she sees her lost love again.   While recovery she asked everyone about Drew if he was there.  Again, no one knows who he is. It’s like he doesn't exist. 

 “I have come to the conclusion that fate has a way of beating karma.”

When she returns home to the states and to South Carolina, Alex is again forced to deal with death and heartbreak.  But this time, she sees and feels him and knows that he was not just a dream.  It seems fate keeps bringing Drew to her when she needs him the most.  When he comes back to her, he has his own secrets that demons that he has be dealing with.  Just as Alex has had to lead a life that was filed with heartbreak and love lost so has Drew.  Will Alex and Drew be able to work past their years of being apart and finally have the life together that Alex has dreamed of since she first met him. 

“Someone wise once told me that when I found a girl who made me want to love her for always and in all ways, I’d find the one.”

This is a story that takes us through the stages of life and Alex’s journey to find her true love and happiness.   I so loved this story and give it the maximum amount of stars allowed!  If you are looking for a wonderful book that pulls at your heart strings, makes you feel like you cannot breathe, but then reduces you to a crying mess that you have found the book for you!  Of course I love all those things so I absolutely loved it!!  I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone!  It's truly a MUST read! 

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A Note from J.B. McGee 

J.B. McGee was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. After graduating from South Aiken High School, she toured Europe as a member of the 1999 International Bands of America Tour, playing the clarinet. While attending Converse College, an all-girls school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she visited Charleston often. It quickly became one of her favorite vacation spots. She met her husband, Chad, during Christmas break her freshman year, and they married in 2001 and she moved back to her home town. 

In 2005, the couple welcomed their first son, Noah. J.B. finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina-Aiken in 2006. During her time studying children's literature, a professor had encouraged her to become a writer.

In 2007, she welcomed their second child, Jonah, and she became a stay at home mom/entrepreneur. In 2009, the found out their two children and J.B. have Mitochondrial Disease. In 2011, a diagnosis also was given to Chad. Please take a moment and learn more about Mitochondrial Disease. Awareness is key to this disease that has no cure or treatments.

J.B. McGee and her family now reside in Buford, Georgia, to be closer to their children's medical team. After a passion for reading had been re-ignited, J.B. decided to finally give writing a shot. Broken (This Series), is her first book and first series. 

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