Title: Redeeming Hope
Author: Shell Taylor
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: L.C. Chase
Length: Novel – 206 Pages
Release Date: October 5, 2015
Blurb: Home for Hope: Book One
Fifteen years ago Elijah Langley’s world came to an abrupt halt with the death of his high school boyfriend. He keeps his past—and his sexual orientation—hidden until he attends a fundraiser for The Center for HOPE, an LGBT youth center, where he meets Adam Lancaster, HOPE’s infuriatingly stubborn and sexy founder.
A survivor of a turbulent childhood, Adam understands better than most the challenges his youth face. He’s drawn to Elijah’s baby blues and devilish smile but refuses to compromise his values and climb back into the closet for anyone—not even the man showering time and money on HOPE. Months of constant flirting wear down Adam’s resolve until he surrenders to his desires, but Elijah can’t shake his demons.
When a youth from the center is brutally assaulted, Elijah must find a way to confront the fears and memories that are starting to ruin his life, so he can stand strong for those he loves.
Eli clutched the glossy
eight-by-ten as tears welled in his eyes. He could hardly believe the
emaciated, washed-out figure in the picture was the same person he’d centered
his entire world around just a few weeks earlier. Eli would recognize that face
anywhere. God knows, he’d spent enough time staring at it—running his fingers
over those soft lips, sucking on the kidney-shaped birthmark just below the
ear. He never imagined he’d see those eyes so lifeless.
“It’s him,” Eli whispered,
dropping the picture on the officer’s desk.
His mother rested a hand on
his shoulder. “E.J.—”
“Don’t pretend to care, now
that he’s dead.” Eli shrugged out of her grasp and clenched his jaw to hold in
the gut-wrenching sobs brewing in his chest. “Will I need to identify the body
in person too?”
The officer avoided Eli’s
eyes, but his voice was kind. “If you’re certain, this is good enough for us.
He’ll be released in the next thirty-six hours. Will you be claiming him, or
will the city keep him?”
Eli’s eyes widened, and panic
ripped through his heart. He’d never expected the search to end with a dead
body, and there was no way he’d be able to give his boyfriend the funeral he
deserved—the one Eli owed him for his own part in Brian’s death. Prepared to
beg, he turned and met his father’s eyes for the first time since Brian
disappeared from their house almost three weeks earlier.
“We’ll take care of his
arrangements.” Eli’s mother spoke quietly but firmly, and his father dipped his
chin in silent agreement.
Adam
stepped forward, closing the distance between them. “Stop.” He pointed a finger
in Elijah’s face. “This is not under your control, and it is not your decision
to make. If you want to rescind your offer to help with the remaining purchase of the
inn, that’s up to you. But if you think for one fucking second that I haven’t
done all of the research necessary to determine that this is our best bet to open a safe
place sooner rather than later, you don’t know me at all. Those kids don’t need
the fucking Taj Mahal—they need a roof and food and some small sense of
security. A mattress to sleep on at night is icing on the cake to them.”
Elijah stared
at Adam, and once again, the seriousness of what Adam dealt with, day in and
day out, hit home. Looking down, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
“This place is a dump.”
“What’d you
expect? I’m buying an entire hotel for a million dollars. Did you really think
it would only need a new paint job? I told you there was some roof damage—”
“I thought that
meant it leaked—not that there was a fucking forest in room eighteen.”
Adam continued
as if Elijah hadn’t spoken. “I also told you there were plumbing issues in some
of the rooms and that some had been broken into. We have volunteers who are
willing to put in the manpower to fix this place up. All we need is to buy the
materials. If you could get your head out of your ass for five minutes, you
could see that not everyone in the world drives a… a Lexus LRA and uses
gold-threaded handkerchiefs to wipe his ass.”
Adam’s voice
had risen throughout his entire spiel, and his arms flailed a bit more wildly
with each passing statement. When he was finished, he huffed and stared at
Elijah with his hands on his hips. If looks could kill, Elijah would’ve been
gone before Adam even started rambling about make-believe cars.
Shell Taylor is a full-time mother of three exuberant and loving kiddos and one fur baby, a tiny but fierce Yorkie-poo named Rocco. As a Christian who practices love, grace, and humility rather than hatred and judgement, she tries her best to instill these same virtues in her rowdy kids. She just recently learned how to crochet to start bombarding new mothers with matching hats and booties. She is a huge Marvel fan and because of the superhero-plastered tees paired with jeans and Chucks has been told when helping out in her son’s classroom that she looks more like the students than a parent. Her favorite way to procrastinate is to binge watch entire seasons on Netflix. Best of all, she’s been married ten years to a man who’s turned out to be everything she never knew she needed.
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Winner’s Prize: $20 Amazon Gift Card.
Runner-up’s Prize: $10 Amazon Gift Card.
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