Synopsis

“The heart isn’t like the liver. It doesn’t regenerate, no matter how much time passes. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. I’d left mine with Sebastian when I walked away that day, and I hadn’t seen it in the seven years since.” — Lux Kincaid

At eighteen, Lux is forced to make a choice. One that nearly destroys her.

She breaks a boy’s heart.

She breaks her own, too.

Seven years later, Lux never expects to see Sebastian again — especially not when her career as a journalist is hanging by a thread and she’s stumbled onto the story of a lifetime. As she chases down leads and explores the dark underbelly of Manhattan, Lux will put her life on the line. But after crossing paths with a still-unforgiving Sebastian, it’s her heart she’s most worried about.

Amidst the blame and the betrayal, the hurt and the heartbreak… can two lost lovers ever find their way back to one another?

Lines will be blurred. The past will be unearthed. And Lux will find out that some secrets aren’t meant to be kept…

**SAY THE WORD is a sassy, sexy, suspenseful contemporary romance intended for readers ages 17 and up.**

Véleményem a könyvről

Imádtam! Miért? Miért? Miért halogattam idáig ezt a könyvet, mikor tudhattam volna, hogy Julie Johnson nem okozhat csalódást? Igazi imádnivaló „second-chance” történet, az írónőtől megszokott fordulatokkal fűszerezve. Van, aki nem szereti, hogy Julie Johnson minden regényébe tesz valami igazán fordulatos, izgalmas szálat, de szerintem pont ettől egyediek és különlegesek ezek a könyvek, és ez szinte már a névjegyévé vált. Ha kategorizálni kellene az írónő könyveit, ezt a kötetet a komolyabbak közé sorolnám. A megszokott humor és lebilincselő írásmód mellett, nagyon sok komoly pillanatot is tartogatott a mű, és ez volt az első Julie Johnson kötet, amely könnyet tudott csalni a szemembe.

A történet kezdetén a főszereplő lány Lux 18 évesen ott áll élete szerelme előtt és összetöri a fiú szívét, miközben az övé is darabokra törik. Másnap összepakol ikertestvérével és elhagyja a kis georgiai városkát és soha többé nem tér vissza. Miért? Jó kérdés. Én is ezen törtem a fejem, majdnem a könyv legvégéig.

A történetben sok az időugrás. A fejezetek egy része a múltban, a jelentős része, pedig a jelenben a játszódik, 8 évvel a szakítás után. A múltban Lux 17 éves, a város szegényebbik részéről, alkoholista szülőkkel, árverezésre szánt házzal, és egy beteg ikertestvérrel. Az életében a testvére, Jamie a legfontosabb és mindent megtenne érte. Amennyi időt csak tud, a kórházban tölt vele, az idő többi részében dolgozik, hogy valamennyire tudja fizetni a halmozódó számlákat, és tanul, hogy főiskolai ösztöndíjat kaphasson, amely nélkül a továbbtanulás csak álom lenne.

Sebastian a társadalmi ranglétra egy jóval előkelőbb fokán helyezkedik el. A szenátor fia és egy gazdag nagy múltú családból származik. Miután egy délután, a szakadó esőben egy véletlen összehozza őket, valami olyan gyönyörű, tiszta szerelem alakul ki közöttük, amely leküzd minden külsőséget, és amelyet egyszerűen szívmelengető volt olvasni. Őszintén szólva nagyon sokáig sokkal jobban szerettem a múltbeli fejezeteket és alig vártam, hogy újra a múltjukban találhassam magam velük együtt. Annyira jó volt látni, ahogy Lux és Sebastian 17 évesen egymásra találnak, és nagyon szerettem Jamie jeleneteit is.

A jelenben Lux már 26 éves és egy divatlapnál dolgozik újságíróként. Megmaradt az az aranyos humoros lány, aki a múltban volt, de egy-egy kósza pillanatban bepillantást nyerhetünk a felszín alá, amely tele van szomorúsággal és megbánással. Aztán a sors úgy hozza, hogy a magazin új fotósa átmenetileg nem más, mint Sebastian Covington, aki elválásuk óta híres fotográfus lett és most gyakorlatilag néhány hétre Lux főnökévé válik. A kezdeti sokk, majd düh és fájdalom mellett újra fellobban az egykor kialudt láng és Sebastian elhatározza, hogy kideríti mi történt 8 éve.

A történetet egy másik izgalmas szál is bonyolítja. Lux egyik barátnője, egy Albániából emigrált lány eltűnik, és Lux elkezd nyomozni az ügyben. Ezáltal nemcsak egy szívmelengető és szívfájdító történetet kapunk, hanem egy igazán izgalmas olvasmányt is.

Imádom az írónő stílusát! Nagyon jó nyelvezettel, jó humorral, jó karakterekkel dolgozik és egyszerűen annyiféle érzést tud kiváltani az olvasóból, hogy az valami zseniális. Ennél a könyvénél is a nevetéstől és a könnyektől, a körmöm lerágásáig mindenféle érzelmen keresztülmentem, de olyan profi módon építkezik a könyv, hogy ami más írónál lehet, hogy csak káoszt szült volna, az ő kezei alatt egy kiemelkedő olvasmánnyá vált.

Továbbra is a Like Gravity a kedvencem az írónőtől, de ezt a könyvét is imádtam és kérdés nélkül jár a 6 csillag. Ami pedig eszméletlenül döbbenetes, hogy Julie Johnson 22 évesen írta meg a Like Gravity-t és ezt a könyvet is! Tagadhatatlanul tehetséges írónő.

Ui: Az Erasing Faith  Lux legjobb barátnője, Fae múltját meséli el. Az is nagyon izgalmas és magával ragadó történet, amely Budapesten játszódik!

My Review in English

I loved it! Why-why-why did I wait with this book so long while I should have known that Julie Johnson couldn’t disappoint me? It was a truly lovable “second-chance” story spiced with the typical Julie Johnson kind of twists and turns. Maybe someone doesn’t like these twisting plotlines in a romance novel but I think partly this is what makes every one of her books so unique, and I love them so much! I think this book was a little more serious book of hers. Besides the usual humorous and engaging writing style, this book contained so many beautiful moments and beautiful metaphors, and this was the first Julie Johnson book which could bring tears in to my eyes.

The book starts with the 18 years old Lux is standing in front of the love of her life, as she is breaking his heart, while she is breaking her own, too. The next day she packs her bags and she leaves the little town of Georgia, with her twin brother and never comes back. Why? Good question. I tried to find out the answer for it, during almost the entire reading.

There are a lot of time jumps in the story. Some chapters are about the past, and the bigger part of the chapters take places in the present, eight years after the breakup. In the past, Lux is a 17 year old girl from the impecunious part of the town, with alcoholic parents, a house with foreclosure, and a sick twin brother, Jamie who is the most important person in her life. She would do anything for him and she spends as much time with him at the hospital, as she can. Besides this she has to work to help with the bills, and she studies a lot for a chance for a college scholarship.

Sebastian is from the other part of the town. He is the a senator’s son and he is from a wealthy family. On a rainy afternoon a coincidence brings them together, and after that a kind of beautiful, pure love builds between them which fights with every externality and which warmed my heart during the reading. To tell the truth, for a really long time I loved so much more the chapters of the past and I just couldn’t wait for finding myself with them again in the past. It was so good to see how Lux and Bash found each other at 17, and I really loved all of the scenes of Jamie.

In the present, Lux is 26 years old and she is a journalist at a fashion magazine. She is still that nice, humorous girl who was before, but sometimes for a second we can see that under the surface she is full with sadness and regret. But one day thanks to the fate she meets with Sebastian again after it turns out that temporarily he will be the photographer in a project at the magazine. During the time they spent apart he became a famous photographer, and now he becomes Lux’s boss for a little time. After the first shock, anger and pain the flames become alive again and Sebastian decides that he will find out what happened eight years before.

The story has a really thrilling plotline, too. One of Lux’s friends, an Albanian emigrant girl disappears, and Lux starts to investigate in the case. With this I got not just a heartwarming and touching story, but also a really gripping reading.

I really-really love the writing style of Julie Johnson! She writes with beautiful language, with good sense of humor and she works with great characters. It is so brilliant how much emotions she can bring out from her readers. During the reading I also went through so many emotions. I laughed, I cried, I bit down my nails it was so thrilling!

This book became my other favorite Julie Johnson book beside Like Gravity, and the six star is absolutely not a question! And the most shocking thing is that she was only 22 years old when she wrote Like Gravity and Say the Word! She is absolutely gifted!

P.S.: The Erasing Faith by Julie Johnson is about Lux’s best friend Fae. In that book we can learn about what happened in her past in Budapest (where I live :)) and how she became Fae from Faith.

My Favorite Quotes From the Book

“Because when you walk away from your soul mate – when you take real, true love and throw it in the fire and watch as it burns down to ashes – you know you’ll never be the same again. The heart isn’t like the liver; it doesn’t regenerate, no matter how much time passes. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.”

“Maybe instead, I wanted the kind of love that devastates you. The kind that rips your insides open and leave you gutted, out in the cold. Maybe I wanted that great, epic, once-in-a-lifetime love that consumes you with the brightest flames. And maybe, even though I knew the hottest fires often burn out the fastest, even though it couldn’t last…it was worth it.”

“Soulmates are a reward, not a certainty. I think you have to earn them. And I believe, if you’re one of the bastards lucky enough to stumble across yours, that you have to fight for them with everything you have.”

“But what did you do when you lost your soulmate, and there was no chance of ever having him again? Did you move on, even with the knowledge that nothing would ever be quite as good? Did you try to fill the empty holes inside yourself with misshapen parts that someone else could offer?”

“I think that if two people are meant to be together, nothing can ever truly separate them. Time, distance, other people — it doesn’t matter. They’ll circle back around to each other eventually.”

“If you pressed two strong negative magnets together, they’d repel with every bit of force they could muster. And maybe if you were strong enough, you could hold them against each other for a short period of time, though doing so might eventually sap all your strength. Once you let go, though — once you stopped using all your energy to force them together against their will — chances were, those damn magnets that had repelled with such intensity would flip, changing course and snapping together so fast you couldn’t believe your eyes. And, once they’d realigned, no amount of pulling was liable to separate them again.
What once repelled quickly morphed into an unbreakable pull.
Oh, and how quick that flip was, from abhorrence to attraction, from disdain to desire. Love and lust, hostility and hatred— they were two sides of the same coin.”

Regret was an emotional cancer, destroying you from the inside out. Eating at your most vital parts until there was nothing left but scar tissue and sorrow. It chipped away at you in small increments, shattering your defenses and tiring you out. But, unlike a physical cancer, which might eventually go into remission or be cut out with a few careful strokes of a surgeon’s scalpel, regret would stay with you forever. It was chronic, but not terminal — a constant companion that would haunt you until your deathbed. And there were no cures to diminish its influence. No salves to counteract its effects.
Regret didn’t break your body. It crushed your spirit.
Mine had just been broken beyond repair.

“You might think you’re the villain in my story, Lux, but what you don’t seem to realize is that I don’t care. Princess or Evil Queen, I want you standing by my side when the tale comes to an end. So I’m not walking away — I’m going to wear you down, until you’re ready — no, until you’re dying — to tell me what happened back then.” Another kiss landed on my lips, and I fought off a tremble of desire. “And Freckles?”
My eyes flickered up to meet his searing gaze.
“It’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.”

6- “I shall either find a way, or make one.”- Stars

About the Author

JULIE JOHNSON is a twenty-something Boston native suffering from an extreme case of Peter Pan Syndrome and an obsession with fictional characters. When she’s not writing, Julie can most often be found daydreaming, drinking too much coffee, striving to conquer her Netflix queue, or stalking Goodreads for new books to add to her ever-growing TBR list.

She published her debut novel LIKE GRAVITY in August 2013, just before her senior year of college, and she’s never looked back. Since, she has published three more novels: SAY THE WORD, ERASING FAITH, and NOT YOU IT’S ME. Her books have appeared on Kindle and iTunes Bestseller lists around the world.

You can find Julie on Facebook or contact her on her websitehttp://www.juliejohnsonbooks.com. Sometimes, when she can figure out how Twitter works, she tweets from @AuthorJulie. For major book news and updates, subscribe to Julie’s newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bnWtHH

Say the Word Playlist by Julie Johnson

Music that inspired Bash and Lux’s story in SAY THE WORD…

Song for You by Jesse Thomas
Boats & Birds by Gregory and The Hawk
Be Be Your Love by Rachael Yamagata
Thinking of You by Katy Perry
A Drop in the Ocean by Ron Pope
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
I Almost Do by Taylor Swift
Human by Christina Perri
Poison & Wine by The Civil Wars
Secrets by Mariah McManus
Say Something by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
Shame On You by Mariah McManus
Stay by Rihanna (feat. Mikky Ekko)
Unarmed by Mariah McManus

Kapcsolódó poszt a múlt heti “Zene a könyvben” bejegyzésem, amelyhez ebből a könyvből választottam egy nagyon szép részletet.

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Related post my “Music in the Book” post of last week, where I chose a beautiful quote from this book. 🙂

https://veronikasreaderfeeder.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/zene-a-konyvben-music-in-the-book-10/