Suanne Laqueur – An Exaltation of Larks – Release blitz + ARC Review + Giveaway

An Exaltation of Larks
Suanne Laqueur
Release Date: November 22, 2016

Synopsis

The paths of a married couple and a male escort cross in Suanne Laqueur’s fifth novel about the price of love.

“We’re so alike, you and I. It’s no wonder we kept finding each other.”

September 11, 1973: Eleven-year-old Alejandro Penda watches from his apartment window as Santiago, Chile falls to a military coup, destroying his family and his childhood. Arriving alone in America, he’s taken in by the Larks: a prominent family in the town of Guelisten. Though burdened by unresolved grief for his disappeared parents, he becomes fiercely loyal to the Larks, eventually marrying one of their daughters, Valerie.

September 11, 2001: Javier Landes watches from his apartment window as New York City falls to terrorism. As one of Manhattan’s top-paid male escorts, this professional lover has never lacked for company and is loyal only to himself. But in the wake of 9/11, Jav is named guardian for an orphaned nephew in Guelisten and must open his carefully-guarded heart to pain he’s long suppressed.

Alex, Valerie and Jav meet first in their twenties, with a sudden attraction each finds strange and compelling. When they meet again in their forties, they discover not only is their bond still strong, but their life experiences are strangely similar. All have been shaped by separate 9/11’s, and their unfinished business from the past will change everything they know about love, loyalty and friendship.

“Life has rules. You cannot come in the middle of the night and take what we agreed isn’t yours.”

Across three decades and two continents, An Exaltation of Larks explores the unpredictability of sexual attraction, how family ties are forged, torn and mended, and how love’s downfall can turn to exaltation.

*ARC kindly provided by the Author in exchange for an honest review*

Ez ismét egy olyan történet az írónő tollából, amelynek minél több nap telik el az olvasása óta, annál mélyebbre ássa magát a gondolataimban.
Két szeptember 11. Két férfi, akinek ez a dátum örök változást hozott az életébe. Egy könyv véletlenekről, sorsokról, fájdalmakról, életekről.

Alejandro Penda csupán 11 éves volt, amikor 1973. szeptember 11-én kifordult a sarkaiból a világa. A chilei diktatúra elől menekülve, a szüleit hátrahagyni kényszerülve, egyetlen hátizsákkal érkezik meg Amerikába. Elveszett kisfiúként, nem beszélve a nyelvet, mégis új otthonra talál a bácsikájánál, majd később a Lark házban, ahol szeretet és szerelem várja őt.

Nem olyan messze, a Hudson túloldalán, Queens-ben a dominikai származású Javier Gil deSoto tizenhét évesen az utcára kerül. Kezdetben napról napra, alkalmi munkákból él, egészen addig, amíg egy hölgy pénzt és kiutat nem kínál neki a „mentorává” válva. Innentől kezdve Javier eszkortként keresi a kenyerét, mellette folytatva a régi szenvedélyét az írást, könyveit álnéven publikálva. Mígnem 2001. szeptember 11-e örökre megváltoztatja az életét.

Az írónő tökéletes átgondoltsággal és precizitással, évtizedeken, generációkon átívelően, szépen lassan szőtte a történet szálait, majd amikor a két szál egymásra talált, gyönyörűen egyesültek egy mesteri műalkotásban. A történet lebilincselő szavakkal és kiemelkedő tehetséggel volt papírra vetve, és sokszor csalt könnyet a szemembe. Mégis, ami talán a könyvet igazán különlegessé tette, az az hogy az írónő képes volt mind a chilei diktatúra borzalmainak, mind 2001. szeptember 11-i eseményeinek, egy olyan új szemszögét papírra vetni, amely egy nyers, őszinte és kicsit felkavaró élt adott a történetnek.

“¿Dónde Están Los Desaparecidos?
Hová lettek az eltűntek?”

Talán az egyetlen dolog, ami egy picit zavart a könyvben, hogy egy kicsit túl sok párhuzamot véltem felfedezni a Fishtales sorozattal. „Second chances are given or made.” És kicsit úgy éreztem, hogy az írónő teremtett magának egy második esélyt, és itt megtette azt a kihagyott lépést, amit ott nem mert. Én szívem szerint ez alkalommal is kihagytam volna ezt a bizonyos szálat, de még ennek ellenére is tökéletesnek éreztem ezt a történetet.

Ez a könyv határozottan az egyik legerőteljesebb kötet volt, amit az idei évben olvastam. Fájdalmas, erős, gyönyörű és mesteri volt. Őszintén ajánlom.

My Review in English

This is a kind of story again from the pen of Suanne Laqueur that the more days go by since my read, this story digs itself deeper and deeper into my thoughts and soul.
Two September 11. Two men whose lives have changed by this date forever. A book about coincidences, fate, pain, history and life.

Alejandro Penda was only 11 years old, when September 11th, 1973 has turned his world upside down. Fleeing from the military dictatorship of Chile, forced to leave behind his parents, he arrives in America as a little boy who doesn’t speak the language and who doesn’t know anyone. He still finds a home with his uncle and later at the Lark house where love is waiting for him.

Not so far away, on the other side of Hudson in Queens, the seventeen years old Dominican Javier Gil deSoto finds himself on the streets. Firstly, he tries to live day by day earning money with waiting tables, until a kind woman offers him an escape and money. From this point she becomes his “mentor” and he becomes a male escort. Besides escorting he continues to do the thing that he loved the most since he was a kid: writing, and he starts to write and publish his books under a pen name. Then the 9/11 attacks change his life forever.

The way how the author slowly weaved the threads though decades and generations was so perfect, well thought and precise. And when the threads found each other they merged into a beautifully crafted masterpiece. The writing style was poetic and captivating, and the story made my eyes tear up several times. But maybe that made this book truly unique was the way how the author painted an honest, raw and sometimes upsetting point of view of the Chilean dictatorship and a whole new angle of the events of September 11, 2001.

“¿Dónde Están Los Desaparecidos?
Where are the disappeared ones?”

Maybe the only thing that bothered me a little that I discovered a little too many similarities with the The Fishtales series, just here the author dared to step over some boundaries that she didn’t in her former books. To tell the truth I would have left out that part from this book too, but maybe it’s just me, and it was still felt perfect this way.

This book was definitely one of the most powerful books I’ve read this year. Painful, strong, beautiful and brilliant. I highly recommend it.

My Favorite Quotes From the Book

“My heart beats with yours. Wake up to hear my heart one day. This day. Every day.
Sobrepasarlo.“

“Within the dread is hope.”

“He’s a Lark. But I am his Trueblood. And my excellent job is to navigate him out into the open sea. And if he flies too high, I help get him down.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I’m with you. No matter what.”

„I want to be your home.” His lips ran soft across her brow. „I want to wake up every morning and listen to your heart. I want to be the last man you slept with. When you say it’s been a long time since you made love, I want that time to be a matter of hours. Because I loved you last night. And I’m going to love you again tonight.”

“No shock I didn’t look outside the nest to find a mate. When the Larks took me in, I imprinted like a little bird.”
“Same,” Jav said. “It’s not the Larks that kill you. It’s the exaltation.”

“Bad choices make good stories.”

“The sunlight through the glass intensified and Jav remembered this was a woman who kicked in the bathroom door to get back what was hers. He imagined Alex came to America with a half-dozen barricaded doors in his heart, and Val either bashed them down, took them off the hinges or picked the locks open. She’d let nothing come between her and her man.”

5- Brilliant- Stars

Instagram: @upveronika

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Author Bio

Suanne Laqueur’s debut novel The Man I Love and its follow-up, Give Me Your Answer True, won gold medals in the 2015 and 2016 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. Both were finalists in the 2015 and 2016 Kindle Book Awards, and Laqueur was named a gold medal Debut Author with Feathered Quill Book Reviews.

Laqueur graduated from Alfred University with a double major in dance and theater, and taught at the Carol Bierman School of Ballet Arts in Croton-on-Hudson for ten years. An avid reader, cook and gardener, she started her blog EatsReadsThinks in 2010. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and two children.

With her Fish Tales series, Laqueur has gone from choreographing dancers to choreographing words. Her goal is to create a new kind of emotionally-intelligent romance that appeals to all readers, crossing gender, age and genre. Visit her at http://suannelaqueurwrites.com. All feels welcome. And she always has coffee.

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