Books, Babes, and Cheap Cabernet: Blog Tour Stop ~ Review & Giveaway ~ Fading by e.k. blair

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~Synopsis~

Can a guilty conscience keep wounds from healing?

Fine arts major, Candace Parker, grew up with a mother who thinks image is everything, and her daughter's perfection will never be good enough. About to graduate college and pursue her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, Candace decides it's time to let go and have a little fun. But fun is short-lived when a brutal attack leaves her completely shattered.

The memories that consume and torment Candace are starting to destroy her when she meets Ryan Campbell, a successful bar owner. He feels connected and tries to show her that hope is worth fighting for. But is Ryan harboring his own demons? As walls slowly begin to chip away, the secrets that are held within start to become painful burdens.

At what point do secrets become lies?

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Fading by E.K. Blair book trailer from Novel Idea Inc. on Vimeo.

~Review~

Fading by E.K. Blair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*4.5 Stars*

Candace, a dance major at UW, was trying to be more carefree and not fit the perfect mold that her parents so desperately wanted for her to fit into. Candace decides to open herself up and go with the flow and see where things lead. She even gets a tattoo to go with this change.

Feeling pressure from her mother, Candace decides to go against her instincts and give Jack, the country club boy her mother so desperately wants for her to go out with, a chance. Little did she know that it would turn out to be the biggest mistake of her life. After being brutally raped and beaten she is so battered both physically and emotionally that she withdrawals from everything and everyone. Feeling responsible and unable to cope with the embarrassment of people knowing she becomes a shell of a person, slowing fading away. The only person that she trust is her best friend Jase. He is her rock. He takes care of her when she is not able to take care of herself. Too embarrassed and prideful to let people find out she even stops talking to her best friend and roommate Kimber, who was like a sister to her. She is slowly losing everything she was.

"I sit here, on the bottom of the shower, and everything I know about myself, everything I love, everything I am begins to fade away."

Ryan, the owner of the bar Blur, wants nothing more than to make Candace comfortable around him. Their friendship and eventually relationship surprisingly come easy but Candace is afraid to fully let her guards down. Ryan is patient and thoughtful with Candace. He wants nothing more than to be her rock.

"I understand you and Jase, but I know how I feel about you." He takes a moment before softly saying , "I want you to need me more than him."
Feeling the need to defend myself, I say, "He's all I've ever had."
Taking my hand in his, he places it against his chest when he tells me, "You have me too."
"Cling to me. Love me enough to need me."

But will an omission destroy everything? Leaving Candace more broken to pick up the pieces alone?

Fading deals with a very emotionally strong subject matter. It shows what happens to a person after such an event takes place. It was done in a very tasteful and real way. Not everyone deals with things the in the same way. Although, I wish she would have done things differently, we all must find our own path and cope our own way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story.