The Living Series by Melody Dawn

To Live Again (The Living Series #1)

This is Living (The Living Series #1.5)

New Adult / Contemporary Romance

Chloe: She's broken beyond repair. 

Jayson: He's determined to fix her and make her love him in the process. 

Chloe has the perfect life or so everyone thinks. 

She tried to leave her past behind, but it follows her like a dark shadow. Drowning in guilt, she's dying to live, but sees no way out. So she tries to fool herself and everyone else into believing she is fine. 

But Jayson sees through the act that Chloe puts up for everyone else and he's going to do everything in his power to help her to live again. 

Can Chloe let go, or will that night forever ruin her future?

“A really sweet strong about overcoming tragedy and learning to forgive yourself. I would recommend it for everyone!” - 5 Star Goodreads Review “I will just say: She has the story. Interesting and somewhat heartbreaking story.” - 5 Star from Ani’s Reviews “I loved this book!!! From the very first pages I was pulled in and didn’t put it down.” - 5 Star from Reading the Sheets “This book is well written, so emotional a tear jerker for sure but a must read.” - 5 Star from AJ’s Book ReMarks

The first time Jayson Reece saw Chloe Schaeffer, he knew she would be his forever. He promised her then that he would show her how to live rather than just letting life pass her by. Now, 9 years later, they’ve had the storybook romance, a picture perfect wedding, and two twin boys to complete the family they always wanted. 

But something is missing… 

With two rambunctious boys, Chloe decides to be a stay-at-home mom until the boys are old enough to go to school. So, with her dreams of being a social worker put on hold, she throws everything she has into being the perfect mother and wife. 

Jayson has a very demanding career as an Emergency Room physician. He tries to balance out his workload and that of being a family man, but lately his job has come first. Is he beginning to lose focus on the things that are most important to him? 

Will Chloe’s drive for perfection and the challenges of Jayson’s career drive them apart? Or will they realize that love creates the perfection she desires and the balance he needs to keep his family together? 

There’s only one thing left to do. Jayson needs to renew his promise to Chloe and she needs to trust Jayson to get them back to where they belong. 

A place where living and loving is required…those only wanting to exist need not apply.

 

“I laughed, I cried and laughed again. This is a heartwarming story and you will throuoghly enjoy it.” - 5 Star from Alpha Book Club “Man, I just loved this book. Just have a box of tissues handy, and have your best book friend in your messages so you can vent, you will need someone to listen.” - 5 Star from We’re Jumpin’ Books “A must read of 2016. I can't wait for the rest of this series.” - 5 Star from Tracy’s Book Blog “This is at times an extremely emotional read! But hold on for the ride!” - 5 Star from Goodreads Review

To Live Again

After getting out of the shower, I finish my morning routine. Taking in a breath, I know it’s time. I have to look in the mirror to check my appearance before I can leave the bathroom. I slowly raise my head and look, hoping that I can do it quickly without really having to notice my eyes. But, as usual, I stare into my reflection for a moment. I see the dark circles and notice that my violet eyes look the way they usually do, like I have no soul, because really I don’t; not anymore.

I know there is nothing I can do to change it, so I turn around and leave the bathroom and go off to start another new semester at Rice University. Pulling into the student parking lot, I find a place to park. I breathe deeply, relax my face muscles, and pull on the smiling mask that everyone expects of me and go looking for my class.

I am double majoring in Sociology and Psychology since I hope to become a social worker. Because of this, I am always looking to take classes that will help me understand what people are going through and how they react to dire situations. My first class on my new schedule will definitely help with that. It’s called Psychology 305: Death and Dying-Understanding the Grieving Process.

As I make my way across the parking lot, it occurs to me that it’s sort of ironic that I’m taking this class. Maybe I will get some insight into myself and finally some closure. Yeah right, and maybe I will sleep until 5:50 in the morning. Shaking my head in disgust, I square my shoulders and open the door, looking for my favorite seat…1st row, 3rd seat, closest to the door.

Immediately, I see it is already taken by a very large, very beautiful boy. Holy hell and hotness. He’s so gorgeous, but he is in my seat, so hot or not, he’s going to have to move it. If he doesn’t, at least I will have had a chance to talk to him and look at him; yeah, I’m so objectifying him right now. I bet feminism just slid back a couple of centuries, but surely women everywhere will understand when they get a load of what I’m seeing.

Even so, I walk up to his desk and as he looks up at me, I see the most gorgeous green eyes and black hair. Green eyes are my weakness and he is certainly no exception. I am standing there just staring at him so I know I have to act like I’m not affected by him at all. It’s kind of written in the girl code handbook that we can’t let hot guys know how they affect us, right?

Keeping this in mind, I look at him and say, “Excuse me, you’re in my seat.”

He laughs and says, “No sweetheart, I’m in my seat.”

I roll my eyes and move to the next seat over. A few seconds later, he taps me on the shoulder and says, “Hey, I’m Jayson or Jase, which ever you would like to call me.”

I glare at him and ask, “So? What makes you think I am going to call you anything?” He just winks at me and smiles a devastating smile. “If you want this seat, the price is introducing yourself.”

Feeling like something big is happening, I reach out my hand and say, “Hi, I’m Chloe Schaeffer.”

As our hands touch, I feel a spark of electricity and we both look at each other in a shocked way. We sit there for a second, staring at each other, with clasped hands. Jerking my hand back, I stand and wait as he gets up to exchange seats with me while feeling a little bad that I made such a big deal about a desk.

When he stands up, I look up at him and it’s a long way up there. He has black hair that looks like he either ran his hands through it a bunch of times or he just naturally has that sexy fall out of bed look. You know the kind people pay stylists a ton of money to get? Not to mention the green eyes, I know I already did, but God can you blame me?

I keep ogling him and the view just gets better and better. He has on a RU t-shirt and faded jeans that fit him just right paired with black Harley boots. But the best thing of all is his mouth. His lips are full and gorgeous and look like they’re made for sinning and I definitely want to be the first to fall from grace. I snap back to myself when I see him just standing there. I think he is secretly laughing at me so now I don’t feel so bad about stealing his seat.

The professor comes into the room and as he begins droning on and on about death, I keep sneaking peeks over at my sexy neighbor and C-R-A-P, crap, he just caught me checking him out. He looks back at me and winks. I immediately blush and look away and it hits me that for a moment, I forgot the hell that is my life.

This is Living

Carrying me over to the small bed, he starts to lay me down; however I refuse to let go of him. 

“Wait, are these sheets clean? Who else has been in this bed?” 

I feel his chest moving against me and I know he is trying not to laugh out loud. Punching him in the arm, I say, “Don’t laugh at me; you know how I am! I just don’t want to be lying in someone else’s stuff.”

“Well, I’m the only one that’s been on shift the last two days, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”