Release Blitz: Back to Yesterday by Whitney Barbetti

Title: Back to Yesterday

Series: Bleeding Hearts #2

Author: Whitney Barbetti

Release Date: Oct 20, 2016

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The distance from Colorado to Maine is not far enough to escape the memories.
The time I've been away is not long enough to heal the pain.
I left Colorado, determined to discover who I am outside of my grief, but I fell apart along the way.
I'm lost again.

When Jude follows me, I can't turn him away. But I can't let him in, either.
Not all the way.
I know when he finds out my secret, the one I keep hidden in the darkest part of my heart, he’ll leave me.
Alone.
Like I was before.

“Are you okay?”

He laughed, but it was without humor. He dropped his head and stared at his plate as I had minutes earlier. “Am I okay?” Shaking his head, he said, “No, I’m not fucking okay.” He pushed away from the table hard enough that the screech of the chair across the wooden floor startled me. Jude was always so steady, and while he wasn’t necessarily predictable, he wasn’t prone to outbursts of anger like this. He picked up his plate and walked to the sink and I stared at his back, willing him to talk to me. But I couldn’t ask that of him.

Picking up my plate, I debated what to do. It was surreal almost, being in Jude’s apartment but not touching him the way I wanted to. Finally, I joined him at the sink as he worked a sponge into a lather and swiped it across his plate. “Let me do it,” I said softly, reaching a hand in to take the sponge from him.

He let go of the plate and clasped my forearm as I reached into the sink. His touch was gentle as he turned my wrist over and rubbed a thumb slowly across the length of my vein, visible through my translucent skin. I could only hold my breath as he touched me like this, like he was memorizing the blue lines that ran the length of my forearm. His hands were warm, searching, and I realized that I’d been yearning for this, for the simple act of him touching my skin like it was delicate. His fingers moved down, and my closed fist opened to give him access to my palm, where he traced the lines in my hands. It was so intimate, even in its simplicity, that all I could do was watch him as he examined my hands. “I’ve missed you,” he said in a voice that was just short of a whisper. My heart turned over as he bent my fingers gently back into my fist and rubbed his soapy fingers over the knuckles.

When he let go of my hand and turned away from me, I felt goose bumps ignite across my skin. All I wanted was for him to keep touching me, but I’d hurt him. And he’d hurt me.

We had miles of pain between the two of us, and even though we were no longer miles apart, that pain existed between us like another person, holding both of us back.

“I missed you too,” I said too late, when I’d caught my breath again.

“Please,” he pleaded as he rinsed the plate in his hands. “I can’t hear you say that right now.”

Nodding, I backed away. I understood. This wasn’t the time or place, and we were little more than strangers right now. I was a new Trista, someone he had never known.

Likely, someone he didn’t want to know.

REVIEW

Back To Yesterday is the conclusion to Trista and Jude's story and it takes us on a deeply emotional journey.

Told in both past and present parts, we get to see what has been going on with both Trista and Jude and also glimpses of Mila and Colin since the end of book one.  This book is mostly about Trista and her coming to terms with the events of book one but also finding herself. Discovering who Trista is outside of being Colin's girlfriend, the sad girl who lost her friend, and her mother's living regret.

Back to Yesterday draws a lot of attention to Trista's internalizations and how she handles them. There is a lot of pain there, more than we saw in Into the Tomorrows, but also there is more.  Trista is a complex woman, she's still got the frightened girl inside of her, she still longs for love and acceptance, but is unsure of deserving it.

Meanwhile Jude is suffering over his decisions and the way he handled everything in the past. Though he wants to explain to Trisa, he also knows that he doesn't really have an explanation to offer other than the truth, and the truth is, he felt like he knew her better than herself and opted to do things he felt were in her best interest.

What I love most about this book, and Into the Tomorrows as well is how the romance, how the love story is more subtlely and deeply woven into the rest of the story. It's there but there is so much other stuff going on that it just sort of burrows within the deep thoughts, the strong interactions, the emotional purge both characters go through.  It's real and its there but there is so much more to focus on within these powerful words.

Back to Yesterday is a story with heavy emotions, its a story about self-growth and learning to love yourself, its a story about the struggles every day people face and the people who help us get through them.  It's also a story about forgiveness and understanding and ultimately a deep abiding love.  Jude and Trista are not perfect people, they aren't always happy and they don't always know the best thing to do, but that's life. That's reality - people are not designed to act the same as everyone else, we feel things on different levels, some more than others and that's okay.

Whitney Barbetti did a wonderful job of weaving these two lost souls together in a story that was Deep and powerful and gripped me in its pages while showing me turmoil and pain, making me feel it all, making me breathe deeply as I saw life through Trista's eyes.   This book was anything but ordinary and I'm beyond happy about that as it will stick with me.

I am a wife to one and a mom to two humans and one cat. I have a deep and abiding love for nachos - especially the kind with the liquid cheese, like from Taco Bell (sorry). I run on less than four hours of sleep thanks to copious amounts of Diet Coke. (Note: this paragraph is not sponsored by anyone except my hungry stomach.) 

As a Navy brat, I grew up all over the country, from California, up the east coast from Florida to New England and Colorado. I currently live in Idaho, where we have lots of potatoes and windmills. 

I write character-driven New Adult novels, heavy on the emotional connection. I LOVE love. I love writing about broken characters who find their soul mates.