Strumming My Pain by B. Love has 184 Starred Book Reviews! Check out the excerpt: https://a.co/2HW6bqg
Nurse, Elise Waters, has been shaken. After witnessing the murder of the man she loved, anxiety had become her relaxed state and trust is a fair-weather friend. Forced into witness protection while awaiting her moment of testimony at the murderers’ trial, she meets someone who provokes her truth. Her spirit, searching for soothing, cries out. But claiming healing isn’t so easy.
Izeah Moses is a guitarist with a head for business. As owner of an apartment complex, the presence of his new tenant sends his fingers into a melodic frenzy. Easily, she captured his heart, but grief and fear have overtaken her mind. Fulfilling her needs takes more than a serenade.
In this Spiritually Street Romance, will Elise and Izeah become their very own love song? Or will the past forever haunt, leaving them plucked to pieces?
Read more about Strumming My Pain by B. Love African American Women’s Fiction
B. Love, an author who focuses on African American romance, urban romance, and non-fiction genres, is celebrating five years as a published author on November 5, 2020.
Often called the ‘Prolific Pen Pusher,’ B. Love has achieved much in just five years as a published author. She has released more than 110 award-winning novels that have received both critical acclaim as well as financial success. To mark her five years of successful novel-writing, the author is set to release five new books.
B. Love has been writing ever since she was 12, and her stories stand apart from regular love stories in that they focus on self-growth, self-awareness, compassion, and gratitude. Her stories have more to do with transforming the life and approach of the reader, rather than providing them with merely a gripping plot. With a sizable fan following in all parts of the world, her stories are characterized by compelling content that explores the many colors of human emotions such as love, passion, and devotion to life.
B. Love’s books focus on encouraging inner growth and elicit deep inner exploration in her readers. She focuses on continuous learning and self-reflection and encourages her readers to take the same path to unravel a beautiful life that each one of us are bestowed with.
In addition to writing, B. Love is a writing coach, editor, publishing sage and consultant, and has founded a publishing company that helps talented authors publish books. She also provides mentoring for new authors and guidance to current authors as well as story ideas and summaries for those who need inspiration to start writing. Her company has helped publish more than 300 books by about 50 authors.
Mira is a troubled soul living in the sphere of toxicity. With heartbreak and rejection being too heavy of a cocktail to continuously digest, she turns to drug use in order to dull her reality. Unfortunately, her spiral leads to homelessness and a need for rescue. Desperate for cash, she finesses her way into an underground casino. Taken in by the action, it’s clear this is a place she doesn’t belong. However, a meeting with a powerful man causes her to lose her potential marks and gain a path to healing that just may let her heart tag along.
Smoke is suave and charismatic, and he knows his business. As the owner of an underground casino, his eyes and ears are always open. Dollars don’t get played or paid without him knowing about it. Faces become familiar after first glance. When a woman, less made up and more run down, enters his establishment, Smoke instantly recognizes her as out of place. Yet, there’s something about her that draws him in. He wants to care for her… help her reclaim her light. If only the task was that simple.
Will Smoke and Mira find themselves in the mirrors of each other? Or will the truth of circumstances fade the promises of the future?
A connection has been established between Smoke and Mira, but decisions on both their parts create cracks within their foundation.
As Mira’s life spirals out of control, she finds herself in desperate need of an anchor. Smoke’s need to save the damsel in distress causes him to protect and connect with Mira in ways neither thought was possible. The closer they get, the less Mira feels worthy of the love and care Smoke provides, and that only makes him want to pursue her more.
When an enemy threatens both their lives and budding relationship, Smoke realizes just how detrimental they are to one another. Instead of providing one another with reasons to be better, they continuously bring out the worst in each other. One final test has Smoke ready to avoid his reflection in the mirror of Mira… and he can only hope she’s strong enough to handle it.
Oakland was once the baby sister kept under her brother’s thumb. Now, she’s a woman determined to take care of herself, and that includes licking her own wounds. Fresh off of heartbreak, she’s sure being alone couldn’t get any worse… until she finds herself in jeopardy of losing her job. Reflexes would have her call her big brother to save her, yet she reminds herself that she wanted this independence and she must fight to keep it. Entering a competition with a fellow journalist looks like a plausible solution. However, the nature of the competition, steeped in pretend dates and getting-to-know you questions, puts a lot more than her employment on the line.
Azriel is mighty with words. A talented journalist, he’s no stranger to proving himself. When he’s offered an opportunity to enter a challenge to showcase what he’s made of and stamp his name on the magazine industry, he confidently accepts. His competition not only matches his savvy, but her allure is enough to make the world stop moving. In a romantic whirlwind dubbed as research, he finds discovering her truths shifts his perspectives and steadies his heart. However, with his career on the line, love may have to be left out of the credits.
Will Azriel and Oakland let their hearts narrate the future? Or are they both sentenced to a life without love?
What do you do when the love is gone? The lies are revealed. You Fight.
Valerie appeared to have the perfect family life while suffering in silence to formulate her escape plan. When a past indiscretion is revealed will she have the courage and strength to move on and what will get in her way? How will she find the ability to trust anyone again?
Joy is a successful therapist who has helped dozens of addicts over the years. When she decides to take on virtual clients including Valerie, she gets a little more than she bargained for including having to learn to face her own past.
Love, Lies & Fight is an emotionally charged story of how helping others through their pain and issues is sometimes exactly what we need.
Book Reviews from Beta Readers
Erin Maiolino states: LOVE LIES & FIGHT is a raw, riveting, and authentic story of two women whose lives are interwoven by chance yet inescapably interrelated.
Rattled by her high-powered husband’s infidelity, Valerie plunges into the darkness of picking up the pieces while discovering who she is. Her aptly named therapist, Joy, must come to terms with the lies, secrets, and tragedies in her own life. The deep pain and suffering that these two women endure are shared by every woman who has ever endured a heart-wrenching loss or betrayal.
This novel deserves your attention—travel with them on their path to rediscover love, triumph over the lies, and fight for their self-worth.
Deanna Malfregeot states: LOVE LIES & FIGHT was a compelling and absorbing read from start to finish. It was two cleverly interwoven stories depicting the two main character’s struggles, journeys of healing, and eventually moving on with their lives. I would find myself rushing through each part to get to the other character’s progress. The fact that Joy, the therapist, and Valerie, the patient, were only professionally attached and never met in person made it even more interesting in this day and age of video calls, teleconferencing, virtual meetings, etc. I found it to be the same to my own work and personal relationships. As for each of their stories, they were different enough to keep me invested as they were from different backgrounds and had come through different traumas, but the common ground each found with one another was relatable and rewarding.
This book offered two separate great stories into one that showed how trauma impacts people differently but how healing draws each character together and forward. Without giving too much away, the first-person narrator got the storytelling aspect down and had me wanting to know how she would move on with her life and I enjoyed the richly drawn characters surrounding her. What was more nuanced but every bit as interesting was Valerie, who had told her story and made me want to hear more. For Valerie, it really was a voyeuristic view into one woman’s nightmare and fight back to some sense of normalcy during a crisis. I read this book over the course of two evenings since I couldn’t wait to see what happened next and was happy with the ending.
I’d like to see a continuation of each of their respective stories! It was a sliver of their lives during a time of transition and it leaves the reader wanting more after the book is over. Isn’t that what all great books do? I’d love to see a sequel as I felt uplifted by the ending and still curious as to how their stories continue to play out as I felt a connection with the characters. I would recommend this book to everyone as it evokes powerful emotions and relatable situations. It was very well done.
Julie Bellatrix – Love, Lies and Fight is her debut novel which is co-written with author Terri D. Julie cannot thank her enough for mentoring her through this experience since it truly helped her to positively move forward with life. Julie was never much of a fan of writing until recently when dealing with a challenging series of circumstances. Having made it through as a much stronger and self-confident woman she desired to write a book that would inspire other women. Visit Julie Bellatrix’s website: https://juliebellatrix.com
Terri D a.k.a Terri Martinez – Terri is a blogger and author who writes under the pen name Terri D. She published her debut novel titled Yesterday’s Lies in 2011. Terri has since released four more novels, a memoir titled Passport Wife, has published articles, poems and Terri’s most recent release titled, Journaling for Self-Care for Young Adults was inspired by and dedicated to the young women of Chatham.
Terri is happily married again since 2017. She has three children and four grandchildren. Terri is a member of Beulah Baptist Church where she has written and produced stage plays and she is an active member in the Choir. Terri is also a trained Chaplain assistant, Certified Recovery Specialist and Certified Life Coach.
Terri is the founder and President of TDUB Publishing. Visit the TDUB Publishing website is https://tdubpublishing.com
BPM: Introduce us to your most recent work. Available on Nook and Kindle? Love, Lies & Fight is available on all major outlets in paperback and ebook formats. It is a fictional drama that focuses on the lives of the two main characters, Joy who is a therapist and Valerie who is one of her clients. It’s a story about how sometimes while helping others you ultimately end up getting the help you need. It delves into the stigma of therapy in the black community especially the church community. It shows how having closure and resolving issues in our own way and time help us to heal and move on.
BPM: Who were your favorite characters to write? Are your characters from the portrayal of real people? Terri D – My favorite character to write was Joy. I’m not a therapist but I’ve been to several in my lifetime. It was fun and at times challenging to come up with what a therapist might say in certain situations.
BPM: Do you set out to educate or inspire, entertain or illuminate a particular subject? Terri D – Yes I’ve always tried to focus on relationships and how to work through challenges. For this book I really wanted to focus on therapy and how helpful it can be. I guess the message is that therapy is a form of self-care and we all need to do whatever is needed to care for ourselves.
Julie – I wanted to establish awareness of what can happen in an unfortunate situation and showing strength by picking yourself back up and moving on.
BPM: What was the most powerful chapter in the book? Julie – I think Chapter 21 is the most powerful when Valerie finally gets the courage to describe her experience in the hospital.
BPM: Did you learn anything personal from writing your book? Julie – I can now see the benefit of writing as a way of healing.
BPM: Tell us a little about your creative process. Do you use a computer or write out the story by hand? Terri D – When I am in the middle of a writing project I don’t read books by other authors. I’m an avid reader but once I start a writing project I have shut all of that down. I love using my computer to type my books but when I journal I prefer to write it out on paper. I often listen to classical music while I write. It is very soothing and relaxing for me. It allows my creative juices to flow freely.
BPM: Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips on self-care for creative folks? Julie – Re-visit looking at what is written the next day after a good night’s rest for making revisions. If not in the mindset to write when you start, take a break until you the words start flowing at a good pace. After writing something look at it again to see if it is a critical piece to the story or if it is just something that is personal that may not need to be included.
Terri D – There’s a thin line between connecting with your characters to the point of taking on some of their traits. That can be both good and bad. It’s good to maintain a healthy balance between your creative thoughts and feelings and reality. The best way to do that in my opinion is to take breaks, step away from the fiction and go back to your reality.
BPM: Share one specific point in your book that resonated with your present situation or journey. Terri D – At one point Joy states that she believes God sent clients to her to help bring the issues that she needed to work through to the surface. That resonated with me because I feel that God brings us to things in our lives to help us learn and grow through the process of getting through those things. I have spent the past two years waiting but my time spent waiting has been intentional because I needed this time to grow spiritually.
BPM: Ultimately, what do you want readers to gain from reading your book? Julie – I want the readers to feel that it is possible to feel empowered and strong even through life’s struggles.
Terri D – Everyone struggles at some point in their life. There is no shame in seeking professional help to get through. It is possible to learn and grow through even the most painful experiences.
BPM: Do you have a Goodreads, LibraryThing, BookBub™ or Facebook community? Terri D – Here is our publisher’s website https://tdubpublishing.com and I am on Facebook, Goodreads and BookBub as Author Terri D.
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