Maria Bernard Musings

Book of the Month

A Dream for Winter by Maria Bernard

Stick Shift Lips Rockstar Romance, Book 6, Spinoff 2
Enjoy it as part of the series or as a stand-alone read.

• What happens when the bullied get bullied too far?

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Starring Sage Winters Lane and Carlie Martin

Drawn together by a mutual threat, two lonely souls find solace in each other’s company.

Carlie…
Who is he and where does he come from? What’s his story, and what’s with all the black? He hides in corners and makes no eye contact. He slinks in the shadows, with no place to go. He doesn’t think I see him, but I always do. I don’t feel quite so alone when he follows me home.

Sage…
The world is dreary and my cold heart is weary. Reasons for living are far and few. Much of my world has died and gone. Only blackness and rage live on. My sole purpose is my music. My guitar, my only friend. This world doesn’t understand me. I don’t belong. Until the girl with the red mittens came along.

Sage is a mystery even unto himself. The world doesn’t understand him, and that’s just fine as far as he’s concerned.

Carlie dreams of Christmas trees and family dinners. On her own for the first time, she dreads the long and lonely nights of winter.

When their contrasting worlds collide, they find in each other what they lack on their own… acceptance, passion, and love.

♡༻♫༺Excerpt༻♫༺♡

What he hadn’t counted on though was the violence…
Sure he’d been in fights before. All through high school, Sage had found himself on the receiving end of many an ass kicking. Still, he refused to conform to the norm. He was different, always had been, always would be.

He rarely fought back, how could he? He’d always been slight in stature, much to his father’s dismay. Too skinny, too weak, too feminine, his father would often say.

His mother, God rest her soul, would always defend him. She would say that it was just a matter of time. He’ll grow, you’ll see. Soon, Sage, you’ll be as tall as your grandfather.

Sure enough, he did grow, but mostly in height. He was still as thin as a rail. Despite his broad shoulders, his towering six-foot-three height only accentuated his lithe frame.

In their twisted wisdom, his parents had believed that by encouraging Sage to follow his musical interests, in a reverse psychology fashion, would help bring him out of his shell. So they’d bought him his most treasured of all gifts, his electric guitar. To their dismay, though, the guitar became his best and only friend.

It was that very guitar which Darryl the Dick had taken out his latest fit of rage on. The very guitar, that Darryl had in the early hours of the morning chosen to rip out of Sage’s hands and smash onto the floor. In his drunken paranoid state of mind, Darryl hadn’t stopped there. No, he’d gone further than he’d ever gone before, punching Sage repeatedly in the face when he’d attempted to pick up his treasured broken guitar.

Blinded by the pain in his jaw and the murderous visions in his mind, Sage had bolted for the door before reaching for the switchblade that he’d taken to carry in his back pocket as of late, and plunging it into Darryl’s neck!

Excerpt: © 2014 Maria Bernard

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