Find You in the Dark Paperback Release

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I'm so thrilled to help celebrate the paperback release of Find You in the Dark! A. Meredith Walters is absolutely one of my favorite New Adult authors and I've been following her career very closely. I read Find You in the Dark way back when NA was just emerging and I fell in love immediately. Maggie and Clayton are characters that will always have a place in my heart. I hope you'll all go out and get your copy today, whether you've read her or not! I can't recommend this amazing author enough and it's fantastic to see her flourishing. 

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About the Book

Maggie Young had the market on normal. Normal friends, normal parents, normal grades.. normal life. Until him. 

Clayton Reed was running from his past and an army of personal demons that threatened to take him down. He never thought he had a chance at happiness. Until her.

Maggie thought their love could overcome anything. Clay thought she was all he needed to fix his messy life. That together, they could face the world. But the darkness is always waiting.

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to true love is within yourself.

AMAZON PAPERBACK :: AMAZON KINDLE :: B&N - PAPERBACK & KINDLE

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About the Author

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary and Paranormal romance including The Find You in the Dark and Bad Rep series as well as the upcoming stand alone romance, Reclaiming the Sand, and a dark new adult series for Gallery Books.

A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect of her writing.

When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.

A. Meredith is represented by Michelle Johnson with the Inklings Literary Agency.

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Cover Reveal: Reclaiming the Sand by A. Meredith Walters

Check out this gorgeous cover for A. Meredith Walters's new novel. Anyone else having trouble imagining waiting until March 17th to read Reclaiming the Sand? 

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About the Book

Bully and victim. 


Tormenter and tormented. 


Villain and hero. 



Ellie Mccallum was the bully. The Tormenter. The Villain. Taking what she wanted, stomping over anyone that got in her way. Feelings, futures, and relationships be damned. She felt no emotional connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable. 



Particularly Freaky Flynn.

 

Growing up, Flynn Hendrick was known only as “Freaky Flynn.” He lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.



But then Flynn and Ellie grew up. 



And moved on.



Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.



When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other. 



And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.



But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the farther you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.

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About the Author  

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary and Paranormal romance including The Find You in the Dark series, Bad Rep and its upcoming sequel.

A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect of her writing.

When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly 6 year old daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.

A. Meredith is represented by Michelle Johnson with the Inklings Literary Agency.

Find Meredith Online: Twitter :: Facebook :: Goodreads

Perfect Regret - A. Meredith Walters

Synopsis: Riley Walker makes all the right decisions and knows exactly where her life is headed.
Riley Walker does not make mistakes.
Riley Walker certainly doesn’t make spontaneous decisions.
But then Riley Walker gets dumped.
Spectacularly, gut-wrenching, stomp all over her heart dumped. And she is feeling more than a little angry. And a whole lot bitter. And suddenly the girl who has always done everything right feels like doing something completely wrong.
Garrett Bellows, lead guitarist for the local band, Generation Rejects, is going through life without a plan. Trying not to think past the next gig or the next party, he has worked hard to not become too attached to anyone or anything. So he is shocked to find himself drawn to the snarky girl with a chip on her shoulder. She pisses him off and puts him down. He knows she’s nothing more than a self-entitled college brat who thinks she’s better than the townie boy without a future.
Alcohol and a hefty dose of lust leads to a night both Riley and Garrett immediately regret. Her embarrassment, his pride and the weight of rumors and misconceptions convince Riley and Garrett that their one-time indiscretion will never be repeated. Particularly when their harshest critics are each other.
But how do you reconcile a head that wants to let go with a heart that keeps holding on?
And what happens when your biggest regret begins to seem almost perfect?

I have a handful of indie authors that I’ll support unconditionally, and A. Meredith Walters is one of them. Her writing style seems so effortless and is just completely emotional. Her characters always seem to exist somewhere else in full 3-D glory and somehow they’re channeled into the pages of Walters’s books for a brief period of their lives. Perfect Regret has all the elements of a great A. Meredith Walter’s book: intensity, high emotions, depth, a tough-but-scared heroine, and a hot boy with some issues. 

To be totally honest, with both Bad Rep and Perfect Regret, I’ve started them out thinking – this is the same as any other New Adult book. But I keep reading because I’ve come to trust this writing. And somewhere along the way, I find I’ve been totally sucked in and a switch has flipped and I’m not in typical NA land anymore. These stories are really their own world and it was amazing to pop back in on the Bad Rep world and check in on Maysie and Jordan because they are still so dear to me. 

Riley’s story was admittedly tougher for me to connect to, but once I did I was hooked. Riley’s a little bit more aggressive, misguided, and jaded when the book opens. But it really is amazing to see how she grows as her story progresses and she really softens and starts to let people in. She not only lets Garrett in, but she manages to actually let her friends in and connect to them. Her family was also an important part of this story – yeah, I sobbed when she went back home to her parents and some things went down. That was a terrifying and emotional part of the book, but it was amazing as a turning point in Riley’s life. 

So on to Garrett – I have some issues with finding long hair on dudes attractive. My imagination just can’t go there for some reason. But then Riley talks about how she’s angry chick music and he’s hard rock (or something like that) and all of a sudden I’m picturing Garrett as Heath Leger from 10 Things I Hate About You and Riley as Kat. And then I totally fell for Garrett. He has some damage from his past, but he really straightened things out, too. His chemistry with Riley was just fabulous. It was actually amusing watching them dance around each other. But sometimes I wanted to smack Riley because she would say things and I’d feel completely protective of Garret. Which, now that I think about it is genius because it’s all from Riley’s point of view. I don’t know how all these emotions and connections are put into the book because they’re there and it’s awesome. 

I can’t recommend the Bad Rep series, or any A. Meredith Walters book enough. While Maysie and Jordan are still my favorite, Perfect Regret is a great companion to Bad Rep.  I’ve come to feel like I’m a part of their group of friends and I’m totally invested on where they go from here.  If you want a great New Adult book that will go straight to your heart, frustrate you a bit, but bring all your emotions to the surface then Perfect Regret is your book.

Bad Rep - A. Meredith Walters

Synopsis: Maysie Ardin is soaking up the summer before her junior year of college, shopping, hanging by the pool and shopping some more. But when her black belt in spending lands her in trouble with her parents, she is forced to take a second job at a local bar to dig herself out of a deep financial pit.
She thought she’d be miserable. But then Maysie didn’t count on Jordan Levitt, the hot, pierced and tattooed, drum playing bartender who also happens to be very interested in her. And the feelings are totally mutual.
It had the makings of the perfect romantic set up. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy has girlfriend? Okay, maybe not.
But attraction is a hard thing to ignore and soon Jordan and Maysie find themselves in the middle of a gossip induced firestorm. Maysie has to learn whether she can set aside her fear of public disapproval in order to be with the one she wants. Or will she let the opinions of others dictate her life and her heart?

Back when I was just getting my feet wet with the NA field, I came across Find You in the Dark by A. Meredith Walters. I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but I came away with an intense experience that still hasn’t really left me. When people start talking to me about NA, I always find a way to bring her up and I’ve done my best to push her books into the hands of the people I talk to. Find You in the Dark was so emotional and tightly written, and it balanced a really tough subject and some crucial life lessons with great storytelling. So I was really excited to pick up Bad Rep and I really expected a lot from it.

I don’t know how she does it because A. Meredith Walters has this way of writing that just gets me all riled up. The beginning and the description had me slightly worried that it would fall into some stereotypical traps – with the star-crossed lovers and bad rocker boy and all – but this doesn’t feel like something I’ve read before. Maysie and Jordan’s chemistry was just spot on and effortless – the first time they met put a weight in my gut and it kept my emotions on edge through the whole book. Surprisingly, the story goes beyond the initial attraction, hook-up, relationship story arc and starts to explore – what happens when you’ve seemingly won what you wanted and everything else falls apart and you have to deal with that fall out. There are so many emotions coming from different events that the connection I made with this book went way beyond the main focus of Maysie and Jordan.

Jordan was an interesting hero. He’s this walking contradiction of preppy frat boy and bad-ass rocker dude, that weirdly makes him sorta perfect. He has a girlfriend when Maysie meets him, and that girl happens to be her sorority president (there are totally some moments in this book that remind me of Greek…just had to throw that in). He gets onto some thin (cheating)ice with the whole situation, but besides that, it’s kind of amazing how unwavering he is. I think the reason the whole cheating thing didn’t completely bother me was that it wasn’t exactly a – hey you’re attractive and I can have my cake and eat it, too – situation. It was more like – you never know when you’re going to find the right person and it’s hard to tell what obstacles you’ll have to overcome. Because of that I forgave Jordan for a lot.

I loved Maysie as well. I totally identified with her. She’s another one of those characters that I’m like – whoa, you’re living my life. She totally made me nostalgic for that point in my life – well, during parts of her story anyway – other parts I don’t need to relive. She, understandably, had a hard time trusting Jordan, and a few of the times she pushes him away could probably have been cut out or paired down just to tighten the story, but other than that , I totally was on her side. I feel like Jordan proved himself again and again, yet their relationship started in turmoil and it takes a lot of work on their part to make it work out – which is something I completely appreciated.

I can’t recommend this book, or any of A. Meredith Walter’s other books enough. She is so great and writing emotion and life into her characters and completely involving the reader into the story. You don’t leave her books behind after the story has ended. These are the kind of books you carry with you and recall at random moments. Bad Rep was amazing and even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking I’m already needing a reread because I want to go back to the tension and the drama that’s packed into this book. Seriously, though, everyone go pick up one of A. Meredith Walter’s books. Any of them. If you’re a NA lover – I suggest Bad Rep. If you’re still on that fence between YA and NA, go for Find You in the Dark. Or both. She’s amazing.

Light in the Shadows - A. Meredith Walters

*Review by Jackie Joyce
 Synopsis: How do you keep going when you feel like your life is over? Maggie never thought she’d see Clay again. So, she attempts to put her life back together after her heart has been shattered to pieces. Moving on and moving forward, just as Clay wanted her to.
Clay never stopped thinking of Maggie. Even after ripping their lives apart and leaving her behind to get the help he so desperately needed. He is healing...slowly. But his heart still belongs to the girl who tried to save him.
When a sudden tragedy brings Maggie and Clay face to face again, nothing is the same. Yet some things never change. Can the darkness that threatened to consume them be transformed into something else and finally give them what they always wanted? And can two people who fought so hard to be together, finally find their happiness? Or will their demons and fear drive them apart for good?
The thing about love, is even when it destroys you, it has a way of mending what is broken. And in the shadows, you can still see the light.

When I read Find You in the Dark, I was an emotional wreck. Maggie and Clay dug up some painful memories of high school and what it was like to be in love with someone in the unhealthiest of ways. The raw emotion and the insane passion these two share was just as addicting for me to read about as it was for them in the book. Light in the Shadows was an amazing follow up book.

I love that with Maggie and Clay, A. Meredith Walters doesn't fall into the stereotypes of some popular books out today that describe what is clearly an unhealthy relationship, but romanticize it to make it ok. It's SO not ok. And as much as your heart aches at how much these two love each other, it is obvious that they are spiraling. Instead of dancing around these issues, this book takes them head on. It is so refreshing to read a book that points out when you are losing your independence, your friends, and the respect and trust of your family, you are probably involved in something you shouldn't be.

I have also never read about someone in mental health treatment, and I think Clay really stands out as a hero in Light in the Shadows for getting help. I LOVE that as a reader, I got to experience his therapy with him. It didn't shut the door or give a brief summary about the meeting. The conversations made so much sense, and even someone who doesn't suffer from the extremeties of Clay's emotions could probably learn a thing or two about dealing with life's issues.

My favorite part about this book, though, was that I literally could not decide whether or not I wanted Maggie and Clay to be together. That might sound crazy, but Walters does such an incredible job at describing how toxic they can be to each other. In most other books I read, I know what characters are supposed to be together, and I just read patiently until it happens and it all works out happily ever after. In this book, I started getting scared. I love these two together, but I honestly started wondering whether or not they would end up together (in a healthy way or not), or if I even wanted them to...for their own sakes. 

Again, my heart is still recovering from this book. I wanted to hug both Maggie and Clay the whole time I was reading it. The first book takes you right of the edge of the cliff with them, and this one pulls you back up. I would recommend this book to everyone who likes reading about real issues, and real, passionate, messy-but-amazing relationships. You won't be able to put it down.