The Road to Redemption (Premiere)

Fore wording

As you may have noticed the “Appalachian Romance” series has been missing from my site for a bit now. The reason why is because I noticed some things I could do to make the story flow a bit better and kind of have more of an appeal. At least in my opinion. So, I took it down and started remastering it so it would be able to continue. So, without further a due here’s the remastering of Appalachian Romance! Or more accurately named now, The Road to Redemption! (You guy’s have no idea how much I’ve been struggling to keep this a secret because I am so proud of this!) I hope you guy’s love it as much as I do!

P.s. Happy New Year! I know the holiday’s aren’t the easiest on a lot of folks. I’m one of those people. I just hope that whoever is reading this knows that someone somewhere loves them. Cheesy as that sounds. I’ve never forgotten the roots of what started this blog. The girl who was all alone and only ever wanted to make at least one person in the world feel less alone. Less like they were a burden and more like they mattered. And as the new year dawns I can honestly say that the little girl who started the blog well that’s a story for another day but I hope you all know that no matter how long it takes, how many times you restart/rebrand… you can get there. It’s within reach.

Also just one last thing? All the mushy aside… I really do hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! I look forward to continuing the story! (Sorry my heart can only take so much before I start sobbing and I don’t want to break my computer with tears XD) Without further a due if you made it this far I present to you The Road to Redemption.

Chapter One

Do you ever just feel like it’s all for nothing? Like maybe there isn’t a soulmate, maybe all that crap is just a story we tell to feel better about staying with a shitty partner, like oh but we’re meant to be? Or maybe it’s something we tell our kids and friends, so they feel better about living? Have a little hope? Maybe the church isn’t right, maybe none of it has a purpose, maybe we’re all just fucked? I can’t be the only one, right?

I used to believe in all the romantic crap, I tried. I used to believe in love and soulmates and fate, and God. But then again how could he take my parents and strip my sister of her dreams forcing her to raise her shithead brother, and the brother who barely understood? I lost hope and faith a long time ago. At least that’s what I thought. But I suppose I was a bit twisted in my way of thinking, maybe even a bit more bitter than I care to admit. As all those daydreams and fantasies, I used to have that I believed were buried alongside my parents. Well, they suddenly had a heartbeat again. Slowly creeping up on me and it all started when she moved in.

To catch you up – well it might help if I introduce myself, I’m Connor Ryker Brookes. Most of my friends just call me Brookes. I own a Dog Training company with my two best friends, we have since we were about twenty-four. Out of the three of us, you could say I’m the “workaholic”. I traded one vice for another. Then there’s Trent who we have to keep in check (he’s still acting like he’s in college), and poor Saylor has had to deal with our shit for so long. He’s that dad friend and now he’s finally actually a dad as of about two months ago, he and his fiancé found out they were expecting. Then there’s me, as I mentioned before I’m a workaholic and that’s about all I live for. I enjoy my job, checking in on my brother about once a month, he’s busy helping our brother-in-law with the ranch and I rarely make it to family dinners anymore even though my sister begs me to join them. I stay in my corner of the world and leave it to them.

It’s never been that I didn’t love them or see a point in keeping what little family we had left together it’s always more so been that I feel more like they should have our parents. And I guess that’s why I left home so soon? I felt guilty and then the more time that passed the harder it was to go back to them? But something my mother always told me? “When you least expect it Ry, they’ll be there with the answers you need.”

Mom wasn’t super religious. Like we didn’t go to church every Sunday, never really said grace or anything like that. But she would talk about God and prayer, she would talk about the importance of finding a grounding point in life and having good morals, karma and things of that nature. Dad was the same way. She was one of the wisest women I ever met next to my sister. She was kind and generous, patient. But she didn’t take any shit either.

That statement though, it never really held much merit until I met Huntleigh…now I’m questioning everything.

If you made it to the end of this post I truly do hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoy writing it! If Connor feels like a familiar character that’s because he was originally going to be in my book (though you might know him better from Canadian Coffee Shop which was one of the very original rough draft chapters of my book). Connor is a really special character to me and I wanted to give him “Justice” as I joke so often that he deserves it. He deserves better than what he was heading for originally. But ANYWAY! Thank you so much for your support! Don’t forget to like, share, follow and let me know what you think in the comments below. The goal for this year its to be way more consistent and build Stormy Ville out. To have more in our little community.

After tonight posts will be uploaded on Wednesday’s at 11:11 PM. You can also follow my Facebook or Instagram for more updates involving the posts or my YouTube (we have so many plans for that as well) but until next time – stay safe, love hard, and protect your peace ❤

xoxo Hails