All the Way to Heaven
Becky Doughty
(The Fallout Series, #1)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: November 2nd 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Anica Tomlin, business major, has just learned that the man she’s been planning her future around, her Global Finance professor, already has a beautiful wife and family. Ani cashes in her graduation gift to herself a little early—a trip to Tuscany—but from the moment she boards the wrong train in Pisa, her plans for solitude and self-indulgence begin to unravel around her.
When a bicycle accident thrusts Ani into the skilled hands of the dashing Dr. Cosimo Lazzaro, she reluctantly accepts his invitation to recover in his family’s country villa, perched on a hilltop surrounded by the Lazzaro olive groves. But it’s been a black year for olive growers all over Italy, and generations of tradition are being put to the test like never before.
Ani is swept up in the drama of life in Tuscany, the convergence of old and new, and the passions that drive people to pursue the desires of their hearts. Just as Ani begins to get her feet under her again, an unexpected turn of events leaves her doubting the very existence of happily-ever-after, unless she can learn to trust the desires of her own heart.
Although All the Way to Heaven is a stand-alone novel, it is the first book in The Fallout Series, a collection of sweet contemporary romances that follow characters featured in the first book.
EXCERPT:
Seven AM in Lucca, and the quaint medieval town was teeming with life, fueled by a caffeine-and-Mediterranean-air-induced high. Bicycle bells jingle-jangled, and boisterous greetings volleyed from one side of the narrow streets to the other. School children laughed and called out to comrades as they scurried off to class.
“Why is everyone so happy?” I pulled a lumpy pillow over my head, but I could find no entry back into the anesthetizing arms of sleep.
My first morning in this enchanted place, and I felt more like a forgotten princess in a tower than a girl on a much-anticipated trip to Italy.
I hadn’t expected to fall asleep right away, but after a hot shower and a bowl of the packaged soup my mom had slipped into my luggage before they drove me to the airport, fatigue settled its heavy cloak around my shoulders. Crawling between the crisp sheets that smelled of bleach and lavender, I was disquieted by the unfamiliar stillness of a town that collectively slept at night. My world was round-the-clock, where the freeway slowed, but never stopped, businesses stayed open twenty-four hours a day, and people lived in shifts, as though afraid the earth might cease turning on its axis the moment no one was looking. But sleep, I did, like a stone, in spite of the tears that made it impossible to breathe through my nose.
Morning, however, had arrived with a vengeance, the stillness before dawn exploding into a cacophony of sound as unfamiliar to me as last night’s stillness. Cobbled streets bordered by tall, ancient stone buildings made shouts and laughter echo and reverberate, each sound amplified. Everything felt so close, but no one here seemed to mind. Like an orchestra tuning its instruments before a performance, each noise outside the window was finding its perfect pitch in the symphony entitled, “A Day in the Life of Lucca.”
“Why is everyone so happy?” I pulled a lumpy pillow over my head, but I could find no entry back into the anesthetizing arms of sleep.
My first morning in this enchanted place, and I felt more like a forgotten princess in a tower than a girl on a much-anticipated trip to Italy.
I hadn’t expected to fall asleep right away, but after a hot shower and a bowl of the packaged soup my mom had slipped into my luggage before they drove me to the airport, fatigue settled its heavy cloak around my shoulders. Crawling between the crisp sheets that smelled of bleach and lavender, I was disquieted by the unfamiliar stillness of a town that collectively slept at night. My world was round-the-clock, where the freeway slowed, but never stopped, businesses stayed open twenty-four hours a day, and people lived in shifts, as though afraid the earth might cease turning on its axis the moment no one was looking. But sleep, I did, like a stone, in spite of the tears that made it impossible to breathe through my nose.
Morning, however, had arrived with a vengeance, the stillness before dawn exploding into a cacophony of sound as unfamiliar to me as last night’s stillness. Cobbled streets bordered by tall, ancient stone buildings made shouts and laughter echo and reverberate, each sound amplified. Everything felt so close, but no one here seemed to mind. Like an orchestra tuning its instruments before a performance, each noise outside the window was finding its perfect pitch in the symphony entitled, “A Day in the Life of Lucca.”
Author Interview:
Becky Doughty
Q: Your new book, All
the Way to Heaven, takes place in Italy, and in particular, the city of
Lucca in the heart of Tuscany. What made you choose Lucca for your location?
A: Several years ago, I visited Italy with a friend, and we
opted to “take the road less traveled.” By that, I mean we were on a slightly
restrictive budget. So we spent most of our time in youth hostels, guest
houses, and bed and breakfasts rather than hotels and resorts. And we looked
for cities that were highly rated by tourists, but that weren’t necessarily highly
populated by them. Lucca was our first stop on our trip, and I fell in love
with the city. There is a sense of being “out of time and place” in Lucca. The
core of the city is completely encircled by a Renaissance period wall wide
enough to race cars on—and at one time, people did! Nowadays, it’s carefully
preserved, and limited to only pedestrians and cyclists. It’s essentially one
huge park that hugs the heart of Lucca, as though protecting it from the
ravages of the real world. A daily promenade on the wall is essential to
experience life in Lucca. In fact, in Italy, there is a custom, passeggiata, a term which means “evening stroll,” and it’s a national
tradition for people to take a walk after work hours and before dinner. If you
live in Lucca, the wall is the place to experience passeggiata at its finest. What better place to fall in love?
Q:
You reference opera quite a bit in All
the Way to Heaven. Are you an opera buff?
A:
I’m pretty much a fake fan. I love listening to the arias (that would be like
saying I’m a Van Halen fan but I only listen to their ballads) really, really
loudly when I clean house. It kinda drowns out my bad attitude—I hate, loathe,
despise, etc., cleaning—and turns my chores into something dramatic and
otherworldly. But I do think the stories told in operas are some of the wildest
and craziest ever, and originally, I intended to write a whole series of modern
retellings of various operas. Unfortunately, my fake fandom started showing while
doing my research, and I realized I didn’t know enough about opera to base a
whole series on it. So I kept the opera elements in All the Way to Heaven because they worked, but moved toward other
themes in the rest of the series. Music, however, remains a key player in all
three (maybe four) books!
Q:
Are there cliffhangers in The Fallout Series?
A:
In every book there are some loose threads that will lead into the next book,
but no real cliffhangers. I’m not a huge fan of cliffhangers, mainly because
I’m the kind of reader who needs
closure. I love books that leave a few loose ends to tie into the next book(s)
in the series, but I need to be able to close the book and spend some time
looking back on the story and reveling in what I’ve just read, rather than
feeling like I need to charge ahead into the next one. For instance, I loved The Hunger Games books. Even though
there were many threads left loose, and even some cliffhanger elements, the
premise of each individual book was brought to resolution. As much as I enjoyed
Kiera Cass’ The Selection series
(don’t get me wrong – I gave it 5 stars!), it actually became frustrating to me
as I closed the cover on each book and still had no closure on some of the
relationship issues. I kept thinking to myself, “So choose already, and let’s
get on to saving the kingdom!”
Q:
Speaking of other authors, do you have a favorite author or authors?
A:
I’m an avid reader, and I don’t have any major genre preferences or hang-ups, so
I tend to have a flavor-of-the-month thing when it comes to authors. Right now,
I can’t get enough of Amy Harmon. Her novels have a depth to them that many
NA/contemporary romances don’t. She writes about ordinary people with
extraordinary circumstances or gifts or curses in a way that’s believable and
culturally timely, and her ability to thread spiritual elements through her
stories is so refreshing. I have yet to read one of hers where I don’t turn the
last page with bittersweet relish. John Green always wins with me, Rachel
Marks, Jessica Parks, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with the
TV show “Shadowhunters” based on Cassandra Clare’s The Immortal Instruments… It would seem my flavor of the month is
YA/NA at the moment. I’ve also been a fan of Diana Gabaldon for most of my
adult life, some Stephen King I love (and some I hate), and many, many others.
Q:
I notice you call The Fallout Series
“Sweet New Adult Fiction.” Can you tell us a little more about that?
A:
Nothing like saving the tough stuff ‘til last. Okay. I have this unquenchable
belief that “coming of age” is not synonymous with “testing all boundaries.” I love, love, love the
New Adult category, but I think it’s kind of gotten a bad rap since its debut
on the market. I’ve asked many NA authors what they consider is criteria for
NA, and the answer across the board is character age. That transitional period
between living at home and living independently. So they’re typically set on
college campuses or at new jobs, or around new experiences (such as traveling
alone, like Ani in All the Way to Heaven).
So often, the expectation is that the characters in these novels will indulge
in extreme sexual exploration (the covers alone do much to propel this
conception), among other things, but
many of these books are about so much more than that. And in fact, many of
these books include very little of it, dealing more with how their characters
handle new seasons in their lives, and sometimes get bypassed because they’re
lumped in with what is often considered “erotica.” Rumor has it there’s a growing
demand for “sweet” fiction about this particular transitional period – by
“sweet” I mean relatively mild in regards to violence, language, and sex, even
if the storyline deals with some of these very real issues--and I want to be a
part of that new subcategory of New Adult fiction.
Q:
One last question. Is this why you’re publishing through Clean Teen Publishing?
A:
In a roundabout way, I suppose it is. I submitted to Clean Teen Publishing NOT
because my books are clean, but because Clean Teen is known for the content
analyses they do on all their books. They do not believe in censorship, but in
full disclosure. Movies and television are rated for content, so why not book
ratings?
Q:
Thank you for being here today, Becky.
A:
Thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to share a little about
me and my books with you, and I hope you’ll find something in my stories that
resonates with you! I’d be happy to answer any other questions you might have!
Author Bio:
Becky Doughty is the author of the best-selling Elderberry Croft series, The Gustafson Girls series, Waters Fall, and more. She’s also the voice behind BraveHeart Audiobooks. She writes Women’s Fiction with strong elements of romance, as well as Young Adult and New Adult Fiction. Becky’s favorite people are edge-dwellers, those who live on that fine line where hope and despair meet, where love is the only answer and grace becomes truly amazing. Becky is married to her champion of more than 25 years. They have three children, two of whom are grown and starting families of their own, and they all live within a few miles of each other in Southern California. They share their lives with too many animals, a large vegetable garden, and a strange underground concrete room they’re certain was built for dark and sinister purposes….
Maria - Thanks so much for having me here today and for sharing about my new book. I appreciate it!
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