Today I am so pleased to welcome E.S. Carter to Joyfully Jay. E.S. has come to talk to us about her latest release, Favourite Hello. Hardest Goodbye. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Excerpt

“It’s stunning here. Must’ve been a great place to grow up,” he muses, gaze set on the shimmering blue below.

I shift on the hard, wooden bench barely big enough for two and turn my attention to the vista before me, trying to look at it with Macsen’s eyes.

The breeze blowing in off the ocean rustles through the long grass at the edge of the sheer cliff, framing the seascape in a soft caress. Sunlight kisses the water creating mirrored ripples that swirl and sparkle, while, on the horizon, boats bob and weave, and dolphins dance in the deep around them, putting on a show for the tourists to gasp in awe.

Yes, it’s beautiful here, but I want to look at him more than view.

So, I do.

When my eyes land on his profile, the scenery around us gets sucked away, the world seems to tilt before righting itself, and I grip the edge of the bench seat with both hands to ground me to this moment with him.

Everything about his features is still so familiar to me from his proud, straight nose, to his defined cheekbones, but it’s his eyes that I know the most. They seem ageless, filled with a wisdom I can never comprehend.

“Idyllic,” I respond when I’m finally able. “And lonely.” I huff out a laugh when his head whips to face me, sadness painted across his brow, worry pooling in his too knowing brown eyes. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“With pity.” I shake off the power of his gaze and turn once more to face the sea. If I am to give him a piece of me, better to do it without his searching eyes on mine

“My loneliness has nothing to do with Lily Bay or anything else. It’s as much a part of me as the colour of my hair or shape of my eyes. It just is. I’ve learned to accept that.” I don’t expect him to understand. Why would he? No one else ever has. But, as I’m coming to find, I should never underestimate Macsen Evans.

“I know what you mean.” His words hold a weight to them. It’s not a mindless platitude. He’s felt that kind of loneliness, too.

Closing my eyes to the view, I ask what I’ve needed to know more than I’ve needed my next breath.

“What is this thing between us? Please say you know, because fuck if it isn’t messing with my head, and I don’t do messy, I don’t do… this. I’ve never—”

“Ellis.” My name on his lips. I will never forget the sound. “Look at me, Ellis.”

‘That’s part of the problem,’ I want to say. ‘I can’t stop looking at you. You’re all I see.’

My head turns, my eyes open, and my vision is filled with him.

I expect to see pity. I expect to see dismissal.

What I don’t expect is for him to kiss me.

Blurb

Ellis.

I feel him.

Before I even lay eyes on him, I sense him.

The air in the room seems charged, my awareness of him heightened, but he is a stranger to me.

Unfamiliar, yet familiar.

Unknown, yet known.

And something inside me says, “Hello, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Macsen.

I see him.

I’ve seen him a hundred times before and I know this will not be the last, but each time I do, I feel it.

That invisible tether.

I remember everything.

I remember him.

His eyes lock with mine and then move away too quickly.

I am nothing more than a stranger, another face in the crowd.

While he is my favourite hello, and my hardest goodbye.

Buy Links: 

• Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2OTYjV4
• Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/3eiTQq2
• Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3eplamu
• Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/3abeWn1
• Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/FAVHELLO
• iBooks & Nook: https://books2read.com/u/mZKj9y

Bio

USA Today Bestselling Author, ES Carter, lives in Cardiff, South Wales—the home of castles, dragons, and folklore.

Her family joke that she was born with a book in her hand, and the urge to write stories soon followed.

At eleven, she won her school’s literary prize. At ages fourteen to sixteen – her poetry phase after falling in love with Dylan Thomas and e.e. cummings – she had a few poems published, but life, love, and family overtook her dreams, and she was in her thirties when she began the scary journey of self-publishing.

Her debut and internationally best-selling series, ‘Love by Numbers’, are a set of interconnected stand-alone romances, all with varying themes of love. From second-chance to romantic comedy and M/M romance. These stories do not need to be read in order (apart from the opening duet Nineteen/Twenty One), in fact, she is often guilty of advising readers to start at the last book and work their way back through.

Contemporary romance is not the only genre she writes, her second series, ‘The Red Order’, is as dark and twisted as you can get, but there is beauty there too if you can open your eyes and look.

With many more stories bursting to be set free, she hopes you stay along for the ride.

She loves to connect with readers, so please feel free to friend/follow her on Facebook, IG, and Twitter or join her reader’s group, E’s Elite <3

Sign up for my newsletter and get a FREE short story: https://www.subscribepage.com/ESCarter

Social Media Links:

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/escarterauthor
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/escarterauthor
• Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/e-s-carter
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/E-S-Carter/e/B00WNMSUPA
• Reader Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ESCartersElite
• Website: http://www.escarter.com

Giveaway

ES has brought $25 Amazon gift card to give away to one lucky reader on her tour. Follow the link below to enter. 

https://gleam.io/NioO3/fhhg-giveaway

• By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
• By entering you are agreeing to the Terms and Conditions set out for entries.
• Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
• Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize. In order to facilitate prize distribution, the winner name’s and email may be provided to a third party awarding the prize.
• By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
• Void where prohibited by law.