What is Liberty?


This week’s Guest is PJ Sharon telling us What Liberty Means to Her.

What Liberty Means to Me

Thank you for hosting me, Cathy. I’m happy to be here to share my stories with your readers. As a thank you, I’m offering a free download of SAVAGE CINDERELLA, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079VXM7JH/ a YA/NA Holt Medallion winner. It has about 4 million reads on Wattpad and is now available for FREE at all your favorite online retailers! If you haven’t started the series yet, now is a great time to pick up the original novel that started it all.

Being that Independence Day is right around the corner and my latest novella, LIBERTY’S PROMISE (A Savage Cinderella Novella # 5), has an underlying theme of independence and freedom. I thought I’d share some thoughts on what that means to me and why I thought it was important to my character’s journey in this series of novellas based on SAVAGE CINDERELLA.

The original novel tracks Brinn Hathaway’s return to the world after having been kidnapped as a child, held captive, and left for dead in the High Country of North Georgia. She survives in the wild for years, until a young nature photographer, Justin Spencer, discovers her and the two form a tentative bond. After years of being imprisoned by her fear of her kidnapper finding her, Brinn finally takes a chance and comes out of hiding, only to have her worst fears realized. I won’t spoil the suspense for you, but suffice it to say, my stories always have a sweet romance, a fair amount of gritty action, and a hopefully ever after end.

Years after I wrote that story, I felt like Brinn’s journey was just beginning. The characters kept coming to mind and story ideas floated through my imagination as if I were watching a TV series, each episode a new and exciting adventure. Brinn’s fight for freedom and independence is a recurring theme as she struggles with finding a balance between being dependent on others and losing herself to the new relationships in her life. It only made sense to write it as a series of novellas, having Brinn turn to a career in law enforcement as a way of dealing with her past. In doing so, I wanted to empower her to overcome her trauma and reclaim her freedom.

Social and environmental justice and human rights have always been important to me, so it is no surprise these themes also run throughout the series. I thought it would be a good way to share some serious topics with young readers who might lack awareness of current events in a world turned upside down by the stresses of life that keep us all so distracted.

In Liberty’s promise, Brinn takes on police corruption, stalking behavior, and an immigration issue that opens her eyes to the plight of others struggling to find freedom in a country where liberty is at the very heart of our democratic republic. Freedom and the pursuit of happiness are enshrined in our Constitution, but what does that mean to each of us? Does my pursuit of happiness mean I can disrespect, disregard, or infringe on someone else’s?

Brinn’s hard won freedom, her perilous road to recovery, and her innate goodness shine through as she concludes that the answer to that is no. That we have a responsibility as Americans and as human beings to respect each other’s differences, to care for those less fortunate than ourselves, and to work together to create a fair and just society for everyone. My hope is that the next generation can come to the same conclusion—that liberty and justice for all are truly American values worth fighting for.

Title: Liberty’s Promise (A Savage Cinderella Novella Book 5)

Savage Cinderella Novella Series

Author: PJ Sharon

Publisher: PJ Sharon Books

Cover artist: Kim Killion and The Killion Group

Pages: 131

Genre/heat rating: NA Suspense/Crime thriller-PG 13 (low heat rating)

Blurb: Liberty’s Promise, the fifth novella in the SAVAGE CINDERELLA series continues the journey of kidnap survivor turned rookie cop, Brinn Hathaway. Rebounding from her previous near-death adventure, Brinn travels to New York City where her co-worker and current roomie, Detective Daniella Hernandez, is attending to a family crisis. When Dani’s old flame—a superior officer—threatens to destroy her career and her family’s legacy, Brinn vows to do whatever necessary to protect her friend.

Investigating a sergeant in the NYPD for his personal and criminal misconduct might be overstepping jurisdictional boundaries and not exactly a good career move. But bringing to justice the man who had once tormented her friend and righting an old wrong is worth the risk for Brinn. When it becomes clear the serial stalker won’t be an easy target, and that he’s willing to go to any lengths to escape his dark deeds, Brinn discovers that taking down one of New York’s finest could cost both women more than just their jobs.

Excerpt

Connor Trask stood on the landing. My heart ratcheted up ten notches and I froze in indecision. Should I ignore him and hope he went away? Or open the door and deal with whatever confrontation the man wanted to pursue. “God hates a coward,” my old friend Mr. Hoffman, a storekeeper, used to say. I unclenched my fists as I opened the door.

“Can I help you?” I asked, trying to appear calm.

A smirk slid across the man’s face and his eyes narrowed. “I thought you might be a friend of Daniella’s, but I didn’t recognize you at first. Why don’t you tell me why you were following me tonight?”

I checked my watch. “Technically, that was last night.” It was obviously pointless to deny it. “Isn’t it a bit late for you to be out interrogating people?”

His grin faltered, his eyes narrowed further, and coldness seeped into his voice. “I know who you are, Officer Hathaway, and you are acting way above your paygrade. You wouldn’t want your career to be over before it even began, would you?” The threat was clear, but that didn’t scare me. What scared me was the malice in his tone, the fact that he knew me, and his absolute surety he had the upper hand. “I suggest you pack up and go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.” His gaze swept up and down my body and a look of disdain that made my blood run cold consumed his features. I recognized that look all too well, and it was the threat of a predator. “My Daniella always did have a soft spot for strays.” His words demeaned her and stung me as they were meant to, but I didn’t flinch, and held my ground at the doorway, making it clear he wasn’t welcome. “And tell your friend she’s screwing with the wrong guy.” Then his lips curved up again on one side. “She should know better than to cross me.” With that, he turned and stalked off the porch, disappearing into the night, footfalls fading on the sidewalk.

Relief sweeping through me, I closed and locked the door, and proceeded to kick myself for the rest of the night. Dani’s instructions had been clear. I was supposed to be stalking him, not the other way around. Her last words to me, “Stay out of sight,” echoed in my mind. How stupid could I be to think I was a better tracker than a seasoned NYC cop on his home turf. Underestimating Connor Trask was a mistake I couldn’t afford to make again.

Buy Links: https://www.amazon.com/Libertys-Promise-Savage-Cinderella-Novella-ebook/dp/B081PK453X/

Wattpad chapter 1 link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/205301187-liberty%27s-promise-savage-cinderella-novella-5

Website link: https://pjsharon.com/ya-books/#LIBERTYS_PROMISE

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48921768-liberty-s-promise

Amazon Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1710322268

ASIN: B081PK453X Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081PK453X

D2D Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/brVAMk

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/libertys-promise-pj-sharon/1135082250

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/libertys-promise/id1489049305

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/liberty-s-promise-1

Website page: https://pjsharon.com/ya-books/#LIBERTYS_PROMISE

Series available on Amazon:

Meet PJ Sharon

Bio: A licensed massage therapist, personal trainer and yoga instructor by day, PJ Sharon is also an award-winning author of young adult novels, including PIECES of LOVE, HEAVEN is for HEROES, ON THIN ICE, and Holt Medallion-winner SAVAGE CINDERELLA. You can follow Brinn’s story in the Savage Cinderella Novella series which includes FINDING HOPE, LOST BOYS, SACRED GROUND, BROKEN ANGEL, and LIBERTY’S PROMISE.

In addition to her contemporary YA/NA lit, Ms. Sharon’s YA dystopian trilogy, The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, which RT Book Reviews calls “An action-packed read with a strong female lead,” is a sci-fi/fantasy adventure inspired by her fascination with “prepping” and her passion for environmental causes, as much as by her love of romance and the unending “what-if’s” that haunt her imagination.

PJ has two grown sons and lives with her brilliant engineer of a husband in the Berkshire Hills of Western MA where she writes, kayaks, and plays in the dirt as often as possible.

You can Stalk/Find PJ

Website: http://www.pjsharon.com

Follow PJ on Twitter: @pjsharon      https://www.twitter.com/pjsharon

“Like” PJ on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pjsharonbooks

Find PJ on Amazon’s Author Central page: http://www.amazon.com/PJ-Sharon/e/B005ONR4IY/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/PJSharon

Follow PJ on Pinterest @ http://www.pinterest.com/pjsharon/

Read FREE chapters on Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/pjsharon

Signup for PJ’s Newsletter:  http://eepurl.com/bm7rj5

Backlist:

(The Girls of Thompson Lake Series)

Heaven is for Heroes

On Thin Ice

Pieces of Love

Sami’s Christmas Wish List (A Girls of Thompson Lake Novella)

(The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael Trilogy)

Waning Moon

Western Desert

Healing Waters

Soul Redemption (A Chronicles of Lily Carmichael Novella)

(Savage Cinderella Novella Series)

Savage Cinderella

Finding Hope (A Savage Cinderella Novella #1)

Lost Boys (A Savage Cinderella Novella #2)

Sacred Ground (A Savage Cinderella Novella #3)

Broken Angel (A Savage Cinderella Novella #4)

Liberty’s Promise (A Savage Cinderella Novella #5)

What does Liberty mean to you?


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