With this third entry into Jamie Beck’s Sanctuary Sound novels, The Wonder of Now is at turns both heart breaking and heart-warming and deals with very heavy subject matter with an obviously sure and steady hand.
The story begins with Peyton Prescott facing the next phase of her emotional journey. Following her battle with breast cancer, during which she allowed her brother to document and photograph her entire treatment, she is now facing the daunting task of embarking on a press tour of the book created by her and her brother. But there is so much more happening within Peyton.
Mitch, the publicist Peyton will be travelling with, has his own back-story, which causes him to be reserved, disciplined, and ambitious. He is concerned about maintaining his professionalism, but at the same time clearly has great respect and admiration for Peyton, what she has been through, and what she is trying to accomplish with her book.
With this completion of Peyton’s story, Beck has brought a previously (and perhaps rightfully) vilified character through a fully redemptive arc. She is not the woman from the previous novels who stole her close friend’s lover, and she is not the carefree travel blogger she once was.
And this is not a fluffy, lightweight romance. There is great depth in Beck’s exploration of a cancer-survivor and how that fundamentally changes who Peyton is and how she thinks of everything in the world around her. Beck also guides the reader through the characters’ motivations and thoughts, and never just their actions. We know why Peyton reacts a certain way to something Mitch says (for example), and like adults, they then are able to talk about how they feel about something.
While it is fun to read about all the foreign cities that Peyton and Mitch travel to, and all the locations are amazingly and vividly described, it is the characters and Beck’s masterful hand at writing such genuinely human characters that keep readers returning to her novels. They are raw and real, and they are flawed in the same way that every reader has experienced in his or her own life.
Maybe it is a very bold statement, but everything that one may think they hate about “romance novels” can be undone with books by Jamie Beck. The Wonder of Now is emotional, it is uplifting, it is heart-breaking, but ultimately shows the reader the best of humanity in a heartfelt story.
The Wonder of Now is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Will you be picking up The Wonder of Now? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Peyton Prescott would give anything for the carefree life she knew before breast cancer changed everything. But instead of using her second chance to move forward, she is stuck promoting the memoir her brother convinced her to write, thus reliving the very battle she wants to forget. If she hopes her European book your will allow her to enjoy revisiting her favorite travel-writing destinations, she’s wrong: her PR wiz is too consumed with his own goals to consider her needs.
Mitch Mathis has relied on discipline to achieve his goals, and with his new firm’s success riding on Peyton’s book launch, he must keep her on task. They’re here for business, not pleasure. And Mitch won’t let unbridled desire harm his professional reputation – not again.
When frustrated expectations and attraction throughs the tour into chaos, it challenges everything Mitch and Peyton believe about themselves, life, and love, forcing these opposites to consider whether they can embrace the change they need to grow.
