Friday, May 29, 2015

Blog Tour & Review: Seeking Solace by Adrienne Dunning



Sometimes to take a step in the right direction you have to run away.

Sarah Collier’s life has always been scripted for her, according to the expectations of her domineering, socially-connected Connecticut family. Everything always went as planned…until the unthinkable happened moments before walking down the aisle. On a whim, she does the first thing that comes to mind—she takes off on her honeymoon, alone. However, Sarah has never acted on spontaneity, so the impromptu trip may not be what Sarah thinks it will.

The quaint and rustic harbor village of North Berwick on Scotland’s East Lothian coast is typically devoid of tourists in the winter. So when an auburn-haired stranger who wanders into his pub on a cold, Sunday evening, Bretton Keith, self-assured and flirtatious pub owner that he is, sees the opportunity for another brief and fun fling to break up the monotony of a village winter.

As Bretton comes to know the sad and beautiful Sarah, he finds it increasingly difficult to uphold his credo of never becoming attached. Can he forget the mistakes of the past and learn to trust another with his heart? All the while, Sarah is experiencing a new-found freedom to dare think of her life in a different way, to truly consider what it is that she wants and what it is that will make her happy. Will Sarah be brave enough to risk it on a man who was so hurt by another that he swore off ever falling in love again, or will the demands of her family prove too big an obstacle to overcome?









My Review:

Seeking Solace is more than a love story, its about finding yourself, finding  your place in the world, and making your own decisions.  It is also about finding love where you least expect it. 

Upon leaving the states for Scotland, Sarah, isn't expecting anything special. She wants time to herself, time to move on and figure out what she wants to do next in her life. She needs to figure out who she is now, and how she wants to proceed in her life.  

Bretton, a local pub owner/band member, finds himself drawn to Sarah and has a serious need to know all about her and why she's in Scotland.  Bret has his own past, things that hurt him, things he regrets, but he's more 'go with the flow' so he doesn't really allow the past to affect current decisions, something his friends worry for him over. 

As Sarah and Bret get to know each other, it is clear that they may just have found their perfect match, but can it work out? Is Sarah able to make the choice to stay in Scotland over returning home to give a relationship a fair chance? 

I enjoyed that this story focused on Sarah finding herself as a whole and not just the love story brewing between her and Bret. It was beautiful to see Sarah standing up for herself and taking a stand for her future needs/desires.  Finding friends, a place to belong, and falling in love made this story work for the characters and I enjoyed the steps of the journey. 






Adrienne Dunning is simply a Southern gal who has fun playing poorly at golf when she’s not crafting novels.  She loves all forms of expression—writing, dancing, cooking, talking—and does them frequently and with abandon.  She loves creating endearing and feisty characters full of humor and just a little awkwardness to keep them "real".  Although a possible mystery series is under current exploration, her current works are primarily aligned with the contemporary romance/chick lit genres.  She is heavily active in her local NaNoWriMo chapter, and Seeking Solace, her debut novel releasing April 2015, is the resulting product of a NaNo project.  She lives in coastal North Carolina and uses that region as the setting for many of her stories.  
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter: @adriennedwrites


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