A Way Back Into Love by Veronica Thatcher

~ A Way Back Into Love by Veronica Thatcher ~

Book Tour - 13th to 25th March

About the Book:

Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes, uncertain. People, irrational. But love… Well, that makes complicates everything complicated. When you are caught in a tangled web of secrets, lies, and complex affairs, someone is bound to get burned.
Emily Stevens is a spunky, spirited college girl whose life is turned upside-down when she realizes she's in love with her best friend of fifteen years, Derek Thorpe. As Emily prepares to confess her feelings to Derek, something happens one night which changes her life forever. Five years later, Emily finds herself in Boston, alone and heartbroken. Will she ever be able to forget the past? And what will she find when she returns home... to the man she left behind?



Book Links:
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What books and/or authors helped to influence you and turn you into the writer you are today?

I like to think that the avid reader (and aspiring writer) within me are hereditary. Both my parents were bookworms, my dad more so than my mom. He was the one who introduced me to the world of fiction when I was a kid. My childhood home was a two-storey house with a five-case bookshelf stacked with books in each and every single room. That’s how big of a bookworm my dad was. His collection of books was so extensive that it was sufficient to open a well-stocked mini-library in our house.

So, due to my dad’s positive influence, I grew up on all the well-known classics of English literature. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, King Solomon were the common names in our household during my childhood. By the time I was in the fifth grade, I had devoured books by writers like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Ruskin Bond, H.G. Wells, Jonathan Swift, and Jules Verne. My favourite writer during my pre-teen years was Jules Verne. His classic books, Around the World in Eighty Days, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, changed my life and my reading tastes. His writing style quickly became my all-time favourite due to his incredible diction and description, his narrations and his use of an extensive vocabulary in the books. I like to believe that my diction has been highly influenced by Verne’s diction in the book Around the World in Eighty Days. My vocabulary was quite poor before reading that book, and I distinctly remember that I had to open up the dictionary every five minutes while reading that literary masterpiece, much to my exhilaration! Such elegance and sophistication in his words.

Ruskin Bond is another favourite author of mine. His writing style is somewhat opposite to Verne’s writing style. As opposed to Verne’s grandiloquence, Bond’s writing is simple, minimalistic and reader friendly, yet captivating at the same time. And I’ve always loved Bond’s dialogue! So appealing and engaging. Hooks the reader from line one. Some of my favourite stories by Bond are The Blue Umbrella, Angry River and of course, one of his most popular stories, Grandfather’s Private Zoo. 

Another novel that impinged on me greatly in my childhood days was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Till date, it is my favourite piece of children’s literature. Maybe one of the reasons for that is the fact that I could relate to Mary’s character and personality very well. I’m an avowed pessimist, and I was always a very petulant child. The slow, beautiful transformation in Mary’s personality – the way she gradually morphed from a rude, aggressive, bitter child to a caring, compassionate one – made me believe that I could become a better person in my life as well. And I like to believe I did. I don’t know whether people will agree with me on this, but to this date, I perceive this literary piece by Burnett as one of the strongest inspirational stories ever written.

As I slowly entered my teenage years, I grew an “unhealthy” obsession, according to my parents, for the Harry Potter series. I still remember what my frequent words during my teen years were. ‘I can sacrifice my life for Harry Potter if I have to.’ And I did. I spent every waking moment poring over the fantastic books. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and start re-reading any of the books in the series from the middle, despite the fact that I had read them over and over again about hundreds of times. I never got bored of re-reading Harry Potter. It didn’t matter that I knew exactly what was going to happen in the book. It was evermore enchanting, evermore exciting, and evermore sensational to me. When my parents used to query if I got bored of re-reading the same series over and over again, I used to say, “It’s not possible to get bored of Harry Potter. If someone gets bored of it, he or she is completely insane.” And God knows I still believe that with all my heart!

However, my crazy obsession with Harry Potter came to an abrupt end in my sweet sixteen, when I was introduced to a brand new world, a world that had been unknown to me so far in my life – the world of romantic fiction. Though, I was not introduced to the world of romantic literature by Nora Roberts or Sylvia Day. Not at all. My introduction to romantic literature was through the controversial and sometimes disdained subject of fanfiction. As opposed to my childhood, which was spent reading all the classic works of English literature, I spent my late teen years perusing the writings of unknown, but still amazingly talented fanfiction writers. One such fanfiction and now an indie author who influenced me greatly is the crazy talented Deb Rotuno. Her words are, in short, “little droplets of heaven.” She might not be a bestselling author yet, but I have no doubt that she will be, sometime soon in the future.

Since we are now talking about the genre I write – romance – there are a couple of other authors and their books that I just have to mention. A romance that changed my outlook towards life – a romance that made me laugh, cry, smile and sniffle – a book that made me feel a vortex of emotions in the span of only a few weeks, The Fault in Our Stars by the incredibly talented John Green. Oh my my, what a book! Actually, when I think of it, it’s more than just a book. It’s a heart-wrenching tale of true love that was the first to make me believe in soulmates and destiny. I can never read it without crying a river. Beautiful, soul-touching, and simply ineffable.

Another touching romance that I read at an extremely young age was Love Story by Erich Segal. I remember when and how I read that book. I was in the third or fourth grade, and I had fortuitously landed my hands on that book from my dad’s study. I used to sneak up to dad’s study during the day, when he and my mom were at work, and stealthily read that amazing tale of eternal love. I know what you must be thinking – I was too young to fully understand the power of those words. I agree. I was too young. But I was also very very precocious. (laughs) 

Brida by the phenomenal author Paulo Coelho was one of the few romance novels that I had read in my childhood, when I was not so eagerly into romantic fiction and only read them occasionally. I was in the seventh grade, and we were travelling in the train. I was bored out of mind at the lack of things to do during the journey, and to help me come out of my funk, Dad went and bought the book for me from one of the stalls at the station. I vividly remember how I spent the rest of my to and fro journey devouring Coelho’s words. A tale of love and a journey of finding your soulmate – your other half, it was my introduction to the concept of soulmates and the fact that we can, in fact, have more than one soulmate in our lives. That book is the core and foundation to my present, firmly cemented belief in soulmates and magic and true love in today’s world. 

When talking of romance novels that influenced me and my writing, I also have to mention The Stars Shine Down by Sidney Sheldon and Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat. Though the former is primarily a thriller, the romantic elements and plotlines in it resonated with me greatly. It was also one of the very first novels that I had read with a romantic plotline (though, my secret tango with romance had started way before that, as you all now know, after reading the last paragraph.) 
Bhagat’s tale of love, ambition and friendship in a country of ruthless competition and corruption at educational and administrational levels is a novel that truly made me pause and think things through. His words and symbolisms are incredibly powerful, and it goes without saying that they manage to move the masses. Our youth needs more writers like Bhagat to open their eyes and help them discover their potential and hidden capabilities. 

About the Author:

Veronica Thatcher is an exciting new contemporary romance author. Ever since she was very young, she’s dreamed of becoming a doctor when she grew up. While still forging ahead with that, majoring in pre-med in college, she unwittingly stumbled upon a new dream—becoming a published author. Some may call her an introvert or a wallflower, but she has always found she could express herself better in written, rather than spoken, words. However, never in her wildest dreams had she envisioned she would pursue writing as a prospective career, not just a hobby. Her love for writing goes hand-in-hand with her love for a good romance novel—whether it be a feel-good, sweet romance or a dark, suspenseful one. When she’s not studying, reading, or writing, she is usually found blasting her favourite songs, sometimes singing and dancing along to them.  She dabbles in a number of activities, including painting, karate, singing and dancing. She is a huge chocoholic – probably the biggest – and she is an ice-cream junkie too. She considers herself technologically handicapped forever and has no shame in admitting that. She also deems chocolates her boyfriend, Patrick Dempsey the love of her life, and Friends her life!
Her first book, A Way Back Into Love, is slated for release in February 2017, and she hopes readers will enjoy it as much as she enjoyed writing it. You can reach Veronica through Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Wattpad and Gmail.

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