Latins said homo homini lupus est, man is wolf to a man. I always wonder how much truth lives in that old saying. My husband would go with a 100%. Me? I don’t know. Because you see, without going too far back, think about the hardest moments in modern history. 9/11. Katrina. Vegas shooting. Fire in California. All man-made, if we agree we’re screwing up our planet. Up to here, my husband is right. And yet. Go back, and take a closer look at pictures and video. Not at the first responders only, but at all the ‘normal’ people, all the you-and-mes who helped, who risked their lives to help strangers. Humanity at its worst pulled out the best in every human being and made it shine. There was no color, nationality, religion, nothing. Only another breathing souls to help. All this to answer the book’s synopsis’ question: can love survive in hard times? Yes, it can. And it always will.

The book is Everything Under The Sun by Jessica Redmerski 
Publication date: August 28th 2017
Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic,Romance, Suspense

Synopsis:

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.

Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36058607-everything-under-the-sun?ac=1&from_search=true

Purchase:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Under-Sun-Jessica-Redmerski-ebook/dp/B074W372G6/

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/everything-under-the-sun-jessica-redmerski/1127064161?type=eBook

Jessica, the Author, came by to tell us about her journey, and it’s another story of love despite everything. Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and award winner who juggles several genres of fiction.

My Publishing Journey – Jessica Redmerski

I have been writing for as long as I can remember—OK, so maybe not that long, but I did start writing at a young age. I did write a lot of stuff before—diaries, poetry, song lyrics—but twelve or thirteen is when the first novel started. I knew it was what I was born to do, whether I would be good at it, or not. I didn’t care; I just knew I needed to write.

Over the course of about twenty-five years (holy cow, I didn’t realize it had taken that long!), I wrote 7 or 8 completed novels, (some that I’ve still never published), countless incomplete novels, and tons of fantasy world-building. It wasn’t until 2012 when I was working a full-time job that paid me more than I’d ever been paid hourly, that I made the risky decision to quit my job and write full-time. It wasn’t that I didn’t care that I had three young children to raise on my own and that I needed that job—it was only that I knew in my heart that I had to do it. I knew that if I continued to work more than 40 hours per week that I was always going to be too tired to do what I love—writing. And I believed in myself. It was key. It helped me make the decision; to break my fear of the decision and just do it.

Well, I did it. And a few weeks later, after publishing THE EDGE OF NEVER, my life changed in ways I never imagined.

I hit bestseller’s list (New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Amazon); I watched my sales in my Amazon dashboard skyrocket, and I couldn’t believe in only one day I made over $7,000! A welfare mom who lived in government housing, and was on food stamps all her life, seeing a sales total for $7,000 in a single day—I honestly didn’t believe it. I used to look forward to amounts like that at tax time when I filed EIC (I’m sure some of you know what I mean here!). And when those sales figures climbed higher every day, I really had to keep recounting the figures because I just knew I must’ve been counting it wrong.

I had accomplished my dream. God gave me the money I needed to finally buy my own home after struggling to pay rent all my life; He helped me pay for kids college and dental work, and pretty much all of the important things I wanted for my children.

But my dream is ongoing, and I’m still writing, and I hope to write until I shut my eyes and can thank Him personally.

The moral of my story is: Go after your dreams; don’t let fear stop you from doing what you want to do most in your life; never give up on yourself.