This is a great story. Period.

Crimson Snow by Ina Carter released in May in the New Adult, college, sport romance genre.

The Greeks had seven words for LOVE. I felt all of them for ONE MAN… My name is Lauren, and I was a stolen baby. They found me in a trailer park in rural Texas when I was eight years old. My childhood wasn’t perfect, but then I had Kevin. He was my everything…

When they returned me to my biological parents, we were torn apart.

My new family desperately tried to fix me, make me forget him… My father kept me on a short leash and controlled every aspect of my life. The one thought keeping me afloat was to find Kevin, but he vanished without a trace.

I searched for him for twelve years, but the man I found was not the boy I lost. He is a college baseball star, tattooed, moody, and dark… And he hates me.

Can Kevin help me defeat my demons, or does he have too many of his own?

The book is on sale for $0.99.

It was late spring, in my first year of elementary school. My half-brother Kevin and I were huddled behind the school gym – our usual hiding spot to eat our lunches.

“Why are you crying?” Kevin lifted my chin to look into my puffy, red eyes. I sniffled loudly, showing him the crumpled paper in my hand.

“My letters are all wrong. I try to make them straight, but then Mrs. Collins always uses the red pen over them and tells me mine were crooked. Then she puts the sticker with the sad kitten on the bottom. Vinnie says the sticker means you are stupid…Mama tells me it don’t matter, because I ain’t going to courage…”

“You mean college? Don’t listen to Ma, Julie – you ain’t going to be like her. You are smart. Give me that paper.” He grabbed it from my hand. Then he started ripping it to small bits and gathering the fragments in his left palm. And he was smiling.

“Do you like Christmas, Jules?” he grinned, his toothless smile a little warped. His green eyes lit up. They did remind me of the twinkling lights that Mr. Berg put on the window of the convenience store around Christmas time.

“I love Christmas. It’s my birthday!” I couldn’t help but grin, too. My birthday was two months away, and I’ve been trying to learn my numbers, so I could count the days. I already knew how to count to 100.

“You know what we don’t have on Christmas?” Kevin asked.

“Sometimes, we don’t get presents because we were no good…” My lifted spirits dampened, thinking of daddy’s scowl when he told me I made Santa mad.

“No, It’s not about the presents. We don’t have snow on Christmas. Not here in our part of Texas. Haven’t you seen on TV – everyone is jolly and singing around the Christmas trees, and it’s always snowing outside the window. I kept thinking it’s magic falling from the sky. Maybe God gives his Christmas blessing to us in every snowflake…. and …. maybe this is why we ain’t always happy, Jules… we don’t have the snow…”

Then, Kevin lifted his hand and threw up in the air the paper shreds. They twirled like real snowflakes. At least it’s how I saw them – fragile, almost transparent, with little blue and red strains of color. I was afraid to reach and touch them, telling myself I didn’t want them to melt. Afraid that maybe the magic would disappear… I was not sure I liked the red streaks marring the pure white snow. It was like God cried bloody tears for us. I was about to tell Kevin that, but he leapt and grabbed one snowflake before all of them landed on the yellowing grass at our feet. He held it in his palm. He came closer to me and hunkered down to look into my eyes. Then he opened his hand. “Look, Jules!” he whispered. As afraid as I was, I peeked at the “ice crystal” he was holding. There was a word on that “snowflake,” and it was in blue ink. The carefully written straight letters of the only one word I knew how to write well.  JULIE.

“How?” I looked at Kevin mesmerized.

“Magic, Jules. I told you!”

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Ina Carter has always been an avid reader. She discovered her love for writing at an early age when her first poem was published in a literary magazine at age twelve. As a lifetime collector of inspirational stories, Ina believes that love is the most powerful force in the Universe. She writes in multiple genres – romantic comedies, contemporary and paranormal. Ina lives in Southern California with her husband, two kids, and one very temperamental cat. You can find more about Ina and future book releases at http://www.InaCarter.com.

About the hero, Kevin.

By Ina Carter

Writing Kevin’s character, I wanted to break some of the stereotypes common in the romance genre. Most NA sports romance tropes are about a famous college athlete who is more or less a player and is “reformed” when he falls in love with the heroine.

Crimson Snow is a different type of NA romance, as it follows the two main characters since they were children. Kevin had a traumatic childhood and was raised in extreme poverty in rural Texas. His mother abandoned him when he was only one year old, and his father was an abusive alcoholic. When he met his half-sister Julie, she changed his life, became his best friend, and the center of his world. Trying to escape the reality of their miserable lives, the two kids found solace in the library and discovered what lies outside their small world by reading books, and listening to old music records.

This is what separates Kevin as a romantic hero. He is an astute, intelligent, and deep philosophical thinker. He values family above all and is serious when it comes to romantic relationships. Even his baseball career is a product of his desire to overcome his childhood trauma and channel his anger into the sport he loves. Kevin is not perfect, and the pain he suffered throughout his life left deep scars, but he is not broken or damaged. The young, optimistic, and easy-going boy had become more introverted and unable to communicate his feelings, even to the people he loved. Finding Lauren after twelve years and reconnecting with her is the catalyst for his transformation. His hard exterior is simply a shield, hiding an inherently good man’s sensitive and gentle soul. I don’t want to spoil the book for my readers by revealing what happens to Kevin, but if you want to read about a romantic hero who is not the typical “bad boy,” Kevin is the one.

Twitter :@inacarterbooks

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ina.carter.3591

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