Skipping Stones by J.B. McGee @j_b_mcgee #review #guest #blogger

“But God gives us the people we need in our lives for the amount of time he sees fit.” He puts his arm around my shoulder and walks me back to the car. “We’ll never understand God’s timing.”
They say there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.Not everyone will grieve in this order, nor will everyone go through every stage. It’s during the stage of denial when Alex Hart meets Andrew Foster. He takes her one-step closer to acceptance: the stage when new, meaningful relationships are formed. The stage when the realization occurs that this is now the new state of normal.Just when Alex thinks she is on her way to healing, she enters the bargaining phase. That’s the phase where you wonder what you could have done differently. You wonder “what if?” Specifically, what if the ones you loved hadn’t left you?Leaving…this is what makes heading off to war so difficult and frightening for Alex. She knows all too well what it’s like to be the one on the losing end of life, which is why she’s made it her personal mission in life to save as many lives as possible. The extreme high she gets from treating trauma victims turns into Alex’s own form of therapy, or so she thinks.
When faced with her world being turned upside down, Alex may just find that her true therapy is in the one who has always saved her
“I know you probably feel like there’s no color left in this world. Like there’s no light, instead all darkness. But there’s sunshine. There are colorful flowers all around us.”
WHY? It is such a great story. I would say it is a story of not one but two fighters. Alex Hart and Andrew Foster. I was so touched by the words the author used to describe the,. I have a million quotes but I think that is a lot so I narrowed it down to about 15. My fave was: "It’s like God knew I needed him."
It is a story of the worst hurt and pain a person can endure. Alex is amazingly strong. The relationship she has with her Grandparents is worthy a a box of Kleenex.  The journey of love and healing is one that you must read.
How Alex meets Andrew and his reveal, will leave you breathless. When his truth came out I was stunned. It was THAT good.  Like my heart is a soaking wet rag being squeezed dry. This hurts so, so bad.
Go and take the journey and see how Alex shapes her life, love and family. I loved this book and I know you will too. There is such a great message in it, one that I feel is missing in a lot of books.
J.B. McGee was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. After graduating from South Aiken High School, she toured Europe as a member of the 1999 International Bands of America Tour, playing the clarinet. While attending Converse College, an all girls school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she visited Charleston often. It quickly became one of her favorite vacation spots. She met her husband, Chad, during Christmas break her freshman year, and they married in 2001. They moved back to her hometown. In 2005, the couple welcomed their first son, Noah. J.B. finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina-Aiken in 2006. During her time studying children's literature, a professor had encouraged her to become a writer.In 2007, she welcomed their second child, Jonah, and she became a stay at home mom/entrepreneur. In 2009, they found out their two children and J.B. have Mitochondrial Disease. In 2011, a diagnosis also was given to Chad. Please take a moment and learn more about Mitochondrial Disease. Awareness is key to this disease that has no cure or treatments.J.B. McGee and her family now reside in Buford, Georgia, to be closer to their children's medical team. After a passion for reading had been re-ignited, J.B. decided to finally give writing a shot.  She is an Amazon Top 100 bestselling author of her debut series, the 'This' Series.Mending, Book Two of the This Series is now available.Conspiring, a 'This' Series Novella. Now AvailableForgiven, the third book of the 'This' Series. Coming May 19, 2013.Falling, a 'This' Series Novella coming Summer 2013.Blinded, the fourth book of the 'This' Series. Coming Fall 2013.The Deeper Series co-authored with J.L. Mac.  Coming 2013Breathe and Count to Three:  A Children's Book Coming 2014Nitro vs. Niko:  For Kids by Kids Coming Soon Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6544571.J_B_McGeewebsite http://www.jbmcgee.comtwitter username @j_b_mcgee
You have 17 highlighted passagesGuilt, maybe? Guilt that if I hadn’t asked to go to the bathroom, then they wouldn’t have felt. Guilt that I wasn’t with them.  location 337 
Like my heart is a soaking wet rag being squeezed dry. This hurts so, so bad.location 547“Well I love you, too. Where did that come from?” I put my hand over my chest. “My heart.”location 754
“I know you probably feel like there’s no color left in this world. Like there’s no light, instead all darkness. But there’s sunshine. There are colorful flowers all around us.”location 998
He’s genuine, caring, and compassionate. It’s like God knew I needed him.
today, but being with her is so much easier. When I’m away from her, she’s all I can think about. If I’m going to be completely whipped, I might as well be whipped with her, rather than away from her.  Mrs. Hart’s face lights up as much as one’s face can shine given what she’s been through. She looks to Mr. Hart. “I think that’s a fine idea.”location 1141“But God gives us the people we need in our lives for the amount of time he sees fit.” He puts his arm around my shoulder and walks me back to the car. “We’ll never understand God’s timing.”location 1466after my parents passed away that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. I’m still alive, so there must be some truth to that, but sometimes I wonder if he thinks I’m super woman or something.location 1754I’m well versed in grief, and even though my mind knows from a text book that the anger and bargaining is a normal stage of grieving, it’s still hard for me to accept that he’s gone, that my time with him is over. I feel robbed. location 1771remember the times I begged God to bring him back. I swore that if he’d just send him to me again, I’d give him my heart forever. Who am I kidding? I gave him my heart in a month and never got it back. He took it when he left.location 2147Even fifteen years later, I love you. There have been other women, but none that are you.location 2196
“What if we just made each other more in our minds. The whole grass is greener thing.” Stone shakes his head. “Nah.location 2403"Someone wise once told me that when I found a girl who made me want to love her for always and in all ways, I’d found the one.  location 2708
“You’ve always been...so easy to love. I think that’s because you give so freely and easily.”location 2844