Challenge (Harris Brothers, #1)

by Amy Daws

Dip your toe into this hot new series for only 99 cents now➜https://geni.us/ADChallenge

To my husband: I picked the one sport you don’t watch to write a novel around. Thanks for nothing.

The dedication to my book, Challenge! haha! If this doesn't start your binge read off with a smile, then I don't know what will. This is 100% my kind of humor on social media, so if it tickles your funny bone, definitely give me a follow on Goodreads! Just click the "Follow Author" button under my photo above or on my profile page: https://www.goodreads.com/amydawsauthor

Having a twin in general is a royal pain in the arse. Having him on the same team is like a bad case of haemorrhoids. Having him playing the same position is like a jagged butt plug rammed in at the wrong angle.

I had the absolute BEST time writing twin brothers in this book. Camden and Tanner Harris are twenty-something twins who live together and play for the same football team in London together. To say they had hilarious brotherly banter is a huge understatement! Ask me a question on Goodreads if you want to learn more about these crazy footy-playing Harris Brothers of mine! ➜https://www.goodreads.com/author/8193655.Amy_Daws/questions

The Paediatrics doctor on call that night yanked us both into her office, pulled out a sticky pad of paper, and scribbled some ingredients down on it. Tequila Sunrise: 1 part Grenadine 3 parts Tequila 6 parts Orange Juice Do not mix. She told us to go home and make them when our shifts ended, and to remember that there is still sunshine above the chaos.

The heroine in this book, Indie Porter, is a young surgeon in training and this scene takes place after one of her most harrowing experiences as a doctor. The Paediatrics Dr gave Indie and her surgical friend, Belle, a recipe for "hard day at work cocktail" that would soon become my readers favorite beverage to tag me in on social media! I've even had a Tequila Sunrise with some readers at meet and greets!

My eyes squint at the flashing cameras outside the hospital doors, brightly popping off through the dark, pouring rain. I refocus to the foreground and see a pair of muddy boots hanging off the end of an evidently too-short stretcher. My gaze drifts up the muscular, socked legs beneath mud-soaked shin pads. Before I can clap my curious eyes on the patient, a pack of sweaty, shouting, and properly pushy men in kits comes ramrodding in behind him. Rather than God answering my virginal prayer with a player, the devil answered it with four.

This scene is the first introduction to the Harris Brothers in full action. The chaos of all of four of them coming into the emergency room and bombarding the sweet, innocent surgeon, Indie, is an iconic scene for my Harris Brothers Series and kick starts a series that I never knew would explode the way it did.

“What the hell?” I whisper and turn the book sideways to get a closer look. It’s not that the woman did not know how to juggle, she just didn’t have the balls to try. I touch my fingertips to the inked pun inside my treasured book and know instantly it had to be Indie who wrote it.

My hero and heroine connect through their mutual love of puns. And the fact that my hero is a football-playing, Jame Patterson loving, writing notes in the margins, book nerd makes him positively SWOON-WORTHY! Here is a scene where the heroine tries to communicate her attraction to Camden Harris by writing in the margin of his book. The way they come together is so cute.

I’m drowning in deep, dark, delirious destiny. I’m in a place I never want to leave. A place I never want to say goodbye to. A place I never want to let go. Just sinking further and further into a world I’ve never known.

This is the hero, Camden's POV, and what I love about this scene is that it's the first time that his mind comprehend's the fact that Indie isn't just another shag for him. She's different. He's slipping into unknown territory and he's so busy enjoying himself, he actually let's his thoughts go when he's in the moment here.

“What’s that?” Indie asks, pointing to some text that’s wood-burned into the wall above the changing room exit door. “It’s a saying that the original owners put up. It’s been there forever.” “‘I am thine, thou art mine.’”

"I am thine, thou art mine" is a saying that becomes a very big deal for Camden and Indie. Fun fact: It's actually a phrase I heard a pastor say at a friend's wedding. I was sitting in a pew, listening to his moving words, and taking story notes in my phone like a horrible, disrespectful guest! LOL! In the world of romance, a man saying, "You're mine" is a very common expression. But to hear it said this way was so poetic and so inspiring, I just had to write it down. I actually incorporated the expression into the team's inspiration catchphrase they tap before heading out to the pitch, but in this book, it eventually works it's way into Camden and Indie's very powerful feelings for each other.

Then, just when I think things can’t get any worse—when I’m certain I can’t possibly feel anything more—he lies down beside me, pulls me into his arms, and softly whispers into my ear, “Thou art mine.”

This is the POV of the heroine, Indie, who had a very unique upbringing where feeling love and letting a relationship blossom into something more is a foreign feeling for her. So to hear this cheeky, manly, very play-boyish footballer whisper it into her ear definitely freaks her out.

“Indie, I hurt you because I was angry. But you hurt me because you don’t care enough. One is certainly worse than the other.”

This is a popular highlight in my book and I think it's because we're all guilty of hurting someone in the heat of the moment. It's showing remorse and empathy that makes it forgivable. Camden accuses Indie of hurting him because she doesn't care and that's a brutal blow to this could as we hit the "black moment" of this love story.

Arsenal still wants you. They even sent me a letter of intent saying they want you to sign.” “They what?” I ask, my jaw dropping in disbelief. “I wasn’t going to say anything because that’s not why I’m here, but I can’t help it. I’m so bloody proud of you! I’ve kept you with Bethnal longer than I should have because it was our home and I love seeing you play with your brothers. But now you have the opportunity to fly, and I’m so chuffed that I want to shout it at the top of my lungs.”

This is Camden's father, Vaughn, speaking and I love this scene so much because Vaughn is a single father to five children after his wife passed away when the kids were all below the age of eight. He's been a very hard shell of a man who felt the best way to raise his children was through tough love and football. In this tender scene where he breaks down and shows some pride in his son, it's a beautiful turning point in his character as the stiff, upper-lipped British father that he's portrayed as through most of the book.

I couldn’t cope with the idea of losing her. With every passing day, she got worse, and my insides deteriorated more and more. My passion died. I was awful to her in the end. Gareth even had to step in a couple of times. When I think about how I treated her and all that he had to shoulder at such a young age, the guilt consumes me. Before I knew it, she died and I was drowning in so much regret that I thought if I could just focus on you kids, things could get back to how they used to be. I could find my passion again. But I was a crap father.

Here is Camden's father opening up more about what it was like to lose his wife and the mother to his five children. In this scene, it's very shocking for Camden to hear his father open up like this because it's so unlike him. Through every Harris Brother book I wrote, there's a great deal of healing that takes place between the father and his children that really ramps up nicely to be a beautiful finale when the series concludes.

A while later, the nurse returns and her mouth drops open at the sight of my completely packed room. Dad is in a chair that he pulled up next to my bed. Vi is sitting at the foot with Hayden now tucked up next to her. Gareth and Booker are sandwiched shoulder-to-shoulder on the window ledge, and Tanner slides himself up off the floor at her entry. Everyone has coffee in hand except me. “It’s time.” She smiles awkwardly and stands back from the door. “I’ll walk down with him,” Dad says right away. “No, Dad, I’m good. You can go to the waiting room with everyone else. I’ll be fine.” “Are you sure? I can walk down with you,” he says again. “Or I could,” Vi adds, her clear blue eyes touching me with motherly softness. I shake my head with a laugh. “No. I’m good you guys. I promise. Go get more coffee. I’ll see you all afterwards.” After a handful of awkward hugs, Tanner comes in last and whispers, “You’ve never looked uglier.” I punch him in the ribs before he pulls away, smiling as the wind gets knocked out of him. “You’re pretty much insulting yourself there, Twin Genius.”

This is Camden Harris getting ready for surgery and his entire family is crammed into his surgical waiting room. I love this passage so much because this is truly what the Harris Family is all about. No boundaries. All in, all the time. They are beautifully dysfunctional and even at the end when Tanner calls his brother ugly, it shows that even in serious moments like this, the family can all share a laugh. I love full family scenes!

A beautiful full circle moment of words that began as an inspirational quote on the locker room wall of Camden's football team, now being spoken with feeling right when we need that glorious grand gesture we crave in romance novels. I had this "grand gesture" in my head from the very beginning of this book and as an author, you always hope your characters will lead you to your ideas and not take you too off course, so to hit this moment was so much fun for me.

As my mind reels with this new information, I hear Tanner say to Belle, “Nice to see you again, Dr. Ryan.” “What did you do to your face?” she snaps. He strokes his chin, looking defensive. “What do you mean? I trimmed it up.” “But it’s not all long and nappy anymore.” Belle’s face looks angry. His brows lift. “No, apparently the birds don’t like your face to look like their grandmother’s vagina.” “Not all birds,” she grumbles.

Belle is Indie's best friend and the second heroine in the Harris Brothers Series. This is a teaser to the fun enemies-to-lovers banter that you'll see in book 2, Endurance, where Tanner and Belle find themselves in a sticky situation that forces them to fake date to save themselves from a media scandal. These two are fireworks! You can learn more about Endurance on Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33540783-endurance

THE END

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