Renewing Forever by Kelly Jensen Blog Tour and Excerpt

Renewing Forever is the second of a series of standalone novels focused on older characters who think love has passed them by. Frank and Tom's story is a true second chance romance, reuniting childhood friends and first loves separated by an argument and thirty years of misunderstanding. I hope you enjoy reading about their renewed friendship and their plans for forever.

About Renewing Forever

A neglected resort, a lost chance at love, and one last chance to renew forever.

Frankie and Tommy once dreamed of traveling the world together. But when seventeen-year-old Frank kissed Tom, their plans ended with a punch to the jaw and Frank leaving town without looking back. Thirty years later, Frank’s successful career as a journalist is interrupted by his uncle’s death and the question of his inheritance—the family resort where his childhood dreams were built. When he returns to the Pocono Mountains, however, he finds a dilapidated lodge and Tommy, the boy he never forgot.

Tom’s been keeping the resort together with spit and glue while caring for Frank’s uncle, Robert—a man he considered father, mentor, and friend—and his aged mother, who he refuses to leave behind. Now Robert is gone, taking Tom’s job with him. And Frank is on the doorstep, wanting to know why Tom is still there and why the old lodge is falling apart.

But before they can rebuild the resort, they’ll have to rebuild their friendship. Only then can they renew the forever they planned all those years ago.

Now available from Riptide Publishing!

About the This Time Forever Series

Small towns and second chances.

Simon, Frank, and Brian think love has passed them by. Each is facing down his fiftieth birthday—Simon in a few years, Frank next year, and Brian soon enough. Each has loved and lost. But for these men, everything old really is new again, and it’s only when they return to their roots that they’ll find their second chances and the happily ever after they’ve been waiting their whole lives for.

This time it’s forever.

This series includes:

1. Building Forever — releasing October 15, available now!
2. Renewing Forever — releasing November 12, available for preorder!
3. Chasing Forever — releasing December 10, available soon!
   
   

About Kelly Jensen

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories about the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas, and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, cowritten with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Connect with Kelly:

●       Website: kellyjensenwrites.com

●       Facebook: www.facebook.com/kellyjensenwrites/

●       Twitter: twitter.com/kmkjensen

●       Tumblr: kmkjensen.tumblr.com/

●       Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/kmkjensen/

●       Instagram: www.instagram.com/kellyjensenwrites/

Altogether Too Sad (Excerpt)

The rain started up again in the night, the sound of it beating against the porch roof moving through Tom’s dreams in different ways. Memory and fear twisted, the steady patter of rain becoming the ticking of a clock. Shadows darted out from corners, lingering only long enough for him to step close. The scent of rot wrapped everything, and a sense of urgency underscored all of it. By the time he cracked his eyes open to a gray and miserable dawn, Tom felt as though he’d spent the night running in circles.

Also, his mouth tasted like a skunk had laid a turd inside it. Drinking the rest of the bottle of wine had been a mistake. Frank’s departure from the patio had left him feeling oddly bereft, though.

Well, maybe not oddly . . .

Fuck.

Scrubbing his eyes, Tom rolled away from the window and contemplated pushing his face into the darker side of the sofa. Overhead, the floor creaked. He listened to Frank cross his room, the bathroom door squeak open and close, and what sounded like a fire hose draining into the toilet. Ignoring the press of his own bladder, Tom stared up at the ceiling and wondered, in a vague way, why they were both awake so early on a rainy Sunday. Surely if any day deserved a late start, it was today.

Maybe Frank would go back to bed.

The shower started.

Tom pushed the blanket back and got up.

By the time Frank arrived in the lobby, he was alarmingly put together in another pair of pants, another button-down shirt, both casual, but obviously expensive. The kind of clothes Tom would mistake for business wear until he arrived in a boardroom and realized he was actually dressed for Saturday lunch in the Hamptons or some such crap. Frank didn’t have a suitcase with him, but Tom expected him to announce he was leaving.

Instead, he regarded Tom with surprise. “You’re up.”

And washed, and dressed, and still looking like the discount version of Frank. “Yeah. I can make breakfast if you want.”

Frank’s eyebrows rose. He gave a short nod. “I could eat.”

Given he’d skipped dinner last night, he must be starving. Frank had trimmed down since boyhood, but he wasn’t a small man. He wasn’t stocky, but neither was he willowy. He was tall and strong and solid. Tom liked the look of him. Then again, he always had, even when Frankie had had round cheeks and shocking hair. Frankie . . . Frank had always been Frank.

And Frank had always liked food.

Tom gestured toward the guest dining room. “Do you—”

“The kitchen is fine. If that’s all right.”

“It’s fine.”

Frank took a step toward him, and Tom forgot to step back. His heart beat wildly in his throat as he struggled with the concept of moving his feet independently to his thoughts, and found he was still standing there a moment later. Hopefully it had only been a moment. A couple of breaths? Frank wouldn’t be in front of him, eyebrows raised, if he’d been standing still for too long, would he?

Then again, Frank had always had incredible patience when it came to his moods—the understandable and the just plain weird.

“I’m sorry about last night. Yesterday afternoon,” Tom said.

Frank answered with a grunt.

“I feel like . . .” Tom licked his lips. “When I found out you were coming up, I thought about leaving, you know? Just leaving all the paperwork on the desk and locking up. I figured that would be the best thing all ’round. But . . .” I wanted to see you. “I also kind of figured I might be able to help, and that maybe it would be altogether too sad to let you do this alone.”

Frank’s eyebrows had been slowly settling. Now his entire expression changed. Sadness happened first, pinching his brow. Glancing away, he rubbed at his forehead and took a step back, thankfully, widening the space between them. When he looked up again, his expression had saddened further. His smile, what might have been a smile, had turned into a grimace.

“I appreciate all you did for Robert. Don’t for a minute think I don’t. And I know—” he squeezed his eyes shut. Opened them “—I should have come back more often. It’s too late to tell him I’m sorry, but I am. I’m sorry, Tom. And I’m sorry if I made you feel as though you weren’t welcome here. This place has always been your home.”

Shaking his head, Tom swallowed over lumps of emotion until his feet finally decided to move. Unsteadily. He backed up a step, then another. Shook his head again and tried to say something, but his voice had ceased cooperating, which was for the best. What could he say that Frank could possibly understand?

“Let’s have breakfast and then maybe we can sit down and go through the paperwork,” Frank said. “Figure out what we’re going to do with this place.”

We’re. The intimation that they might work together sent a sharp pain through Tom’s chest . . . and he nearly said it. Nearly blurted out the other apology, the one he’d been holding in for so long, it might not meant anything anymore.

Swallowing again, he led the way into the kitchen.

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Renewing Forever one lucky person will win a $25 Riptide Publishing gift card and a swag pack of stickers, art cards, and bookmarks! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 17, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!