Breaking and Holding by Judy Fogarty + a Giveaway

Hello, everybody! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Judy Fogarty's Breaking and Holding. I am giving away a copy today, so be sure to read through to the Rafflecopter below to enter.

Patricia knows she should leave her husband, but even after discovering he's been cheating, she doesn't have the courage to really do it. To get the ball rolling on a new deal for his agency, Jack takes Patricia on a trip to Kiawah Island. When the trip is over, though, Patricia refuses to return to New York. Maybe, just maybe, time alone in their beach house will help her make her decision. 

Lynn, Jack's assistant, has long played the middle man in Jack and Patricia's relationship. Too long, in fact. So when the Kiawah account is handed to her, she finds herself not only in the middle, but in the literal thick of Patricia's summer of discovery. And it's not a place she's sure she wants to be. 

The summer proves to be tumultuous and life altering for all three - Patricia, Jack, and Lynn - but as their own lives are affected, so are the lives of those they interact with over the course of the long hot months. 

Judy Fogarty's debut is a tale of love and madness, tennis, and breaking free.

Patricia is meek and uncertain as the story begins, but when she meets tennis player Terry Sloane, all of that begins to change.

Patricia's back story is huge, certainly in terms of the forming of her character, but it's more alluded to than drastically developed. In fact, it's not until she reveals a big part of her story to Terry himself that we get a better understanding of her relationship with Jack. And while there were a few dangling threads, for the most part the allusion works well.

Because this isn't the story of Patricia's past. Or Lynn's. Or even Jack's. It's about their futures. It's about how Patricia is finally given the opportunity to (or one could even say is forced to) come into her own. And how Lynn is also forced to do the same.

Setting is a key player in this tale. The story is set in 1978 and Fogarty references not only some of the actual tennis history of the era - to set the scene for Terry - but some key feminist history as well.

Patricia is a lover of literature. She finds solace and friendship within the pages of her books and has for quite some time, so it could readily be argued that her transformation begins with a book - Erica Jong's Fear of Flying. A book that Lynn even takes the time to warns Jack about when she discovers Patricia is reading it. And it's a warning Jack definitely doesn't take to heart.

Of course Patricia and Jack's relationship is completely unhealthy and had he heeded Lynn's warning, the story would be completely different!

Breaking and Holding proved to be quite a gripping tale for me. Though I was definitely drawn to the setting, I'd never describe myself as a tennis fan and I was afraid, if the story leaned too far in that direction, that it might not quite suit my taste. But as the tale continued I found myself literally unable to tear myself away! I loved Lynn and rallied behind Tricia and there was no way I could put the book down until I found out how their stories would end!

Rating: 4/5

And now for the giveaway! To enter, simply fill out the Raffelcopter below before Monday, March 13. Open US only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. 

For more on Judy Fogarty and her work you can visit her website here. You can also friend her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. 

Purchase Links: Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble