Title:
The Wall
Series:
The Woodlands, Book 2
Author: Lauren Nicolle Taylor
Published:
October 11th, 2013 by Clean Teen Publishing
Word Count: approx. 88,000
Genre:
YA Mature Dystopian Romance
Content Warning: Violence
Recommended Age: 16+
Synopsis: Joseph, wake up, wake up, wake
up.
She says it over and over. It’s her plea, her prayer, her mantra. But life doesn’t stop while he’s sleeping. Rosa’s been thrown into a new world, with new rules, and a philosophy that sounds too good to be true. She’s also sure they didn’t rescue her out of the goodness of their hearts. The Survivors must want something from them… but what?
The Wall finds Rosa eagerly entering a new life, yet struggling to keep the demons and ghosts of the past from dragging her backwards. She’s left so many people behind and isn’t sure how to start over. There’s freedom in the Survivors’ world, more than she’d ever dreamed of, but there’s also secrets. The darkest of which pulls Rosa headfirst into a trauma, forcing her to reevaluate her past and pushing her to make a choice that may destroy the tenuous, sewn-together family she’s built on the outside.
Will Rosa make the right choice… or will she lose everything she has fought so hard for?
She says it over and over. It’s her plea, her prayer, her mantra. But life doesn’t stop while he’s sleeping. Rosa’s been thrown into a new world, with new rules, and a philosophy that sounds too good to be true. She’s also sure they didn’t rescue her out of the goodness of their hearts. The Survivors must want something from them… but what?
The Wall finds Rosa eagerly entering a new life, yet struggling to keep the demons and ghosts of the past from dragging her backwards. She’s left so many people behind and isn’t sure how to start over. There’s freedom in the Survivors’ world, more than she’d ever dreamed of, but there’s also secrets. The darkest of which pulls Rosa headfirst into a trauma, forcing her to reevaluate her past and pushing her to make a choice that may destroy the tenuous, sewn-together family she’s built on the outside.
Will Rosa make the right choice… or will she lose everything she has fought so hard for?
Excerpt from The Wall by Lauren Nicolle
Taylor:
HOPE
I barreled into our room and
the baby cried. He didn’t seem to share my elation. I sat down on the bed and
fed him. He looked dreamy and satisfied after. Lit by the fluorescence and
reflective black rock ceiling, his little face was so pale compared to my own.
His defective eyes twinkled as he watched the changes in the light. I wrapped
him up tightly in a blanket and held him. Hurry
up, I thought. Sleep. He closed
his eyes and then opened them again, peering at me, making sure I was still
there. I smirked, thinking my suspicious nature had been passed to this tiny
bundle. “You trust me about as much as I trust myself, don’t you?” I whispered,
rolling my eyes.
Finally, he stopped checking
for my presence and I took him to his room. Creeping across the hall like I had
stolen the child, I laid him down in his crib. I leaned down and kissed his
tiny head. He stirred and his forehead crinkled for a moment before it relaxed
again. My lips had never touched something that soft. It was the first time I
had ever done that. Smoothing his tiny, blond curls from his face, I smiled
again, the sensation less and less foreign.
I left our son and returned to
Joseph. My heart still hurt. It was wrapped up in a dark shadow that would
squeeze inside my chest at the sight of him. His body was suspended in gold,
waiting. I climbed into his bed, lightly touching his resting face, almost
scared it would cave in if I pressed too hard. I whispered, “I love you.”
Another first. My tears stung and fell on his unresponsive face. Yes, hope is a
dangerous thing.
Matthew knocked on the
doorframe, interrupting me. I wasn’t embarrassed. After he caught me poking
Joseph’s eyes, this was nothing. I sat up, wiping my away my tears.
“I want to talk to you about
the operation,” he said seriously. He walked to my bed and sat on the edge,
crossing his legs like he was a preschooler sitting on the mat in front of a
teacher.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to
know. I just nodded.
“It’s a very complicated procedure.
If it works, though, Joseph will be as good as new. Maybe better.”
“So why didn’t you do it
before?” If it would fix him so completely, why wait until now?
“It’s very risky, the success
rate is…”
“Stop!” I turned away from
him, closing my ears, closing myself off to the prospect of complications and
slim chances. That cloud of hope was trying to return to the sky. I didn’t want
to let it, not yet. I held onto it tightly, clutching it to my chest like a
pillow.
Matthew put his hands up in
surrender. “All right. I just want you to understand that this is his last
chance. If it doesn’t work…”
“It will work. It has to.” I
knew I was being stubborn, but I couldn’t leave room for the possibility the
operation wouldn’t work. That was not an option. Joseph wouldn’t leave me here
on my own.
Matthew smiled. He understood.
For some reason, he cared about us. I trusted that he would try his best.
“Do you have any questions?”
His kind eyes assessed my restless state. I was all over the place. He was much
older than me but his casualness made him seem young, like he was a surgeon
that still climbed trees and played. Maybe he was.
“What can I do?” I asked
anxiously.
He chuckled. “Find people with
O blood and get them to report to the clinic.”
“That boy… Cal. He had O; I’ll
go get him.” I jumped up, about to fly out the door.
“Not now. Tomorrow.” I
scowled. I didn’t want to wait. “Get some sleep, Rosa. Tomorrow will be a very
difficult day for everyone.”
No. Not difficult. Wonderful. He could be fixed.
I relaxed back into the bed,
sharing a pillow with Joseph. I wondered if they had any technology that could
fix me. I know what I would ask them to do. Before the baby, I would have said
my eyes. That would have been the first thing. Now, I would ask them to install
a few doors or blocks between my brain, my mouth, and my body. I would probably
break through them all but at least it would slow me down. Stop the continuous
flow of stupid or dangerous that seemed to pour out without warning.
I pulled Joseph’s limp arm around
me and fell asleep, dreaming of the squeeze I would feel when he woke up and
pulled me to him.
About the Author:
Lauren
Nicolle Taylor is a 33-year-old mother living in the tiny, lush town of
Bridgewater on the other side of the world in Australia. She married her high
school sweetheart and has three very boisterous and individual children. She
earned a Bachelors degree in Health Sciences with Honours in Obstetrics and
Gynecology and majored in Psychology while minoring in Contemporary Australian
Writing.
After a disastrous attempt to build her dream house that left her family homeless, She found herself inexplicably drawn to the computer. She started writing, not really knowing where it may lead but ended up, eight weeks later, with the rough draft of The Woodlands.
In 2013, Lauren Nicolle Taylor accepted a publishing contract with Clean Teen Publishing. Her first published novel, The Woodlands, was released on August 30, 2013. The Wall is the second book in The Woodlands Series.
After a disastrous attempt to build her dream house that left her family homeless, She found herself inexplicably drawn to the computer. She started writing, not really knowing where it may lead but ended up, eight weeks later, with the rough draft of The Woodlands.
In 2013, Lauren Nicolle Taylor accepted a publishing contract with Clean Teen Publishing. Her first published novel, The Woodlands, was released on August 30, 2013. The Wall is the second book in The Woodlands Series.
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