by Nike N. Chillemi

A funny thing happened…on the way to releasing my New Adult Christian Romantic Suspense novella, THAT SPECIAL ONE. I got hit by Hurricane Irma. Well actually the entire state of Florida did, and the Caribbean Islands as well. This put a real dent in my ability to release my novella on deadline, so I took it very personally. See what a toughie I am.

I live in Jacksonville, and nearly the entire city lost power for several days. I’ve tried to imagine what that must’ve looked like at night to airplane pilots flying over the city to another destination…blackness where there had been city lights just a few days before. For me, that meant no power, no WiFi, no use of my laptop. Grrr. No ability to download the manuscript to Amazon’s program. No release. Grrr!

THAT SPECIAL ONE opens in September with the beginning of the college year for heroine Ivy Chalmers. I so wanted to release the novella in early to mid-September and praise the Lord, although I had a delay, I was able to.

THAT SPECIAL ONE in a nut shell…

College freshman Ivy Chalmers moved in with her aunt and uncle in Arroyo, Texas. She needed to get away from her alcoholic and weed smoking mother.  Ivy longed for a different life than the revolving-door-men in her mom’s life. Making a one-eighty, she vowed not to make a serious dating commitment unless she knew it would be that really ‘special relationship ‘.

Corey Jones had been the man in his house since age twelve, when his alcoholic dad abandoned him and his mom. Once in a while, his dad showed up trying to extort money from them using threats. Then his blue-haired, self-centered cousin Ava came to live with them and the way she treats his mom enrages him.

Ivy is thrilled when she meets an upper classman from a neighboring college and thinks he might be ‘that guy.’ When she is horribly betrayed, her world is thrown upside-down, and she plunges into a depression.  In a steady and kind of clumsy way, Corey is there for her during her worst moments. But his family is plagued with alcoholism, the life she had with her mom, the life she ran away from. What’s wrong with her that she attracts the wrong guys? As if that weren’t bad enough, there’s an arsonist terrorizing their tiny village.

About Nike Chillemi~

Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started at a very young age. Her first major work was a Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned as a little girl (colored might be more accurate) about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista with a humorous side. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.

Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and its Chair, a reader’s choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series (out of print), set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. The first novel in the Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels/Dawson Hughes series HARMRUL INTENT won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense category. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network.  http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/

One Amazon reviewer says:

Chillemi has nailed the angst and hopelessness many feel. My heart sank at Ivy’s trauma, and I grieved along with her when life delivered the opposite of what she expected.

Save

Save

Save