Review: Sliding Down the Sky by Amanda Dick

Note: This ARC was provided by Ardent PRose in exchange for an honest review.

Then I was choking, sobbing but trying desperately not to because it felt like giving in, like giving up, and I wanted so much to be stronger than that. Callum pulled me into his arms and suddenly he was all around me, cocooning me from the nightmare that was my reality. The two worlds blended, the lines blurred, and I didn't know which was which anymore. The very air around us felt like it was changing, and it scared me to death. Change terrified me, because every time it came knocking it took a little more from me, and I was at the stage where I had so little left in the tank.

I held on to him because I wanted to be rescued, from all of it.

I wanted him to be the one to rescue me.

Sliding Down the Sky is the companion novel to author Amanda Dick's amazing debut work, Absolution, but can be read as a standalone if you choose to do so. Though, do yourselves a favor and read the other book for a more well-rounded reading experience or simply because it's a superbly executed novel in my humble bookaholic opinion. If you've already read Absolution, thirty-two-year-old Callum Ferguson should be a familiar character because he did play such a prominent role there. Here, he gets his shot, not at absolution or redemption but salvation, although he may not be fully aware that this is something he needs in his life. He isn't the only one searching for salvation either. He shares the quest with Sass Hathaway, a thirty-one-year-old musician who is trying to find new meaning and purpose in her new life.

Callum has hated his father for too many years. His image of a drunken, abusive man who ran over his brother and tormented the lives of his mother and himself have made it easy to do so. But if Callum is honest with himself, he carries within himself more of his father than he wishes. He's been known to be violent, starting fights with bar patrons and other people who get in his way. Then there's the excessive and frequent drinking, which is a temptation that he isn't able to avoid, especially since the woman who's captured his attention happens to work in the newly refurbished bar in town that's been re-christened Church. He wants to get to know the real Sass but she isn't prepared for anyone to get a glimpse of the darkness that continues to hound her, and she isn't ready to embrace the feelings Callum stirs within her.

Both Callum and Sass have cracks, but it seems that the person best suited to fill those cracks is each other. Sass is still coming to grips with the fact that she is no longer the musician she once was, having lost her hand in a motorcycle accident. Even with the music still living and thriving within her most inner recesses, her feelings of guilt over the outcome of the accident and her inability to successfully deal with her anxiety and nightmares hamper her progress. Callum represents an opportunity to feel again and to move forward in a direction she never thought possible for herself. She's already overcome her own forms of addiction and has left her celebrity life behind. Can she foresee a future with a man who has his own addiction to alcohol, his involvement in attention-grabbing brawls, and a tendency to overstep bounds?

If her first book didn't cinch it, this companion novel sure did. Yes, Amanda Dick is now one of those authors that I need to keep my eye on because she's proven twice over just how adept she is in weaving these highly emotional stories and making it more than just a love story. What I got from both her books are life stories, and they aren't just limited to the main characters. Here, though, it really did become more about Callum and Sass and their issues and challenges as individuals and how they were able to overcome them and triumph together. Through it all, they had the love and support of those closest to them--Sass's brother and his family and Callum's best friends. Like I mentioned in the beginning of my review, if the first book was about absolution, this was about salvation, as well as forgiveness, family, and friendship.

There's something about Amanda Dick's writing that calls to me. Her stories are more than just about falling for another person. So far, the ones I've read have been about discovering the person that you are and being the best possible version of that. In turn, love isn't merely about the falling; it's also about the catching and in Callum and Sass's case, they were there when the other needed someone to catch them at the lowest points in their lives. They're flawed characters, but I don't want flawlessness. I like that Callum and Sass have their nicks and cuts and bumps and bruises. It means they've lived and have survived to tell their tale, and now they're able to start to a new chapter together and will try to deflect the pain and hurt for the one person they love most when need be. I loved Sliding Down the Sky and give it five-plus stars. ♥

Release Date: 11 April 2016

Date Read: 11 April 2016

Learn more about Amanda Dick.

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