Finding North (Compass series
#1)
by Allyson Gottlieb
SYNOPSIS
Sometimes you have to
lose everything to find what you’ve really been looking for Katherine Zova spends her days patching up soldiers in the
Alliance’s army while praying for time to heal the wounds on her own broken
heart. Crushing loss numbs her waking hours and nightmares threaten her sanity
when she closes her eyes. All she wants is to be free, but instead she’s forced
to trade one cage for another. Reynan Caverly wears his uniform only out of
loyalty to his father, who in his quest to build a new America has little time
to spend with his only son. Indifferent to his sensational Las Vegas lifestyle,
all he wants is to feel a connection with someone. A seemingly impossible
request—until the day he finds a girl with haunting eyes in a group of captured
Alliance soldiers. Some wounds cut too deep to deal with alone. Sometimes only
love can heal. But in a country torn apart by civil war, nothing comes without
a price. And for Kat and Reynan, falling in love may cost more than they’re
willing to pay.
Isn’t it gorgeous? Marisa from Cover
Me Darling did an amazing job. Just look at that full wrap! And since it’s also #TeaserTuesday, here’s an exclusive excerpt from
inside the book!
EXCERPT
Reynan was smiling at me in a way that made me ever
so slightly nervous again. “You sound so happy when you talk about home. I can
tell you really love it there.” My stomach muscles tensed involuntarily. This
was skating dangerously close to subjects from last night’s interrogation.
These were Reynan’s kind eyes looking back at me, though, not the cold, cruel
stare of his father. So I took another deep breath and said, “I have some
pretty good memories, yes.” “What was the school system like? I’ve been
homeschooled all my life, for one reason or another, so I’ve never really seen
a public school.” I started to laugh, then covered it with a cough. “Public
school sucks. Be thankful you didn’t have to deal with disgusting cafeteria
food, lockers that stick, and butt-ugly PE uniforms.” He chuckled as I
continued, “Homeschooled…I can’t imagine what that must be like.” “Yeah, well,
it was pretty nice. My father made me do a lot of physical training, but as far
as book-learning, I got a lot of choice about what I studied, so I stopped
doing math as soon as I could get away with it.” “Nice.” I smirked. “My mom
made me take it all through high school. Calculus was the bane of my
existence.” “That sucks.” He looked away, shoving his hands in his pockets as
he added, “It was lonely, though. Homeschooling.” There was a weight in my
chest that felt a lot like sympathy. “Did you have a favorite subject?” I
asked, trying to take my mind off that topic before I thought too long about
it. “Mine was English.” “I liked history, which is kind of a useless subject in
some ways. If you really think about it, though, somebody had to write these
books, which is kind of like playing God. Can you imagine trying to sum up all
of human existence into a “greatest hits” reel? That’s some serious power right
there. Then I wonder what the history books will look like in a hundred years,
and how much of what’s important to me, what I lived through, will end up
preserved for future generations to learn about.” I sucked in a breath, the
indirect reminder of the current state of the country—of the war, and our
positions on opposite sides of it—like a bucket of freezing water over my head,
a shock to my system. Moreover, there was the realization that until then, we’d
been chatting away like a pair of actual friends. I tried to put some space
between us, but the passage was barely wide enough for two people to walk
comfortably side by side. I was grateful when it widened out into a small
chamber. More pictures and hieroglyphics covered the walls, and a gold
sarcophagus lay in the center on a slightly raised platform. I stroked my
fingers over the top, shivering slightly at the cool metal. “This place is
awesome,” I said, in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had settled
in between us like an old friend. “I can’t imagine what kind of fun—and
trouble—you must have gotten into as a kid with the Strip as your playground.”
Reynan forced a slight smile, though his expression was tense, almost pained.
“I didn’t always live here.” The tone of his voice, while not entirely
standoffish, definitely seemed to shut down any further line of inquiry. All
these hints and scraps of information had me wondering about his childhood. It
couldn’t have been traditional, given who his father was, and I startled myself
with the realization that I actually wanted to know more about it—more about him.
Somehow, despite all my best attempts to stay detached, I’d started to care
just a little bit about him. Even that little bit scared me, because I knew how
easy it was for something like that to grow into more.
Intrigued
yet? Add it to your Goodreads TBR here
Growing up, Allyson was always the girl with a big imagination and even bigger dreams. A California girl by birth, she currently lives in Boston while attending Emerson College. She has a slight addiction to Stabucks, eyeliner, and chocolate—and, of course, books.
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