beauty in the bittersweet | excerpt + giveaway

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about the book

If checking off lists were all it took, Elle Reed could keep her life from crumbling around her. But her husband betrays her trust, her best friend’s recent diagnosis reveals a hidden trauma, and a secret Elle has been keeping from her mother has wrecked their Gilmore Girls-esque relationship. Her career may be the one thing she has control over, and she holds it tightly with both hands.

Then she gets a call she never expects—her mother has passed away suddenly, taking any hope of reconciliation with her. Discovering Catherine’s collection of devotional journals while packing up her home provides an opportunity to glean the wisdom she so desperately misses. But the journals reveal that her mother had secrets of her own, leaving Elle wondering if anyone in her life is who they say.

When an upheaval at work rips away the only stability Elle has left, she has to face her biggest fear. What will it take for her to surrender control to The One who’s had it all along?

publisher: story architect

release date: may 5, 2025

goodreads | amazon

excerpt

I could hardly read the words as my tears mingled with the dried smudges my mother had left on the page. I felt like broken pottery that had been glued back together so the cracks barely showed, now coming apart at fault lines jarred just right. For a moment, I was seven again. My father would pick me up as though I weighed nothing. He said I’d always be his baby, despite my insistence that I was going to be as tall as he was someday. He promised that after my little sister Brianne was born, he’d carry one of us in each arm. Brielle and Brianne. I didn’t start going by Elle until after. I realized my mom began calling me that right around second grade. Like our matching bookend names were a reminder she couldn’t bear of the daughter she’d lost within days of her husband dying.

I sat unmoving until the shadows grew long, stretching from the floor to the walls and ultimately absorbing the room entirely. My mom had been wrong. Just a little. She had come to get me ready for school after she’d hung up, but I wasn’t still sleeping. In fact, I was sitting on the edge of my bed with my favorite doll, Poppy, in my lap. I had brought her with me to Mommy’s room a few minutes earlier. Just in time to hear her say, “Don’t forget, I told Brielle if she’s really good, you’ll bring her a present from New York City.”

Why was I just now remembering? How certain I’d been that it was because I hadn’t been good that Daddy hadn’t brought me a present. In fact, I was so not good enough that he’d never come home at all.

about the author

Despite her start as a journalist for a faith-based news publication two decades ago, Jessica Stone has always loved fiction. She believes that her testimony and message come most clearly through storytelling, and she loves the process of developing deep—and deeply flawed—characters who find redemption and learn to accept grace, just as she is herself. Jessica and her husband reside in Raleigh, North Carolina, near her parents and other family. This story—and her confidence to write it—were inspired by her own Gilmore Girls-esque relationship with her daughter, who is living out her dreams as a fashion designer in Paris. Beauty in the Bittersweet is Jessica’s debut novel and the first in her A Thornbush and Juniper Story series.

Connect with Jessica by visiting jessicastonestories.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email newsletter updates.

giveaway

(3) winners will receive a print copy of Beauty in the Bittersweet plus a sticker/bookmark, journal and pen set!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight April 29, 2025 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on May 6, 2025. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. No shipping restrictions. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

tour schedule

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