Release Day Promotional Post: Come Back to Me by Edmond Manning #Review #Interview #Giveaway

It's release day for Edmond Manning's Come Back to Me, book 5 in his Lost and Founds Series!
We have an Interview and fabulous game with Edmond, a review of this highly anticipated book and a wonderful giveaway where 3 people will walk away with a Lost and Founds book of their choice. So, let's do this!!

Author: Edmond Manning

Book: Come Back To Me

Series: Lost and Founds Book 5

Self Published

Publication date: August 23, 2016

Length: 398 pages

Reviewed by Meredith

Buy on Amazon

Synopsis

After years of lying, scheming, and dangerous manipulation, Vin Vanbly finally gets what's coming to him: love.

How can he survive unstoppable, uncontrollable love when his very nature demands he control everything? Clues about his one true love—tantalizingly hinted at in each of the books in The Lost and Founds series—come together in four life-changing stories.

In No Kings, a sex hookup with a parking lot stranger reveals more about Vin’s life as a Lost King and his destiny than he could have dreamed. In King Fitch, Vin meets the last king in his long legacy, one final weekend before he withdraws from the world to an anonymous Latin American jungle. The Lost Ones recounts a terrifying kidnapping by street thugs from Vin’s past. In King Malcolm the Restorer, Vin’s mysterious relationship with his older brother—and the soul-crushing secret which drew them together—is finally revealed.

Through it all, Vin Vanbly struggles to survive. But what if he is destined for more than mere survival? Is he finally ready to embrace the truth and remember who he was always meant to be? Once there were a tribe where every man was the one true king and every woman the one true queen…

Interview & A Game

Okay, Edmond, we’re going to have some fun today. First I’m going to chat you up a bit ask you some questions and then we’re going to play a sort of game. I have to be unique here. Vin is inspiring with his creativity so of course this post had to be different from all my other posts. I’ll start with the questions.

Oh my goodness. I’m…afraid.

In what ways are you like Vin Vanbly?

We are both bears. We have blond hair. (I wish I had given him different physical characteristics but it’s a little late for that now.)

When Vin is hungry in the books, chances are I was hungry when I was writing. His hunger is my hunger.

I don’t have his word issues. I don’t think about words the same way he does. But like him, I do appreciate a clever turn of phrase love beautiful words strung together.

He likes seeing the beauty in the world, and uncovering beauty. Me too.

Do you have fears and do you believe you must conquer them?

I do have fears.

I get anxious when I fly. Usually, I freak out for about 45 seconds, thinking about how unnatural it is to be off the planet’s surface. Have I conquered that fear? No. But I endure it. Valium helps.

Random things I fear: snakes, big spiders, chunks of fat mushrooms ruining spaghetti, going blind. I worry about aging. As is, I get freaked out when I’m not healthy. What happens when I’m 70 and shit just doesn’t work the same as it does right now? How will I cope? Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, I worry about how I die. Will it hurt? Will it last a long time? Oddly, I have zero worries about what happens after death. I have utter confidence that experience is fine. But the actual body death itself scares me. 

Vin has a great quirk with words, letters, and sounds. What quirks do you have?

What makes you think I have quirks? That’s crazy talk.

Okay.

Maybe one or two quirks. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe.

I really like saving Tupperware. And when I say, “like saving,” I hope you’re reading between the lines and seeing the word hoarder. I hang on to Tupperware, takeout containers, empty cottage cheese plastics…everything. The “you’ll never know when you need this” mantra hangs over my head at all times. When my cupboards are full, I clear out the most useless ones into a shopping bag and store them in the basement. I can’t throw them away, because, you’ll never know when you need it. Right? After I accumulate four shopping bags of unused cottage cheese containers and pad Thai takeout in the basement, I finally recycle them. Why? Because I’ve seen the television show Hoarders. I can’t be like those people. I’ll freak myself out.

It would be easier if I simply didn’t collect every single container and go through this process of storing them in the basement. But that’s not who I am.

You love comic books. What are your favorite comics and if you could be one character from it who would you be and why?

No one has ever asked me this! I love it. Okay. Here goes.

1.      Saga. Oh man, is this an amazing space opera comic. The artist is Fiona Staples and combined with Brian Vaughn’s expert storytelling, this has been a thrill ride for years. Love this. Story of a cross-cultural family and the beautiful, messy, insane aliens they encounter. Challenges of a real-life marriage.

2.      I’m a huge X-men fan. I’ve been reading most X-titles for 25 years. I’m scaling back these days (as I should have done years ago) but a good storyline X-comic with Mr. Sinister or Phoenix will make me feel very young again. Get me some chocolate milk! This episode has Mr. Sinister!

3.      The Fix is a new comic (only four issues in) and it’s fantastic. Very adult themes and excellent dialog.

4.      The Walking Dead. It’s a fantastic comic (long before it was a fantastic television show), and has surprised and shocked me so many times, I’ve lost count.

If I could be any character? I’d want to be Illanya Rasputin (Magik of the X-men)’s assistant in Limbo. I want to be able to teleport and for her to teach me all her spells. She’s such a badass. Plus, I’m secretly in love with her brother.

If you could Queen me what would my queen name be? (Yeah I went here I’ve been wanting to know this one forever)

First, I will not answer this question. Then, I will answer it.

My primary and true answer is that I’m not sure. To get sure, here’s what I’d want to do:  follow you around for four days. I’d want to see how you interact with your kids. What you make for dinner. How you end your day. I’d want to see you when you were at your most energetic, and then, your least. I’d want to see you angry and how you get out of your anger. I’d want to see you laugh. These are the things I’d want to observe so that I might catch those glimpses revealing the giftedness that you are. Without witnessing it first hand, I’m guessing at a queen name based on your online persona, which might be very dead-on….or not.

Personally, I think a king name or queen name is both your celebrated gift in the world and maybe also a slight rebuke, a reminder to let that best part of you out, and not get ‘trapped’ in its polar opposite. In King Mai, Mai knew everything and was right about it. He knew with certainty what kind of assholes the town Bubbas were. He hated the bank, because he knew who they were and everything they represented. He didn’t like the small-minded town hicks, because he knew them. To open his curious heart, he had to let go of his certainty. His king name—King Mai the Curious—represents the best of him, his loving curiosity. It also was a reminder not to get too comfortable with certainty.

So. Your queen name should be your most blessed gift, and hint at the ways you are rigid, so that it can be a reminder of who you want to be and who you could be. Does that make sense?

This is why I want to see you in the real world to answer your question.

On the other hand, I don’t want to seem like I just gave you a cop-out answer. So based on what I know of you, here’s what I got:  Queen Meredith the Protector. You defend your authors. You defend your kids. You stick up (online) for what you see are injustices and you call out authors behaving badly. You do not merely welcome diversity, you protect it.

Do you think that fits?

I'm honored, Edmond!

You travel a lot, like Vin, what has been your greatest adventure?

My best friend Ann and I flew to Cancun in Mexico a few years ago. We rented a car and drove five hours south, along the coast, to a small resort that a friend highly recommended. The resort itself was fantastic—gorgeous, incredible food, white beaches. But it was also slightly terrifying because we were so very, very remote. The resort did not have hot water available all day. No nearby stores. The nearest hospital was over an hour away. We were warned not to walk down the only road at night because of the nearby alligators, sometimes waiting next to the road for “a walker.”

This resort bordered a national jungle sanctuary. We saw a giant python in the wild. One day, we snorkeled off the coast in this jungle sanctuary looking for a sunken ship and nobody—nobody—had any fucking clue where we were for several hours. If one of us were bit by a shark, well, we would have simply bled to death (and then been eaten by the shark). I’m assuming the other one of us would have swam like hell for the shore and then cried bitter tears.

After Ann fell asleep at night, I’d climb the stairs to the resort’s flat, patio roof and dance to my tunes under the brilliant moon, beaming on the ocean. I’d dance for an hour out of sheer joy at experiencing this miraculous place.

There’s a great debate over what “romance” is and what just “fiction.” In King Perry, people said was not a romance, none of them are really a romance… some people say this.  Come Back to Me is absolutely in my opinion. Do you agree, disagree… thoughts?

Come Back To Me definitely fits the traditional definition of a romance:  two guys in love, they have struggles, they end up together monogamously.

I think all of my books qualify as romance. No, they don’t fit the traditional definition of a romance, but then again, neither did gay people fit into the traditional definition of marriage. So, we reworked the definition rather than deny that flavor of love. I get frustrated when people say, “It’s not a romance because they didn’t end up together.” Really? Have you ever been in love with someone and it didn’t work out? Do you then deny the genuine love that flowed from your heart because it didn’t work out? That’s a pauper’s way of experiencing love.

I dedicated Come Back To Me to the men in my life I have loved because even though none of those relationships were ever “The One,” my god, I got to experience love during this lifetime! LOVE! Do you know how many people are starved for the experience of loving and being loved? Why would you ever deny the reality of that romance? In reality? In fiction? Love is love.

Would you ever do a king weekend either being kinged or doing the kinging?

I would never spend a weekend with Vin Vanbly. He’s a freeeeaaaaak.

I did complete a weekend training experience, many years ago, through a group called The Mankind Project. While this was NOTHING LIKE the King Weekends I write about, I found the experience life-changing. It completely opened my heart to incredible love and joy. That’s the closest I’ve come to being kinged (and, yes, I felt like I was kinged).

What’s next for this series? Without giving too much away of course.

After King Daniel, I’m writing a book that is tangentially related to The Lost and Founds, but I’m not really considering part of the “official” series. This book is titled Zacchaeus, and is based on a Christian Bible story about a short tax collector who climbs a tree to see Jesus. (I am not a Christian.) Zacchaeus is mentioned by Vin in The Butterfly King.

And of course, there’s the story of the first kinging…

How do you decompress after writing Vin? I’ve read all the Lost and Found books, they’re very emotional.

By the time I’m doing writing about Vin, all my emotions are spent. I grab comfort food from the kitchen and crash on the couch with Netflix. I love to watch reruns of 30Rock and eat nachos.

You’ve been doing something very unique with book six. Can you tell us for those who have no idea what they’re missing?

Because I am a slow writer and was only getting out one book per year, I didn’t want readers to get too impatient. Soooooo…I started releasing chapters of the sixth book, King Daniel, between the releases of each full novel. That way, readers got a new dimension of The Lost and Founds just when they needed a fix.

King Daniel takes places in 2013. Many of the previous books take place in the 1990s (mostly). With books taking place in the distant past and recent past, I could play with past mysteries and future clues the way they did on the popular television show, LOST. Some mysteries in the full-length novels are resolved in the King Daniel chapters. And, the King Daniel chapters introduce new mysteries that confuse events that happen in the past.

The way to read these books looks like this:

King Perry (first book) – February, 2012

King Daniel, chapters 1-3 – October 2013

King Mai (second book) – July, 2013

King Daniel, chapters 4-7 – January, 2014

The Butterfly King (third book) – September, 2014

King Daniel, chapters 8-10– April, 2015

King John (fourth book) – September 10th, 2015

King Daniel, Chapter 11 –February 2016

Come Back to Me (fifth book) - August 2016

King Daniel (sixth book) – COMPLETED STORY, ???, 2016

OKAY…. This is GAME TIME! I thought long and hard about this. It shouldn’t take you TOO long to do this. Vin is a word nut! We love him for it. He has words he loves and hates. I want to concentrate on the love. So, we are using the alphabet! I want to know your favorite word for each letter of the alphabet. I even wrote the ABC’s for you just put it in. ONE WORD per letter! Only one. Go…

Astronomical

Banana

Cataract

Despicable

Edmond

Flipper

Ganesha

Hello (one of the simplest, most elegant, friendly-sounding words ever)

Inconspicuous

Jellax (I made it up)

Kowtow

Luscious

Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Nope!

Origami

Palpable

Quickly

Ristorante (Italian word for restaurant)

Salacious

Tutu

Uglify

Venom

Wisteria

Xylophone

Yammer

Zestless

Excellent! HAHA! Fun Fun *clappy hands*

Did I pass? Did I at least get a B?

You got an A+

Thank you, Edmond, for all this!

Thank you for inviting me! And thank you for the very thoughtful questions. I really enjoyed this!

Review

I read Come Back to Me, book 5 in Edmond Manning’s The Lost and Founds Series, and did something I never have done before… I slept on it before I reviewed. Normally I have to be in the moment so I write my review immediately following the book. Not this time. This book is 100% different than all the other Lost and Founds. There’s a Vin Vanbly kinging, yes, but then there’s Vin’s story, Vin’s love, and yeah a question you’ve been dying to know gets answered. 

I closed my kindle with a sigh and a smile. I closed it with a few questions but I know this isn’t the end of these books. There will be more. I’m happy though. Not because I heard Vin’s story but because I understand things better now. I love Vin even more than I thought possible. I love Mark, and Malcom, and all the kings Vin has given all his love to.

As I read I highlighted a few things. Things that wouldn’t give away the story but that I simply read over a few times just to bask in the feeling of the moment. 

“Have you ever thought about traveling somewhere amazing, Marky?” He smiles, and his eyes are still closed, “Just did.”

And that is a pure, amazing feeling right there. I was like, “Yes, Edmond, you get it.” It’s something when you know an author understands what a good moment is worth. 

Understanding Vin Vanbly is a journey in itself and yet he says things, lives in seconds that just leaves us speechless.

As we’re both drifting off, he says the words I’ve been dreading in a voice more air than sound. He says, “I love you.” I squeeze him, but can’t say them back.

His complexity is what keeps the reader riveted. You know when the time is right you’re going to hear his story and it’s going to turn you inside out, it’s going to hurt. And it does.

As each book in this series passes there’s one thing that Vin always says that gives me goosebumps, my veins tingle, my heart pumps, and I know it’s about to begin:

“Once there was a tribe of men, a tribe populated entirely of kings. Odd, you may think, and wonder how any work got done in such a society with everyone making rules. But these were not those kinds of kings.”

That right there is like a starting gun at a race. I squee a little, I wonder where this is going.

Come Back to Me, as Edmond promised, is everything you’ve been waiting for. It’s a sexual book that touches ALL elements of sex. The good, bad, great, important, elementary, and most important love.

It’s hard to write this review without spoilers because I want to gush with you readers and tell you the moments that made me cry, laugh, smile, sigh, and heal. 

I adore this book and all the pieces that came together. How important every page from book 1 until now mattered.

I can’t highly recommend a book or series more than this.

Author Bio

Edmond Manning has always been fascinated by fiction: how ordinary words could be sculpted into heartfelt emotions, how heartfelt emotions could leave an imprint inside you stronger than the real world. Mr. Manning never felt worthy to seek publication until recently, when he accidentally stumbled into his own writer’s voice that fit perfectly, like his favorite skull-print, fuzzy jammies. He finally realized that he didn’t have to write like Charles Dickens or Armistead Maupin, two author heroes, and that perhaps his own fiction was juuuuuuust right, because it was his true voice, so he looked around the scrappy word kingdom that he created for himself and shouted, “I’M HOME!” He is now a writer.

In addition to fiction, Edmond enjoys writing non-fiction on his blog, www.edmondmanning.com. When not writing, he can be found either picking raspberries in the back yard or eating panang curry in an overstuffed chair upstairs, reading comic books.

Giveaway

Three people will walk away as kings or queens!

If you haven't had the opportunity to start this series today 

might be your lucky day! 

If you've started but need the next book, THIS might be your lucky day

If you were dying for THIS book then this might be your lucky day!

Enter the rafflecopter below where three people will win

their choice of any of the Lost and Founds book from

Contest will end August 30th!

Enter the rafflecopter below folks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway