Breaking Tackles by Erin Brown
Contemporary, NA, Romance
Breaking Tackles goes on sale September 22nd!
Read the entire first chapter on Wattpad
Luckily, Adam isn’t much concerned about long-distance. He loves
Courtney – has ever since they were kids – and isn’t about to let something as
silly as distance come between them. After she visits him, meeting his
teammates and their significant others, most o
f whom, he must admit, err on the side of model, Courtney – a girl who has always been a tomboy and couldn’t care less about fashion and diet trends – is hell-bent on dieting and working out nearly every waking moment.
f whom, he must admit, err on the side of model, Courtney – a girl who has always been a tomboy and couldn’t care less about fashion and diet trends – is hell-bent on dieting and working out nearly every waking moment.
As Courtney begins to lose weight, she begins to feel better about
herself. She hasn’t been happy with her appearance in quite some time anyway,
especially lately, and she’s sure that as soon as she’s happy with how she
looks, the rest of her insecurities about her love life, as well as all the
change that has come her way recently, will disappear. As soon as she reaches
her goal weight, she’ll stop with the restrictive diet and spend less time at
the gym. Because as soon as she looks better, she knows she’ll feel better,
which means everything will be perfect and she’ll finally be ready to face the
changes in her life she’s so actively avoided.
The companion novel to Taking Flight and Making Headlines, Breaking Tackles is a story of love, hard truths, friendship, food, and football.
It’s Friday night and I’m bored.
Worse than that, I’m restless.
Willa has been Skyping with Dan for the
last two hours, Sophie is at the Delta Tau house for one of their parties, Kate
is party hopping, Becca is out with other friends, and I already talked to Adam
tonight. Unlike Willa and Dan, we’re not the kind of couple who talks for hours
on end about nothing. I can’t decide if I’m jealous of her ability to do that
with her boyfriend or if I think it’s insane.
Both Sophie and Kate invited me to parties,
but I’m not in a party mood.
Then again, I’m so bored that maybe a party
is a good idea. It will at least give me something to do. Before I can change
my mind, I text Sophie and Kate to tell them that I’ll go to the Delta Tau
party. After they both send exclamation points and emojis in response, I start
getting ready, pulling out a pair of dark-washed bootcut jeans.
When I put them on, it turns out they’re
baggy.
Holy crap. I’ve lost enough weight that my
jeans are baggy on me!
I feel an immense sense of satisfaction and
relief washes over me. I was really beginning to think that my devotion to this
diet wasn’t going to ever pay off—that maybe I’d hit some sort of weight-loss
wall.
But I haven’t.
Feeling great, I take them off and put on a
red dress that’s always been a little snug on me. When I get it over my head, I
realize that it fits. In fact, it’s a tiny bit loose.
This is incredible.
I grab a belt and wrap it around my waist,
hiding the fact that the dress is a smidge too big, and then, since I’m wearing
a dress, decide to put on some makeup. Might as well go all out.
When I’m finished getting ready, I knock on
Willa’s door to let her know I’m heading out. I hear her say, “Hold on a
second,” to Dan before she opens the door.
“Holy bazoo,” she says. “You look like a
freaking sex bomb.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“You look awesome,” she says sincerely.
“You should wear red more often. What are you up to tonight?”
“I’m going to head over to the Delta Tau
party. Are you in for the night?”
She looks over at her computer and says,
“Yeah, probably. If not, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay,” I say. “Tell Dan I say hello.”
She nods and says, “Have fun tonight.”
Ten minutes later, I’m at the front door of
the Delta Tau house, where there’s a campus police officer and a guy sitting at
a table in front of the front door.
“Hello,” he says, looking me up and down as
the officer checks my student ID. “Welcome to Delta Tau.”
The police officer opens the door for me
and I walk into the gorgeous entryway and up the stairs that’ll take me to the
less gorgeous part of the house where all the guys live and the parties take
place.
I text Sophie to let her know I’m here and
she meets me at the top of the stairs.
“Look at you!” she says. “You’re making
everyone else look bad.”
“Please,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“No, seriously, you look phenomenal.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s not a compliment, just a freaking
fact. Come on. Luke’s room is this way.”
She takes my hand and leads me through the
already crowded hallways to Luke’s room, which is in a different part of the
house than it was last year. I probably wouldn’t have thought about that and
gone directly to his old room, thoroughly embarrassing myself in the process.
There’s a small group gathered in Luke’s
room and when he sees me, his eyes widen and he says, “Courtney!” before coming
over and giving me a side hug. “Good to see you. What can I get you to drink?”
I try to think of a drink with the least
amount of carbs and sugar in it and come up empty. Alcohol is chock full of
carbs and sugar. There’s no avoiding it.
“Beer is great,” I say, making a deal with
myself to drink the one beer and do thirty extra minutes on the elliptical
tomorrow.
“Coming right up,” Luke says, going to his mini-fridge,
grabbing a beer, untwisting the cap, and pouring it into a red cup before
handing it to me.
“Thanks, Mr. President,” I say.
Luke pointedly grins and lifts his eyebrows
in Sophie’s direction as she says, “Courtney, no!”
“What?”
“He keeps asking me to call him Mr.
President and I’ve been refusing,” Sophie says.
“Oh,” I say, understanding. “Well. I
wouldn’t call him Mr. President in that context, either.”
“See?” Sophie says, returning Luke’s
pointed look. But he just laughs and says, “Can’t blame a man for trying.”
“Trying what?” Kate asks, leaning against
the door. She’s wearing a tiny dress and sky-high heels, and her face starting
to turn red. The Asian Flush, as she calls it.
“Luke wants me to call him Mr. President.”
“In bed?” Kate asks loudly. “Or all the
time?”
Everyone in the room laughs at that.
“Preferably all the time,” Luke says. “She’s also refused to call me ‘Editor in
Chief, sir’ in the newsroom.”
Sophie groans and rolls her eyes.
“So, when’s this party really getting
started?” Kate asks.
“Now that you’re here, the festivities can
officially begin,” Luke says.
“Has Courtney not made it yet?” she asks,
looking around the room, her gaze moving right past me. “She texted and said
she was coming.”
“Kate,” I say, and her eyes find mine.
“Oh. My. God,” she says dramatically. “I’m
either already so drunk that I didn’t recognize you or you look completely
different.”
“I think it might be a little of both,” I
say.
“You’re probably right,” she says, moving
closer to me. “I just saw you at lunch today and you didn’t look like this.”
“I was wearing running shorts and a
T-shirt.”
“You need to stop that and start showing
off this body more often. Damn, girl.”
“Back down, Kate,” Luke says. “Otherwise
I’ll have to sic Adam on you.”
“You’ll need to sic him on all the guys
here,” Kate says. “And probably some of the girls.”
The author was pretty straightforward with what she wants the readers to gain from the book. It's not just about loving others but also learning to love oneself.
Ms. Brown was able to narrate how one's social acceptance pressures oneself to change in what they deem in accordance to society's standards. From the insecurities, to the empowerment of feeling that change and others noticing it, and down to wanting more. It even came to the point that her actions lead to horrible consequences not only to herself but also to those who love her. It showed how her body dismorphic disorder affected those around her as well.
Breaking Tackles talk about a disorder that is quite common yet is something that a lot keep quiet about. The book showed that in order to conquer it, not only do you have to learn to accept yourself but also accept the support of those who has your best interest at heart.
Erin Brown is a writer, Whedonite, Whovian, yogi, HGTV addict, and connoisseur of The CW’s TV line-up. She was born and raised in Arkansas, lived in New York City for five years, and recently moved to Singapore, where she lives on the beach, which is completely wasted on her because she is a ginger and the sun is not her friend. She is the author of Taking Flight and Making Headlines: A Taking Flight Novel. You can follow her on Twitter @erinbrownwrites.
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