COVER & EXCERPT REVEAL: The Wisdom Within by Gwen Martin (Excerpt & Giveaway)

THE WISDOM WITHIN

The Collective Series – Book Three

by Gwen Martin

Cover & Excerpt Reveal

Release Date: July 18, 2024

Cover Design:

We Got You Covered Book Design

Photographer:

Xram Ragde

Genre: M/M Bisexual Romance Standalone

Tropes: Hookups-to-lovers, addiction recovery, found family, hurt/comfort, angst

Synopsis

To have a future together, they must trust the wisdom about their past.

At five years sober, Nik Ward is the picture-perfect recovering addict. With a carefully curated schedule that includes a job, volunteer hours, and hobbies, his routine shields him from the claws of addiction. All good, steady, healthy . . . and boring. Until he meets Micah Dixon.

Micah just wants everything to go back to the way it was before his twin sister became an addict. He’d give anything to free her from the depths of her addiction, but if she doesn’t try to get sober by their mother’s vow renewals, he’ll have to cut her out of his life for good—no matter how much it hurts. Micah needs a distraction, and instead of dwelling on his ultimatum, he finds the perfect distraction in Nik.

When the two men meeting turns into a series of hot and heavy hookups, both of their plans go out the window. Unless Nik can find the wisdom within to live off-balance and Micah can learn meet his loved ones where they’re at, their budding romance may thrust them both into the depths of the world they’re desperately trying to escape.

*** Trigger Warnings Include: Drug abuse of a secondary character, deep discussions of drug recovery and drug abuse.

Excerpt

My gaze studied the tattoos covering his arm and up to his neck. Color and swirls of shapes covered his skin, but one caught my eye—a jar filled with fireflies, labeled 27 Club.

If there was one think I took away from recovery was that everyone had a story and the ways they told their stories were endless. Some people kept it closer to the chest, others made groups and organizations to share their stories to build community. Even after five years, I hadn’t quite figured out where I stood on that. I’d been surrounded with either people who saw me before death almost snatched my ass, or other people in recovery.

Micah had a story, too. And I wanted to hear about all of it.

“Hope you got past the club,” I said, looking up to Micah. “Otherwise, that’d be damn disappointing.”

Micah looked down at his arm, running the back of his knuckles over the jar of fireflies. His eyes flicked up to me, the confident flirt fading a little. “It’s not for me. But yeah, they just turned this year, so hopefully it works out.”

“Bro, I couldn’t have said it any better,” I said and lifted my cup, and Micah joined me, our glasses clinking. An urge I hadn’t felt before rumbled inside of me, taking on momentum until it was boiling so intensely, I couldn’t stop myself from saying something.

“There came this point in my life recently that I finally understood how sad it is to grow up. All that innocence we had as a child, to go about freely and enjoy the little things is all gone. One bad day, bad week, whatever, and your whole life will blow up.”

I ran my fingertip through the wrinkled napkin under my glass, watching as the thin tissue pulled back another layer. “And I ain’t saying there ain’t kids out there who don’t got it bad, because there are. They gotta grow up faster than they should, but damn, they got some hope, you know?”

Suddenly realizing how I’d just verbally vomited to a total stranger, a fucking hot one at that, had my head jerking up in alarm, ready to apologize. Damn, I couldn’t even use being drunk as an excuse. Hopefully I could get out of this without making myself look like an absolute fool.

But the apology stuck in my throat when I saw Micah’s face.

The heat that flared in his eyes was obvious, even to me who hadn’t gotten laid in over a year. He wasn’t freaked out at all. Far from it.

Micah looked over his shoulders as if we were in a room full of people and he was checking out who was paying attention. When he leaned forward, I caught the dark scent of his cologne, and my head swam. “Look, I don’t know if barking up the wrong tree, but I feel like we got something going on here and I have nothing else going on this evening. Wanna get out of here?”

Nowhere did my routines and schedules include hooking up with a guy I met barely fifteen minutes before. Micah radiated confidence and sex appeal, that was for sure. But instead of arrogance, there was a softness in his stare that made me want to be impulsive.

Maybe this is what it was like to live a little.

Micah stayed silent, his finger tapping to the beat of the music in the lounge. He was waiting for me to answer, no pressure, no insistence.

“Yeah, I’d like that,” I said.

Micah’s answered smile was so radiant, my breath caught. It was so beautiful it was almost painful to look at, but if I broke eye contact, I’d risk the chance it would disappear, and I didn’t want to live with that regret.

“Good deal,” Micah said, listing to the side. He pulled out his phone and slid it across the table. “Give me your number, and I’ll text you my address.”

It wasn’t until we were heading toward the exit that my body finally caught up to what was happening. I couldn’t fool myself that the buzz in my ears was from the chaos of the party or blame the hammer pounding against my chest on the music. This encounter had woken up a part of me I thought I had buried a long time ago. I was running back into unfamiliar territory, and one wrong turn could land me in a world of shit.

It was scary as hell. It was thrilling. It was spontaneous. That wasn’t a word I ever used, but it felt right. It was like jumping off the side of a building and wondering if the parachute was gonna work. I’d fucked around with my life like that for years. Now I knew that if this all went tits up, I still had my house, Duncan’s cooking, and a bunch of dumb videos to watch to go back to. I’d land on solid ground.

About the Author

Gwen Martin is from Florida where the sun was always shining, and the humidity is always high. In 2020 she and her partner moved to Knoxville for a change of scenery with their five cats, and a whole lot of dreams.

Writing came to her at a young age, where she scribbled stories instead of paying attention to math lessons. She spent many years in fandom, exploring her writing opportunities before deciding to take the dive into self-publishing.

Gwen has a strong love affair with cold brew coffee, black cats, and nerding out in a variety of fandoms. When she’s not writing, she’s reading everything she can get her hands on, crocheting compulsively while listening horror gamer playthroughs,and vibing to spotify playlists for inspiration. And best of all, loving the best creatures on earth—her harem of gatos.