A Love Letter to Whiskey by Kandi Steiner 5 STARS!

Title: A Love Letter to Whiskey

Author: Kandi Steiner

Release Date: Oct 13, 2016

Add to Goodreads

It’s crazy how fast the buzz comes back after you’ve been sober for so long.

Whiskey stood there, on my doorstep, just like he had one year before. Except this time, there was no rain, no anger, no wedding invitation — it was just us.

It was just him — the old friend, the easy smile, the twisted solace wrapped in a glittering bottle.

It was just me — the alcoholic, pretending like I didn’t want to taste him, realizing too quickly that months of being clean didn’t make me crave him any less.

But we can’t start here.

No, to tell this story right, we need to go back. 

Back to the beginning.

Back to the very first drop.

This is my love letter to Whiskey. I only hope he reads it. 

Christy's 5 Star Review: 

 

 
   

One day, whether you are 14, 28 or 65,

you will stumble upon someone who will start a fire in you that cannot die.

However, the saddest, most awful truth you will ever come to find-

is they are not always with whom we spend our lives.

-Beau Tapilin

 


The first page of this book gutted me. A Love Letter to Whiskey is not an easy read. It’s the opposite of easy. It’s stressful. It will make you cry, make you feel and have your stomach in knots. It’s easily the most angst-filled book I’ve read this year. I was not expecting this from a Kandi Steiner book. The other two books I read by here were not like this LOL. I have a love/hate relationship with excessive angst and I usually lean more towards the hate side. But this book… This story… As hard as it was to read, I fell in love. Kandi’s words are beyond gorgeous. This book is real, raw and you will devour it.
 

I saw him first, but it didn’t matter. Because he saw her.

By the first chapter of this book, I was fully invested in the story and in the main character, B. B meets Jamie her junior year of high school. It doesn’t start out as love, but friendship. Jamie and B become the best of friends, but so much more is between them. This story spans a decade. A decade of love, loss, friendship, heartache and emotion.
 

I was spinning, tipsy, teetering on the edge of being wasted on Whiskey. I’d dreamed of kissing Jamie so many times, but nothing could compare to how it really felt.

 


As the years pass, mistakes are made. There is miscommunication. There is a lot of stress and misunderstandings. But there is also a lot of love. Desire. I could feel how much these two loved each other, wanted each other, and needed each other. I was addicted to their story. I couldn’t stop reading. No matter how difficult it got, I couldn’t put the book down. Oh those rare books that are impossible to stop reading- they are such a treasure. I must have bit off all my nails while reading. I felt like I needed a drink. This love story was complicated. It was devastating. It was intense. And these two had the absolute worst timing ever.

Jamie is a character I loved from the start. He’s Whiskey. He’s addicting, smooth, and you will get drunk off of him. His nickname suits him. B is one of those characters that was tough. She was likable, then she was frustrating, then I felt for her… lord did I feel for her. Then I went back to being frustrated with her. My emotions were all over the place. One thing she was- REAL. She was a real person. She was not perfect, but by the end, I felt like she had a lot of growth.

 


I feel like this review has been a lot of rambling and I’m not giving this story the type of review it deserves. It’s because my emotions are all over the place. This story is bittersweet. It’s heart-wrenching and soul shattering. And it absolutely blew me away. It’s a book that you’ll love to hate and hate to love. I feel like no matter how you feel after reading, YOU WILL FEEL. This is a story that will elicit strong feelings from everyone who reads it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book like this, and even longer since I’ve read one that effected me this strongly. Kandi Steiner’s writing is exquisite. This is one of the most beautifully written stories I have ever read. It will make you feel. Not all of those feelings will be pretty, but you will feel. There were so many moments while reading, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. This one really got under my skin and made my heart ache. By the end, I was happy I stuck it out. This is a story of heartache, love and friendship. It’s an epic read and one that I couldn’t give anything less than 5 stars to. Word to the wise, bring some Whiskey along when reading. You’ll need it.

 

Kandi Steiner is a Creative Writing and Advertising/Public Relations graduate from the University of Central Florida living in Tampa with her husband. Kandi works full time as a social media specialist, but also works part time as a Zumba fitness instructor and blackjack dealer. 

Kandi started writing back in the 4th grade after reading the first Harry Potter installment. In 6th grade, she wrote and edited her own newspaper and distributed to her classmates. Eventually, the principal caught on and the newspaper was quickly halted, though Kandi tried fighting for her “freedom of press.” She took particular interest in writing romance after college, as she has always been a die hard hopeless romantic (like most girls brought up on Disney movies).

When Kandi isn’t working or writing, you can find her reading books of all kinds, talking with her extremely vocal cat, and spending time with her friends and family. She enjoys beach days, movie marathons, live music, craft beer and sweet wine – not necessarily in that order.

   

Cover Reveal: A Love Letter to Whiskey by Kandi Steiner

Title: A Love Letter to Whiskey

Author: Kandi Steiner

Release Date: Oct 13, 2016

Add to Goodreads

It’s crazy how fast the buzz comes back after you’ve been sober for so long.

Whiskey stood there, on my doorstep, just like he had one year before. Except this time, there was no rain, no anger, no wedding invitation — it was just us.

It was just him — the old friend, the easy smile, the twisted solace wrapped in a glittering bottle.

It was just me — the alcoholic, pretending like I didn’t want to taste him, realizing too quickly that months of being clean didn’t make me crave him any less.

But we can’t start here.

No, to tell this story right, we need to go back. 

Back to the beginning.

Back to the very first drop.

This is my love letter to Whiskey. I only hope he reads it. 

The first time I tasted Whiskey, I fell flat on my face.

Literally.

I was drunk from the very first sip, and I guess that should have been my sign to stay away.

Jenna and I were running the trail around the lake near her house, sweat dripping into our eyes from the intense South Florida heat. It was early September, but in South Florida, it might as well have been July. There was no “boots and scarves” season, unless you counted the approximately six weeks in January and February where the temperature dropped below eighty degrees.

As it was, we were battling ninety-plus degrees, me trying to be a show off and prove I could keep up with Jenna’s cheerleading training program. She had finally made the varsity squad, and with that privilege came ridiculous standards she had to uphold. I hated running — absolutelyloathed it. I would much rather have been on my surf board that day. But fortunately for Jenna, she had a competitive best friend who never turned down a challenge. So when she asked me to train with her, I’d agreed eagerly, even knowing I’d have screaming ribs and calves by the end of the day.

I saw him first.

I was just a few steps ahead of Jenna, and I’d been staring down at my hot pink sneakers as they hit the concrete. When I looked up, he was about fifty feet away, and even from that distance I could tell I was in trouble. He seemed sort of average at first — brown hair, lean build, soaked white running shirt — but the closer he got, the more I realized just how edible he was. I noticed the shift in the muscles of his legs as he ran, the way his hair bounced slightly, how he pressed his lips together in concentration as he neared us. 

I looked over my shoulder, attempting to waggle my eyebrows at Jenna and give her the secret best friend code for “hot guy up ahead”, but she had stopped to tie her shoes. And when I turned back around, it was too late.

I smacked into him — hard — and fell to the pavement, rolling a bit to soften the fall. He cursed and I groaned, more from embarrassment than pain. I wish I could say I gracefully picked myself up, smiled radiantly, and asked him for his number, but the truth is I lost the ability to do anything the minute I looked up at him.

It was an unfamiliar, warm ache that spread through my chest as I used my hand to shield the sun streaming in behind his silhouette, just how you’d expect the first sip of whiskey to feel. He was bent over, hand outstretched, saying something that wasn’t registering because I had somehow managed to slip my hand into his and just that one touch had set my skin on fire.

Handsome wasn’t the right word to describe him, but it was all I kept thinking as I traced his features. His hair was a sort of mocha color, damp at the roots, falling onto his forehead just slightly. His eyes were wide — almost too round — and a mixture of gold, green, and the deepest brown. I didn’t coin the nickname Whiskey until much later, but it was that moment that I saw it for the first time — those were whiskey eyes. The kind of eyes you get lost in. The kind that drink you in. He had the longest lashes and a firm, square jaw. It was so hard, the edges so clean that I would have sworn he was angry with me if it weren’t for the smile on his face.He was still talking as my eyes fell over his broad chest before snapping back up to his sideways grin.

“Oh my God, are you fucking blind?!” Jenna’s voice snapped me from my haze as she shoved Whiskey out of the way and latched onto my hand, ripping me back to standing position. I’d barely caught my balance before she whipped around to continue her scolding. “How about you brush that long ass hair out of your eyes and watch where you’re going, huh champ?”

Oh no.

I didn’t even have time to call dibs, I couldn’t even think the word, let alone say it, before it was too late. I watched it, in slow motion, as Whiskey fell for my best friend before I even had the chance to say a single word to him. 

Jenna was standing tall, arms crossed, one hip popped in her usual fashion as she waited for him to defend himself. This was her protocol — it was one of the reasons we got along. We were both what you’d call “spitfires”, but Jenna had the distinct advantage of being cripplingly gorgeous on top of having an attitude. She flipped her long, wavy blonde ponytail behind her and cocked a brow.

And then he did, too.

His smile grew wider as he met her eyes, and it was the same look I’d watched fall

over guy after countless guy. Jenna was a unicorn, and men were enamored by her. As they should have been — she had platinum blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, legs for days and a personality to boot. Now, before you go thinking that I was the insecure best friend - I had it going on, too. I worked hard, I was talented - just not at the things traditional high school boys valued.

But we’ll get to that.

“Hi,” Whiskey finally said, extending his hand to Jenna this time. His eyes were warm, smile inviting — if I had to pick the right word for him, just one, I’d say charming. He just oozed charm. “I’m Jamie.”

“Well, Jamie, maybe you should make an appointment with the eye doctor before you run over another innocent jogger. And you owe Brecks an apology.” She nodded to me then and I cringed at my name, wondering why she felt the need to spill it at all. She always called me B — everyone did — so why did she choose the moment I was face to face with the first boy to ever make my heart accelerate to use my full name?

Jamie was still grinning, eying Jenna, trying to figure her out, but he turned to me after a moment with that same crooked smile. “I’m sorry, I should have been watching where I was going.” He said the words with conviction, but lifted his brows on that last line because he and I both knew who wasn’t paying attention to the trail, and he wasn’t the guilty party. 

“It’s fine,” I murmured, because for some reason I was still having a difficult time finding my voice. Jamie tilted his head just a fraction, his eyes hard on me this time, and I felt naked beneath his gaze. I’d never had anyone look at me that way — completely zeroed in. It was unnerving and exhilarating, too. 

But before I could latch onto the feeling, he turned back to Jenna, their eyes meeting as slow smiles spread on both of their faces. I’d seen it a million times, but this was the first time I felt sick watching it happen.

I saw him first, but it didn’t matter.

Because he saw her.

Kandi Steiner is a Creative Writing and Advertising/Public Relations graduate from the University of Central Florida living in Tampa with her husband. Kandi works full time as a social media specialist, but also works part time as a Zumba fitness instructor and blackjack dealer. 

Kandi started writing back in the 4th grade after reading the first Harry Potter installment. In 6th grade, she wrote and edited her own newspaper and distributed to her classmates. Eventually, the principal caught on and the newspaper was quickly halted, though Kandi tried fighting for her “freedom of press.” She took particular interest in writing romance after college, as she has always been a die hard hopeless romantic (like most girls brought up on Disney movies).

When Kandi isn’t working or writing, you can find her reading books of all kinds, talking with her extremely vocal cat, and spending time with her friends and family. She enjoys beach days, movie marathons, live music, craft beer and sweet wine – not necessarily in that order.