Blog Tour: When I See You by Katherine Owen - Review & Guest Post

Welcome to my stop on the When I See You blog tour, hosted by Samantha at CLP Blog Tours!  Today on my stop I have a review of When I See You as well as a guest post from Katherine.  Stop by Katherine's blog tour page as well for a chance to win an Amazon gift card!

Let's start with a bit about the book:

Title: When I See You
Author: Katherine Owen
Published: December 20, 2011
Source: Author via blog tour
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

She believes that love can never last, promises are usually broken, and true happiness is extremely elusive in the long run. He believes most risks are worth taking, the promises he makes can be kept, and love doesn't factor in his relationships any longer. They're both wrong.


Jordan Holloway has never fully recovered from the unexpected deaths of her famous Hollywood parents. At 27, she is still slow to trust and remains uncertain about the true duration of love and happiness. Yet, it's been four years since she fell in love with Ethan when he rocked her world even as he marched off to war leaving her alone with their young son Max. Now, Ethan tells her this will be his last tour in Afghanistan and that soon the three of them will be together. Still anxious at his leaving again, Jordan extracts a promise for Ethan's safe return from Brock Wainwright, her husband's sniper partner and best friend. But, can she put all her trust in Brock and can he keep such a promise?

At 29, Brock Wainwright fully embraces the dangerous life of a Navy Seal. He enjoys his freedom and not being committed to anyone; and, there's been a long line of women who can attest to that. Everything changes for Brock after he meets Jordan. When the two men return to Afghanistan, Brock's intent on keeping his promise to Jordan about keeping Ethan safe for a variety of reasons, including the most disturbing one of all, he is more than just attracted to his best friend's wife. This revelation plagues Brock on the battlefield and in a violent moment changes everything.

Jordan is still dealing with the loss of her parents, never being able to accept it.  They were murdered, and the case remained unsolved.  Jordan meets Ethan, falls in love with him, gets pregnant and married.  Ethan is a Navy SEAL though, which means he is gone more than he is around.  And although it's been four years, Jordan can not get used to him being away, nor can she accept it.  She makes him promise this is his last time leaving her, and that when he returns it will be for good.  She also makes his sniper partner, Brock, promise to bring him home safely.

When I See You brought out so many different emotions in me.  It was a story about love, loss, promises and heartache.  I definitely have a soft spot for military stories.  I'm not a military wife, nor do I know any personally... but just the thought alone sends a shiver down my spine.  It must be a terribly hard place to be in.  Owen does a wonderful job of showing us that side through our MC, Jordan.  This story is told from alternating POV's between Jordan and Brock.  Jordan faces many challenges, including horrific grief and loss.  Brock also has his own struggles to face, definitely not mild in nature.  Without giving too much of the story away, all I can really say is these two people face more sorrow and loss than most people even dream about.  They both have to work through many curve-balls their lives are throwing at them to get on level ground again.  And it isn't easy.  It's a struggle the entire way.

I really enjoyed this story, though I don't often go for stories like this on the sadder side.  As far as romances go, this was definitely a darker romance.  Just a warning - have tissues ready.  Seriously.  I cried more during this book than any other book I've read.  This story is deep and full of emotion. When I See You is a strong story that I think many will enjoy.

And now on to a guest post from Katherine that she chose to write in Q & A style.  I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did! :)

Lisa, thanks for having me here for this guest post. I decided to tackle some of the questions that I get asked most often as it relates to my books or my writing style or me. So, here it goes…


Q. What inspires your writing?

I draw inspiration from various aspects of real life as a starting point and usually begin with the “what if?” kind of questions. The first inspiration for When I See You came from a singular scene in the movie Shooter for a writing exercise I was doing for one of my advanced fiction classes with The Writers Studio over two years ago. Classmates loved the premise of the soldier story (only about a thousand words) and it eventually developed into what became the start of chapter three of When I See You. The story started with the premise of asking what if the story centered on a woman, who has been left behind by pretty much everyone she’s ever loved? How does she start over? Then, Brock’s character started to form in my mind and it became clear that readers would need to hear from his point-of-view as well. Wow! That was an undertaking! Writing from two points of view, from a male and female perspective, as if I hadn’t complicated the story enough already. Real life, films, and the compelling connections between men and women that I see all the time play a part in my writing and the stories evolve from there. It would be so much easier to write a story from a plot line that’s already been done, but that’s not how I roll.


Q. What is your favorite thing about being an author?

There’s nothing quite like the writing process itself, especially when everything is going well. If I re-read back something I’ve recently written and have that wonderful moment where I can see how good it is; that’s the part I love most about the writing process.


Q. What is the toughest part of being an author?

For every “Great book! I loved it!” review or note, there will be one that tells me everything they hated about my novels. Hmmm… For me, that whole cycle wreaks havoc on the delicate balance of writing, so I go with the adage never believe your own press because too much ego or too little doesn’t serve me well in either case.


Q. How do you motivate yourself to write on those tough-to-work days?

I don’t have a secret to this one. If I did, I would write the book and sell the solution everywhere. Sometimes, it’s an after-the-fact-kind of realization that although I have the need to write on a daily basis that stepping away (spending money on something self-indulgent or just taking a drive) actually re-energizes my enthusiasm for the work.


Q. What would the story of your life be entitled?

This Is What I Have To Say About That


Q. What is your favorite book of all time?

I have a running top ten list of favorite books. The Time Travelers Wife tops that list for a few reasons. Audrey Niffenegger broke all the rules (publishing-wise, writing-rule-wise) in writing this book. The timeline was all over the place. It’s a bit fantasy mixed with science fiction mixed with romance. She persevered in finding a small publisher (at first) to get it published and it took her years to write it. As characters, Claire and Henry were so real and their love and desire to be together so heartbreaking, I loved it. Loved it. I’m a huge fan of Niffenegger’s writing style. She wrote the story the way it needed to be written. I have no idea how she kept it all straight just from a timeline perspective. It was a huge risk as a writer to do it this way because she could easily lose the readers’ interest, so I admire Niffenegger’s courage for taking the risk and writing the book the way it needed to be written. It provides me with the necessary permission to write the way I think it needs to be written in my own work.


Other books on the top of my list that I love include: Gone Girl, The Gargoyle, April & Oliver, Falling Under, Reason To Breath, Easy, Slammed, and The Sea of Tranquility. There’s a love story with a bit of angst at the heart of each one of these novels (even Gone Girl), which is probably why I love them all and strive to write compelling story lines like this as well.


Q. Which part of When I See You was the hardest to write?

I debated for days about a particular plot line in When I See You that leaves most readers reeling. I’m not going to say which one because, after reading the book, readers will know which one I’m referring to. That scene was one of the hardest to write.


Q. When I See You handles some pretty heavy subject manner. How do you get into the mindset to write such dark angst?

I tend to be in the mindset of dark, emotional angst most of the time, so writing characters that exhibit these deep emotions is sort of a table stake for me. I have a lot of empathy for what happens in real life, which is why I listen to sports radio more than hard news because it’s just easier that way. I have enough material built up from years of observation of life to write for years to come. It appears that angst-filled, emotional roller coaster type reads are my wheelhouse as both a writer and a reader.


Q. How did you handle the delicate balance of underlying emotional connections between Ethan, Jordan, and Brock that’s hinted at in the story line?

Well, in my opinion, love is complicated and varies by infinitesimal degrees. I think that more than one person can be right for us, or all wrong for us, and we don’t always see that. Ethan and Jordan seem to have this amazing relationship, but he eclipses her quite often and ignores her angst over his long absences and somewhat dismisses her sorrow about her parents’ loss. This girl has trust issues and battles her ultimate fear of being left all alone on a daily basis. Then, along comes Brock, who seems to already understand all of these things about her. It’s a fascinating subtlety to the story line that unfolds in the very first chapters. The complicated chemistry between all three of them was intriguing to write. It was an exacting artistic balance, on my part, because I do think love can be this complicated or, really, in essence, be this simple.


Q. Is there one trait you share with your character Jordan?

Jordan is dark and edgy from an emotional perspective. She feels the loss of her parents deeply. That characteristic was developed from my own perspective and personal experience with the loss of my dad.


Q. Can you tell me a little about the inspiration behind your book cover(s)?

I spend way too much time on this particular aspect. The When I See You book cover went through a couple of reiterations before I found this one: Beauty looking out a stormy, rain-spattered window. I wanted a book cover that would starkly convey Jordan’s loneliness and her never-ending quest for happiness. I think this one does that. Additionally, there’s a double entendre going on with this title and book cover for When I See You that subtly conveys both Jordan’s point of view as well as Brock’s as the story unfolds for readers.

Well, that’s enough for a guest post, I think. Thank you so much for having me here and for considering my work. As a novelist, (a fictionista as one follower on Twitter phrased it) I tend to write love stories that are edgy and dark—about trust, love, and fate and how relationships are often tested by all of these things in one way or another. The considerations of a moral code or the lack thereof, of infidelity, of betrayal, the impact of best friends, of starting over, of love, and loss, my stories include all of these themes more often than not. I would just like to take this moment to say: it is fiction. It isn’t your light, everyday romance and as long as you don’t mind the sprinkling elemental special effects that I personally think the f-word can sometimes provide that we’re bound to be best friends, however virtual.

Katherine Owen graduated with a journalism degree and a minor in English from the University of Washington and promptly went into high tech sales because someone told her it was fun and there would be stock options. For years, she damped down the urge to write and spent money like Evian water. But after a successful, storied career in high tech sales and public relations, she finally made what felt like a necessary, soul-calling leap to writing full-time in April of 2009. Owen has written three novels SEEING JULIA (debut novel and Zola Award Winner), NOT TO US and WHEN I SEE YOU. She lives near Seattle in an old house with a fabulous view with her husband and two children. When she isn't writing, she can be found cheering at her son's football games or her daughter's volleyball games or heating up frozen dinners for the "fam-dam-ily" as she fondly refers to them.

Website | Website* | Facebook | Twitter 

*Note: (leads to the same place but this one’s cooler aka memorable)

In all these social media places, she talks about her writing life and what inspires her as well as her novels and, sometimes, her latest work-in-progress.