At thirty-one, Tricia Downing was in the best shape of her life. In the summer of 2000, Tricia, an avid cyclist, drove across the country for what amounted to eighteen races in twenty-three days. She returned from her adventure to a fresh start: a new job awaited her, and, determined to make the next summer the year she would make her mark on the world of cycling, she began a rigorous training strategy.
But on September 17, 2000, Tricia Downing’s life took a detour. While training on her bicycle one sunny Colorado afternoon, Tricia collides with a car that turns directly in her path, and instantly becomes paralyzed from the chest down.
As a competitive road and track cyclist and lifelong athlete, losing the use of her legs is devastating on all accounts. As she re-learns to do everything from sitting straight up to navigating through her house in a wheelchair to returning to work and operating a handcycle, her grueling recovery takes her to the very core of her athletic mettle.
This inner strength helps her to not only learn how to live life as a paraplegic—a label that takes time to grow accustomed to—but to have the courage to return to the competitive sport she loves and almost lost. Determined to live life on her terms, Tricia turns her misfortune into opportunity, and is now a wheelchair racer, competing regularly in triathlons around the globe.
Cycle of Hope chronicles Tricia’s journey from the first terrifying moments of impact with the car through rehab and her emergence as a world-class athlete.
Cycle of Hope is now available at:
Chance for Rain
Elite athlete Rainey Abbott is an intense competitor on the outside, but inside, she feels a daunting apprehension about her chances of finding true love. Her life as a downhill skier and race car driver keeps her on the edge, but her love life is stuck in neutral. A tragedy from her past has left her feeling insecure and unlovable.
Now that she’s in her thirties, Rainey’s best friend Natalie insists she take a leap and try online dating. Rainey connects with brian85 and becomes cautiously hopeful as a natural attraction grows between them. Fearful a face to face meeting could ruin the magic, Rainey enlists Natalie to scheme up an encounter between the two where Brian is unaware he is meeting his online mystery woman. Rainey is left feeling both guilty about the deception and disappointed by something Brian says.
When they finally meet in earnest, Rainey’s insecurities threaten to derail the blossoming romance. As she struggles with self-acceptance, she reveals the risks we all must take to have a chance for love.
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“Chance for Rain by Tricia Downing has hit it out of the park for me. I loved the dialogue and online correspondence between Rainey and Brian. It was written with skill and creativity flowing from our debut author, Tricia Downing’s mind, heart and spirit. I absolutely could not put this book down and picked it up at every chance I got. It is a real page turner and readers will love it, I’m positive.
The settings, characters and extra essentials are described beautifully, causing this reader to feel like I was a part of the story and watching closely on.
The character development is superb. Each One has their own peculiarities and personalities with strengths and weaknesses that are very relatable. I loved these characters and thought that they were very well fleshed out and human.
Overall, I give A Chance for Rain a big 5 stars. It is a one of a kind emotionally charged romance story with a complete twist on the norm for the romance genre. I loved it and I know others will too. Can’t wait to read more by this extremely talented author Tricia Downing.
Highly recommended.
–Jewel Hart, Manager-Book Reviews, Chick Lit Cafe
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