A first love shaped by crisis and a young man’s search for emotional clarity unfold in Some Love Lasts and Getting to Yes by Tim Hunniecutt. Together, the stories explore how formative relationships influence identity and memory.
Some Love Lasts
On the Florida coast, fourteen-year-old Madi anticipates peaceful days with her grandparents. Instead, she becomes drawn to Matthew, the older neighbor admired for his lifeguard strength and steady courage. Though many watch him, it is his attention toward Madi that transforms her quiet summer.
Their connection deepens gradually, moving from admiration to something intense and unforgettable. When a hurricane strikes, Matthew risks everything in a rescue that permanently alters Madi’s understanding of sacrifice and devotion. The experience shapes her perception of love long after they part. Years later, a reunion in college forces both of them to confront what remains between them and whether their shared past can become a future.
Amazon: https://bit.ly/3O8WR2B
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/247148054-some-love-lasts
Getting to Yes
Nineteen-year-old Chris enters adulthood determined to find something authentic. Reflecting on his encounters with women, he navigates attraction, miscommunication, and emotional growth. Through colorful and often humorous episodes, he attempts to understand what intimacy requires.
Each relationship contributes to his evolving perspective. Some moments are sweet, others bittersweet, but all leave an imprint. Then he meets Chloe, and the connection feels distinct from the rest. Faced with the possibility of something deeper, Chris must decide whether he is ready to embrace vulnerability. The story captures the uncertainty and hope that accompany the journey toward lasting love.
Tim Hunniecutt has loved words since childhood, writing poems and stories for family and friends from an early age. Lifeguards have played a meaningful role in his life, from the rescue of his younger brother to several of his own children who later worked as lifeguards. He studied psychology and English at Florida State University, where the emotional spark for this story began after he fell in love during his first summer home from school. He now lives in Lithia, Florida, with that same girl, now his wife, and enjoys traveling, escape games, ballroom dancing with her, and time with his grandchildren.
GETTING TO YES
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NmPnWK
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201540770-getting-to-yes
Q&A with Author, Tim Hunniecutt
When did this story or idea “click” into place for you—was there a single moment you knew you had to write it?
Getting to Yes: I had long thought about using the subject matter for this novel, but had never been able to think about how to frame it and end it. One day, I was thinking about it, and the solution came to me. I started writing the novel the next day.
Some Love Lasts: I was thinking of a backstory for another novel centered around the hurricane and the rescue, when the story of this girl came into dazzling focus. An image popped into my head of her standing in the road, covered in blood, in the hot Florida afternoon, having just saved the man she loved, who had saved her as a teenager. I knew I needed to tell her story.
Which character or real-life person surprised you the most while writing this book, and why?
Getting to Yes: When Chris realizes his relationship with Colleen imploded because he failed to tell her how intense his feelings for her had become. He had denied to himself what he really felt and his realization that failure to communicate leads him to sharing with Chloe too soon which causes him a new set of problems that sets up the whole last part of the novel.
Some Love Lasts: Madi’s mother, Elizabeth. As the story progressed, I was surprised at how Elizabeth’s strength had come from overcoming trauma, and that experience caused her to show her daughter tenderness when she needed it most. Madi inherited more than her looks from her mother. She also got her mental toughness.
What’s one belief, question, or emotional truth you hope readers carry with them long after they finish your book?
Getting to Yes: Despite his rejections and heartbreaks the male lead never stops trying until he finds his love. It all starts by trying.
Some Love Lasts: Love is more than an emotion. A lot of this book is an attempt to illustrate what that “more” means.
If your book were invited to join a shelf with three other titles, which ones would make you happiest—and what would that shelf say about your story?
Getting to Yes:
A Room with a View by Ford Madox Ford
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
All stories of a male protagonist falling hard and fast and initially being not accepted. None of them give up until they are each successful.
Some Love Lasts:
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
All great books about the enduring power of love that some love lasts regardless of the obstacles or time itself.
Visit Tim at his website and on Facebook.
I read a good amount of YA romances and they tend to be more on the light and sweet side and usually not a whole lot of depth to the story itself. And that isn’t a bad thing (I enjoy those stories) but Tim’s YA romance definitely hit on a more mature YA and I absolutely loved.
The blurb is all you need to know going into this book. I won’t rehash that in my review. But what I will say is that I loved being able to visualize and experience the growth of these characters from their respectful perspectives.
Tim does a wonderful job of capturing these two at two different points in their lives and brilliantly showcasing those actions, emotions and mannerisms at each point.
The writing is in this book just pulls you in and keeps you there the entire. Something that normally doesn’t really stand out to me in romance novels is the setting, unless it’s small-town romances that involve certain things. Tim brings Florida to life in this story; their college lives are so vivid on these pages.
I truly loved that I could not only feel what these characters are going through, but I could visualize the settings, the nuances – everything – and that just adds another layer to this story that made it magnificent.
Definitely going to read his other book, Getting To Yes.
