I am blessed to have received an ARC of The Best I Could and let just say that this;
just when I think she can't possibly get any better. she does.
This Book. The Feels. The Emotions. The Tears.
Once again R. K, Ryals has ripped me apart and pieced me back together.
I met Eli Lockston on the roof of a hospital the day my father died.
He was smoking a cigarette, and I was lost. It was an abysmal beginning.
It was the start of something huge.
Available everywhere...
Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/hn5m85t
Nook: http://tinyurl.com/hyzjymv
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Kobo: http://tinyurl.com/hy9o8tl
My Review
R.K. Ryals has done it to me again. The Best I Could is a raw, personal, gut wrenching novel. The emotion she invokes with her writing, the lessons she weaves in, and the tears she leaves behind; simply put she speaks to my soul.
“One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t judge people by their families. What and who you are may start at home, but what you become later, on your own, depends entirely on you.”
R.K. Ryals leaves me evaluating and taking stock of my life. I found myself relating to Eli. The issues he has with his mother struck a nerve with me. Not all moms are loving and nurturing. Sometimes you just end up with crappy parents. It’s what you do on your own that defines you. Just because you were not loved the right way doesn’t mean you can’t get passed it and learn to love. Eli reminded me of that.
“You have to try to fail.”
The Best I Could is real. It’s crashing waves of emotion. It’s finding yourself through hard work and determination. It’s surviving the heartbreak. It’s planting a garden. You weed out the bad and are rewarded with beauty and color in life. Most importantly, it’s learning to love yourself.
There is no other writer that rips me apart and puts me back together like R.K. Ryals. You don’t have to search far in her novels to find the pieces of herself she has placed there. I always feel as though I have taken a journey with her as I read her words.
A Message from the Author
What The Best I Could became shocked me. My characters always do. They never take me where I expect them to. But in the end, they always manage to leave me in a better place than I was before. I think because I'm as involved in their lives, sometimes personally, as I am in mine.
I am braver with my words on paper than I am when I speak, and it took a lot of courage for me to write this book. It is filled with personal demons, the kind that change us and not always for the better. So for those who brave this journey with me, thank you.
I hope to always let "fear be the push and not the hindrance".
-R.K. Ryals

http://rkryals.com/
R.K. Ryals is the author of emotional and gripping young adult and new adult paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and fantasy. With a strong passion for charity and literacy, she works as a full time writer encouraging people to "share the love of reading one book at a time." An avid animal lover and self-proclaimed coffee-holic, R.K. Ryals was born in Jackson, Mississippi and makes her home in the Southern U.S. with her husband, her three daughters, a rescue dog named Oscar the Grouch, her bullmastiff Luther Von Keisel, and a coffee pot she honestly couldn't live without. Should she ever become the owner of a fire-breathing dragon (tame of course), her life would be complete.