Love In Suspense: The adventure of 'Infinity + One'

Infinity + One is a tale of shooting stars and fame and fortune, of gilded cages and iron bars, of finding a friend behind a stranger's face, and discovering love in the oddest of places.

Exciting. Romantic. Suspenseful. Soulful. Infinity + One, written by New York Times best-selling author Amy Harmon, is a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde tale of two strangers, each beautifully broken, who embark on an adventure that would change everything. A journey rife with introspection, self-discovery, heartbreak, love and the unexpected at every turn of the road. Two people that couldn't be more different, finding common ground and shared sentiments as they escape the world that continues to chase them down.

Bonnie Rae Shelby is a superstar who seems to have everything. Fame. Fortune. Fans that scream her name. But Bonnie wants to die … to escape the grief that consumes her. One night, at the precipice of hopelessness, she comes face-to-face with a boy. Finn Clyde.

Finn saw something he's seen on a thousand faces in the last six and a half years. Beat-down, hopeless, finished, blank. It was a look he had battled in his own reflection. It was defeat.

He saw a part of himself, a fraction of his own chaos, swirling in the depths of Bonnie's eyes. Finn knew sadness. Was no stranger to grief. He'd been caged in by life and luck and had been trying to find the right path far from trouble. Finn was brilliant. Saw the world through a different lens. A fabric of fast-moving numbers and equations. When life tormented him, he found solace in the mathematics all around him. He could predict conclusions, control the chaos. Having this girl next to him factored in an unpredictability that he found difficult to process.

I believe in numbers. The ones you can see and the ones you can't. The real and the imaginary, the rational and the irrational, and every point on lines that go on forever. Numbers have never let me down. They don't waffle. They don't lie. They don't pretend to be what they're not. They're timeless.

Nonetheless, Finn had to help Bonnie. And so this serendipitous adventure began. Two strangers hitting the road, escaping their own despair. As the two of them find something unexpected, something wonderful with each other, people without their best interests in mind hunt them down. The media follow. The news relentless as the search for superstar Bonnie Rae Shelby continues. The situation escalates, creating a nail-biting situation that had my heart pounding and desperately hoping for a happy ending.

We're Bonnie and Clyde! Wanted and unwanted. Caged and cornered. We're lost and we're alone. We're a big tangled mess. We're a shot in the dark. We're two people who have nowhere else, no one else, and yet, suddenly that feels like enough for me!

Would their ending be any different? Could they manipulate fate to grasp the dreams they never dared to hope for? Infinity + One is a spellbinding tale that touched my heart profoundly, yet quietly. It's a story about risk and reward, courage and freedom, love and adventure … and it's worth every minute of the experience.

To read an excerpt, visit Vilma's Book Blog.

INTERVIEW WITH AMY HARMON

Vilma: What inspired you to write Infinity + One?

Amy: I love the story of Bonnie and Clyde, but anyone who knows that story knows that it ended badly. They died, and violently! But the love story, the tale of two people against the world, going down together, is fascinating. I didn't want to retell their story, but I wanted to use it as a backdrop for my own Bonnie and Clyde, with a much better ending.

Vilma: Finn and Bonnie seem like very different people … they've lived very different lives up until the point when they meet. How would you describe their dynamic?

Amy: I love how different their personalities are, how they play off each other, how they surprise each other, and how they spark. Yet, they discover, along with the reader, that they understand each other on a very elemental level. They also find they have a great deal in common, which creates a very strong bond almost from the beginning. That bond and understanding is the foundation for their love affair.

Vilma: This book has adventure, romance, suspense, humor and heartbreak. There are so many emotions evoked. What was your writing experience like? Was it different from any of your previous novels?

Amy: After the overwhelming success of A Different Blue and then Making Faces, it's always scary to put out a new book. The temptation is to copy a formula, but I challenge myself to be original and to write a completely different story each time around. I want the reader to have a whole new experience with every one of my books. There is risk in that, because every book is not going to appeal to everyone. As far as the writing experience, for some reason, Infinity + One really flowed for me. I didn't get stuck and I didn't write in pieces or scenes like I usually do. This book made me laugh and made me anxious for my characters all at the same time; I wanted things to go well, but I knew I had to make Bonnie and Finn work for their relationship.

Vilma: Each of your books tends to impart a bigger message which contributes to the reading experience. Is that your intention from the beginning or does that happen organically?

Amy: I like my books to have underlying themes. Sometimes I have to search for that theme as I go, and other times I know what it is going in. With A Different Blue, it was redemption. With Making Faces it was beauty, with Infinity + One, I think the theme is faith. Not necessarily faith in a higher power or anything religious, but just faith that there are second chances and brighter days and hope after heartache. I don't have any desire to teach the reader, or to instruct them. But for a book to really resonate, the characters have to grow and learn some things along the way, otherwise the journey is pointless and the story falls flat.

Vilma: Tell us about some of your favorite books! Any recommendations to share?

Amy: I just read a fascinating book called The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith. Think fantasy, sci-fi, religion and romance all blended in brilliant fashion. Not for the faint of heart, this one. I think it had over a thousand pages. Recently I have also loved Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes, Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan, Mud Vein by Tarryn Fisher, and I recently read Party Girl by Rachel Hollis, which was so much fun.

Find out more about Amy and her books at authoramyharmon.com.

Vilma Gonzalez is a blogger, reader, marketer, wife and mom. She has an insatiable appetite for happily ever afters and a deep love of the written word. She is also determined to keep the promise she made to her 16-year-old self to finish writing a book before she dies. You can find more about her and read full reviews at Vilma's Book Blog. Please e-mail Vilma at loveinsuspense@gmail.com about content related to this column. Due to the volume of mail, e-mails may not be answered personally, but all will be read.