Today, we are honored to feature Georgina Guthrie and her book The Weight of Words. The Weight of Words is a modern day twist on Romeo & Juliet. It is full of forbidden romance and lots of sexual tension. Georgina's refreshing and thoughtful portrayal of Daniel and Aubrey will keep you swooning. If you are a fan of professor/teacher romances this one is for you! Read an Outtake from The Weight of Words from Daniel's POV and enter to win your very own copy of this beautiful romance!
"I sent up a silent prayer of my own. And dear God? Thank you for creating Daniel in all his sweet-ass hotness. That's probably sacrilege, but I mean it most sincerely. Amen."
- The Weight of Words by Georgina Guthrie
Outtake: First Date with Aubrey from Daniel's POV
Outward Shows
"So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament."
The Merchant of Venice
Daniel’s point of view
Following Chapter 15, The Weight of Words By the time I reached the pathways leading to the Vic Quad, I felt certain my heart was going to explode. A mere sixty seconds had passed since I'd said goodbye to Aubrey, and already I wanted to turn around and run back to her building.
Am I falling in love? Is that what's going on here? I wondered, bringing my hand to my chest, where my heart was thumping wildly.
But then I got that familiar pain in my left shoulder blade, the one that warns me I'm about to have a bad-ass panic attack, and I realized what I'd mistaken for the innocent fluttering of heart strings were actually palpitations. I'd thought I was over this. The need for Ativan hadn't even crossed my mind since well before Christmas.
I stumbled toward the benches outside the men's residence, black blobs forming behind my eyes. I forced myself to breathe evenly, in through my nose and out through my mouth, recollecting the night two weeks ago when I'd counseled Aubrey to do this very thing while she was feeling sick at the theatre.
Aubrey.
Hopefully she'd recovered from her own meltdown. Not pulling her into my arms as she'd cried in the Jackman lobby had taken a Herculean effort, despite the small measure of comfort I’d felt, knowing she was reeling emotionally, just as I was.
By now, she was probably laughing and joking upstairs with the roomie. That prick. She'd insisted they were just roommates. "It's not like that," she'd claimed, when Penny had implied there was something going on with him. Of course, she'd said something similar about me in the same breath, and now look at us.
And what guy takes his roommate to Canoe for dinner on Valentine's Day?
I’d seen the way he'd looked at her on Friday after running home to be her savior when she was sick. How could I help doubting his intentions, even if I trusted hers? Sweetheart, he'd called her as he'd touched her hair. God, I'd wanted to punch his lights out, and it takes a lot to inspire that kind of reaction in me. I'm far more inclined to try to mindfuck someone with rhetoric than punch them. When faced with the overwhelming urge to knock out two or three of Matty boy's pearly whites, I knew I was well and truly screwed.
I forced myself to stop rehashing the events of that awful night. Going over everything was doing more harm than good. Focusing on the rhythm of my heart instead, I continued to breathe deeply, sitting up and rubbing at the pain in my shoulder. It seemed as if this wasn't going to be a full-blown attack after all. I was already feeling better and allowed myself to finally revel in my victory.
For weeks now I'd been trying to convince myself Aubrey must be spoken for, had to be in a relationship with someone, was far too beautiful and intelligent to be unattached. And yet today, it seemed I'd been proven wrong. She seemed, for all the world, to be entirely available.
And the icing on the cake? Aubrey wanted me, too.
Today we’d shared our feelings, all the while acknowledging the need for both discretion and delay, the only contact between us the slightest meeting of fingertips across the table. That one touch had said everything I’d wanted to tell her over the past few weeks: I can't stop thinking about you, I want to know you, I need to be with you. The hesitation and helpless inability to clasp her hand in mine had also spoken volumes:
I can't be with you. Not now. We have to wait.
This was an overwhelming reality.
And how the fuck would I hold myself together in that ten by twenty foot room every Friday without reaching out to pull her near, to kiss her, to bury my face in her long, silky hair, to touch her skin?
If only she'd dropped the class in those first few days. But no, there was no frightening her away. In fact, my attempts to intimidate her, as feeble and inconsistent as they’d been, had probably made her more determined to stick around.
About one thing I was certain—Aubrey Price was no pushover.
I leaned back on the bench and tested my vision. The black spots were clearing, the pain in my chest easing. What had just happened was a purely physiological response to my having potentially made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Going against everything my father had said, irresponsibly flouting all good sense and logic, I'd laid bare my feelings for Aubrey. If she wanted to, she could ruin me, once and for all. One word from her, and my probationary contract, both as TA and as Ph.D candidate would be pulled in the blink of an eye.
Last year, I wasn’t the man Nicola had made me out to be.
Was I becoming him now?
"So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament."
The Merchant of Venice
Daniel’s point of view
Following Chapter 15, The Weight of Words By the time I reached the pathways leading to the Vic Quad, I felt certain my heart was going to explode. A mere sixty seconds had passed since I'd said goodbye to Aubrey, and already I wanted to turn around and run back to her building.
Am I falling in love? Is that what's going on here? I wondered, bringing my hand to my chest, where my heart was thumping wildly.
But then I got that familiar pain in my left shoulder blade, the one that warns me I'm about to have a bad-ass panic attack, and I realized what I'd mistaken for the innocent fluttering of heart strings were actually palpitations. I'd thought I was over this. The need for Ativan hadn't even crossed my mind since well before Christmas.
I stumbled toward the benches outside the men's residence, black blobs forming behind my eyes. I forced myself to breathe evenly, in through my nose and out through my mouth, recollecting the night two weeks ago when I'd counseled Aubrey to do this very thing while she was feeling sick at the theatre.
Aubrey.
Hopefully she'd recovered from her own meltdown. Not pulling her into my arms as she'd cried in the Jackman lobby had taken a Herculean effort, despite the small measure of comfort I’d felt, knowing she was reeling emotionally, just as I was.
By now, she was probably laughing and joking upstairs with the roomie. That prick. She'd insisted they were just roommates. "It's not like that," she'd claimed, when Penny had implied there was something going on with him. Of course, she'd said something similar about me in the same breath, and now look at us.
And what guy takes his roommate to Canoe for dinner on Valentine's Day?
I’d seen the way he'd looked at her on Friday after running home to be her savior when she was sick. How could I help doubting his intentions, even if I trusted hers? Sweetheart, he'd called her as he'd touched her hair. God, I'd wanted to punch his lights out, and it takes a lot to inspire that kind of reaction in me. I'm far more inclined to try to mindfuck someone with rhetoric than punch them. When faced with the overwhelming urge to knock out two or three of Matty boy's pearly whites, I knew I was well and truly screwed.
I forced myself to stop rehashing the events of that awful night. Going over everything was doing more harm than good. Focusing on the rhythm of my heart instead, I continued to breathe deeply, sitting up and rubbing at the pain in my shoulder. It seemed as if this wasn't going to be a full-blown attack after all. I was already feeling better and allowed myself to finally revel in my victory.
For weeks now I'd been trying to convince myself Aubrey must be spoken for, had to be in a relationship with someone, was far too beautiful and intelligent to be unattached. And yet today, it seemed I'd been proven wrong. She seemed, for all the world, to be entirely available.
And the icing on the cake? Aubrey wanted me, too.
Today we’d shared our feelings, all the while acknowledging the need for both discretion and delay, the only contact between us the slightest meeting of fingertips across the table. That one touch had said everything I’d wanted to tell her over the past few weeks: I can't stop thinking about you, I want to know you, I need to be with you. The hesitation and helpless inability to clasp her hand in mine had also spoken volumes:
I can't be with you. Not now. We have to wait.
This was an overwhelming reality.
And how the fuck would I hold myself together in that ten by twenty foot room every Friday without reaching out to pull her near, to kiss her, to bury my face in her long, silky hair, to touch her skin?
If only she'd dropped the class in those first few days. But no, there was no frightening her away. In fact, my attempts to intimidate her, as feeble and inconsistent as they’d been, had probably made her more determined to stick around.
About one thing I was certain—Aubrey Price was no pushover.
I leaned back on the bench and tested my vision. The black spots were clearing, the pain in my chest easing. What had just happened was a purely physiological response to my having potentially made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Going against everything my father had said, irresponsibly flouting all good sense and logic, I'd laid bare my feelings for Aubrey. If she wanted to, she could ruin me, once and for all. One word from her, and my probationary contract, both as TA and as Ph.D candidate would be pulled in the blink of an eye.
Last year, I wasn’t the man Nicola had made me out to be.
Was I becoming him now?
Book Summary
Aubrey Price is in the final months of her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto. Bright, witty, and fiercely independent, Aubrey works part-time for the college dean and has her sights set on graduating with distinction. When she meets Dean Grant's son, Daniel, the TA in her senior Shakespearean studies course, a shared love of the Bard's works and an instant mutual attraction draw Aubrey and Daniel together.
Unfortunately, a strict anti-fraternizing policy--made more perilous by a black mark on Daniel's record--keeps them apart. Against this academic backdrop, Aubrey and Daniel navigate their way through a steamy courtship, their forbidden romance aided, abetted, and sometimes thwarted by a colorful cast of friends, family, and classmates
Unfortunately, a strict anti-fraternizing policy--made more perilous by a black mark on Daniel's record--keeps them apart. Against this academic backdrop, Aubrey and Daniel navigate their way through a steamy courtship, their forbidden romance aided, abetted, and sometimes thwarted by a colorful cast of friends, family, and classmates
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
"I’ve spend the last ten years of my life studying words – marveling in their power, their weight. Never once in all those years did I have an inkling that the weight
of so few words could be so crushing.”
- The Weight of Words by Georgina Guthrie