A gentle love story about about illness and the processing of bereavement.

In the streets of London, two souls bound together by fate meet. But can the true love between Alison and Nate survive even loss?

Alison has just arrived in London in search of a new beginning after the death of her beloved mother, to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. There seems to be no room for love in her life, love, which has wounded her once too often, as she confides in the letters she posts on a wall in Cornelia Street. Everything changes when, among the bookshelves of a bookshop where she’s found a job, she meets Nate. On paper, he is the perfect young man, gentle and romantic, who makes her heart throb. The feeling between them is so perfect it seems written in the stars, And yet the very destiny that has brought them together has a cruel trick in store…

pp.320

DUAL POV

She is fragile and hurt; he’s withdrawn, and burdened by family secrets he can’t escape. When Iris and Wade’s paths cross, their love forces them to confront the pain they’ve buried − risking not only reopening old wounds, but suffering new ones, even deeper.

Iris is stuck. Haunted by a car accident that destroyed her family, she takes a sabbatical year to heal, only to sink deeper into isolation. Her passion for cinema fades, she drops out of college, and the boy she once loved has become a ghost she cannot escape.

Then, across the street on Downhill Avenue, a new family moves in. On the surface, the Mulligans are elegant and composed, but behind closed doors, they are far from perfect. Especially Wade: quiet, detached, and haunted by his father’s death.

Iris and Wade see in each other the same wounds and the same silences. Despite his warnings to stay away, she finds herself drawn to him – because with him, for the first time in a long while, she feels alive.

But Wade hides a secret far more dangerous than Iris could ever imagine, a secret stained in blood. And when the past threatens to explode, together, they must decide if love is worth the scars it might leave behind.

 

pp.400