Long Enough to Love You

by Kirsten Pursell

Overview

Firebird Book Awards First Place: Fiction, Divorce Fiction, and Romance (2024)

Winner of the Book Excellence awards - Divorce (2024)

The BookFest Second Place Award Contemporary Romance (Spring 2023)

A Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner (2023)

Reader's Favorite 5 Stars (2023)

Jenn, fifty-something and empty-nesting, feels like a donut: whole on the outside but missing the middle. The deafening sound of silence in the picture-perfect, oversized home she shares with a husband who does not see her makes the voices arguing in her head hard to ignore. One voice tells her to stay because safe and simple is good; another says leave so you can be the version of yourself not defined by others. The thought of ever after without happily feels like purgatory.

The chance discovery of her long-forgotten diaries unearths memories of a first love long buried, reminders that the most beautiful love is sometimes wasted on the young. Her words become a very real reminder of everything first love had been when she reconnects with Tripp in unexpected ways.

Long Enough to Love You by Kirsten Pursell follows Jenn - a courageous yet vulnerable protagonist - as she dissects and unpacks her marriage in an emotional journey to stay true to herself despite societal norms and middle-age stereotypes that would suggest otherwise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639887552
Publisher:	Atmosphere Press
Publication date:	01/01/2023
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.57(d)

Editorial Reviews

03/20/2023

Pursell (Company Clown) merges romance and self-discovery in this appealing contemplation of the “parts and pieces” that comprise a life story. Jenn, facing an empty nest when her youngest child heads off to college, is lost in regret over her secure—but lukewarm—marriage to Mark. When she attempts to ask Mark for space, she’s hit with the sudden death of her mother, and the torrent of family secrets that emerge in the aftermath threaten not only her childhood memories, but also her identity as a grown woman. In her hunt for answers, Jenn stumbles across diaries from her youth—diaries that light a long forgotten spark she thought was extinguished years ago.

Jenn’s quest for meaning will resonate with any woman looking back on her life—or wondering what the future may hold. Her struggle to come to grips with a lack of purpose is powerful, as is the dissonance when she recalls past flings and compares them to her safe, predictable marriage. After deciding to reconnect with Tripp, her steamy summer hookup after her senior year of high school, Jenn unlocks the door to her past and sets off a series of explosive moments, between herself and Tripp as well as with Mark, who’s trying his best to rekindle what may have never truly existed. Suddenly Jenn’s faced with more passion than she ever imagined, balanced by an equal share of heartache, and in the midst, she wonders how to find “the freedom to be okay to experiment and explore the world again.”

The idea of finding yourself by losing yourself is intriguing here, and Jenn’s willingness to sacrifice comfort for intensity is equally courageous and risky. Ultimately that gamble pays off, and she’s granted a second chance at unrestrained love, but the overriding message that wholeness can be formed from imperfection is the essence that will stick with readers.

Takeaway: A reflective story of self-discovery, second chances, and daring to take a chance.

Great for fans of: Robyn Carr’s Never Too Late, Lucy Score’s The Last Second Chance.

Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: B+ Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews