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All the Way Home
When two bicycles collide at the end of a driveway in 1993, three lives are changed forever.
Katelyn (Kat) Summers’ family has just moved to Webster, Massachusetts. It’s the day before her twelfth birthday, and all Katelyn wants to do is go back home to Pennsylvania. That is until a ten-year-old boy named Neil Masters crashes into her bicycle. When Katelyn looks up from her position on the ground, she finds a hand stretched out to greet her. As she’s pulled to her feet, Katelyn meets with the inquisitive gaze of Sarah Masters. Within minutes, Katelyn will never think of any other place as home again.
Best friends from the moment they meet, Katelyn and Sarah are inseparable. Looking in, they have an idyllic life in a quaint New England community. But, life is not always as simple and charming as it seems. It’s messy. As the pair of friends grow, so do their feelings—Sarah’s for Katelyn, and Katelyn’s for Sarah’s brother, Neil.
Sarah has spent her life loving Kat at a distance. Once her best friend, Kat has now become Sarah’s sister-in-law. While Sarah struggles to let go of Kat, Kat yearns to hold onto Sarah’s presence in her life. Through ups and downs, hopes and dreams, celebrations and disappointments, Katelyn and Sarah struggle to maintain the bond they formed in childhood.
There are lessons in everything; in the paths taken, and the paths left behind. An unexpected fork in Kat’s road will challenge their entire family. Time has a way of revealing the truth. If you are willing to listen, and to speak it, life has a way of leading you All the Way Home.
Katelyn (Kat) Summers’ family has just moved to Webster, Massachusetts. It’s the day before her twelfth birthday, and all Katelyn wants to do is go back home to Pennsylvania. That is until a ten-year-old boy named Neil Masters crashes into her bicycle. When Katelyn looks up from her position on the ground, she finds a hand stretched out to greet her. As she’s pulled to her feet, Katelyn meets with the inquisitive gaze of Sarah Masters. Within minutes, Katelyn will never think of any other place as home again.
Best friends from the moment they meet, Katelyn and Sarah are inseparable. Looking in, they have an idyllic life in a quaint New England community. But, life is not always as simple and charming as it seems. It’s messy. As the pair of friends grow, so do their feelings—Sarah’s for Katelyn, and Katelyn’s for Sarah’s brother, Neil.
Sarah has spent her life loving Kat at a distance. Once her best friend, Kat has now become Sarah’s sister-in-law. While Sarah struggles to let go of Kat, Kat yearns to hold onto Sarah’s presence in her life. Through ups and downs, hopes and dreams, celebrations and disappointments, Katelyn and Sarah struggle to maintain the bond they formed in childhood.
There are lessons in everything; in the paths taken, and the paths left behind. An unexpected fork in Kat’s road will challenge their entire family. Time has a way of revealing the truth. If you are willing to listen, and to speak it, life has a way of leading you All the Way Home.
291 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 15, 2018
145 people are currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Ann Healy
14 books289 followersNancy Ann Healy is a woman of many talents and interests. She has worked as everything from a bookstore manager to a standup comedian, and she enjoys movies, theater, and karaoke in her free time. Healy is happily married to her wife, Melissa. Together they have a son, Chris, and two dogs, Maggie and Sydney Bristow. The family currently lives in Connecticut, where Healy is completing her studies in social justice through Arizona State University and working on her second novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
June 11, 2019
This was such an amazing book to read. That being said I don't ever EVER want to ever read it again! Allow me to try and explain. While very well written this book is like a festival of torture. Of the 66,350 words (yes I checked!) in this book roughly 80% is pure angst, heartbreak and sacrifice. Sure you're ready for that?
So why read it in the first place? It's real. That's the best answer I can think of giving. The situations the first and secondary characters find themselves in are all very believable. Life & love in reality is messy and the author does a fantastic job of showing just how painful they can become. It's also the reason you will probably have trouble putting this book down!
Sarah is the perfect example of a martyr. This woman has been in love with Kat since she was 12 and we get to tag along as she pines away for Kat through literal decades. Frankly it was emotionally exhausting reading about all the sacrifices she made. Even now I want to hug her and smack her upside the head at the same time. Luckily I'm good at multitasking :)
Then there's Kat. I want to like her more, I really do. But I don't. I just don't buy the author's motivations for her wanting to be with Sarah. I could have really used more moments where it became clear that there was an attraction to Sarah other than 'she's my best friend' and 'I miss her'.
Even the secondary characters' emotions were agonizing to read about. Well all except for one person. When it comes to this individual I would gladly punt his naked rear end into a field full of cacti. Repeatedly!
If you need another reason why you should read this glacial SLOW burn then take a look at the following painful but true interaction between Kat and Sarah that got me choked up.
“See? You do still believe in fairytales.”
Sarah smiled. “For some people, I do.”
“For some people?”
“Yeah. Maybe there are some of us who are meant to invent them so other people can live them,” Sarah said.
So why read it in the first place? It's real. That's the best answer I can think of giving. The situations the first and secondary characters find themselves in are all very believable. Life & love in reality is messy and the author does a fantastic job of showing just how painful they can become. It's also the reason you will probably have trouble putting this book down!
Sarah is the perfect example of a martyr. This woman has been in love with Kat since she was 12 and we get to tag along as she pines away for Kat through literal decades. Frankly it was emotionally exhausting reading about all the sacrifices she made. Even now I want to hug her and smack her upside the head at the same time. Luckily I'm good at multitasking :)
Then there's Kat. I want to like her more, I really do. But I don't. I just don't buy the author's motivations for her wanting to be with Sarah. I could have really used more moments where it became clear that there was an attraction to Sarah other than 'she's my best friend' and 'I miss her'.
Even the secondary characters' emotions were agonizing to read about. Well all except for one person. When it comes to this individual I would gladly punt his naked rear end into a field full of cacti. Repeatedly!
If you need another reason why you should read this glacial SLOW burn then take a look at the following painful but true interaction between Kat and Sarah that got me choked up.
“See? You do still believe in fairytales.”
Sarah smiled. “For some people, I do.”
“For some people?”
“Yeah. Maybe there are some of us who are meant to invent them so other people can live them,” Sarah said.
December 9, 2018
Lately I’ve been stuck with a lot of angst reads! This one is so well written though! Incredible style .. I wanted to strangle Sarah throughout the whole book, actually until 85% almost so that’s a long time of wanting to strangle the main character! But I really liked her at the same time :)
The brother is a stupid idiot that I really don’t like! As for Kat, the other main character, I think she is stupid but ok if Sarah loves her then I’m good with that :)
A very solid 4 for me..
The brother is a stupid idiot that I really don’t like! As for Kat, the other main character, I think she is stupid but ok if Sarah loves her then I’m good with that :)
A very solid 4 for me..
February 3, 2020
'“See? You do still believe in fairytales.”
Sarah smiled. “For some people, I do.”
“For some people?”
“Yeah. Maybe there are some of us who are meant to invent them so other people can live them,” Sarah said.'
This book killed me. I should really stop reading emotional books since I cry so easily.
This was so painful and angsty.
Kat was many things to Sarah her childhood best friend, her sister in law and the love of her life. Literally everyone and their mother knew that Sarah was in love with Kat, except Kat. None of Kat's relationships ever seemed to work out till Neil, Sarah's brother who kinda looks like Sarah not that it means anything, right? Neil knew Sarah has been in love with Kat since she was 12 and that jerk still pursued Kat. The thing I was dreading the most was Kat and Neil scenes thankfully there weren't many of them, but the few still hurt. Sarah was such a saint she even pays for fertility treatments for Kat and Neil.
"Sarah’s always been in love with you. I don’t think that the devil or God himself could change that."
Poor Sarah tried a lot over the year but couldn't love anyone like she loved Kat, so they all eventually left her. After a whole book of Sarah pinning for Kat, I really wish we could've gotten at least a few chapters of Kat pinning. She didn't deserve Sarah, Sarah is so perfect, I am not sure anyone in the world is good enough for her. Basically this book is all pain, pain, pain and then a somewhat satisfying end.
Sarah smiled. “For some people, I do.”
“For some people?”
“Yeah. Maybe there are some of us who are meant to invent them so other people can live them,” Sarah said.'
This book killed me. I should really stop reading emotional books since I cry so easily.
This was so painful and angsty.
Kat was many things to Sarah her childhood best friend, her sister in law and the love of her life. Literally everyone and their mother knew that Sarah was in love with Kat, except Kat. None of Kat's relationships ever seemed to work out till Neil, Sarah's brother who kinda looks like Sarah not that it means anything, right? Neil knew Sarah has been in love with Kat since she was 12 and that jerk still pursued Kat. The thing I was dreading the most was Kat and Neil scenes thankfully there weren't many of them, but the few still hurt. Sarah was such a saint she even pays for fertility treatments for Kat and Neil.
"Sarah’s always been in love with you. I don’t think that the devil or God himself could change that."
Poor Sarah tried a lot over the year but couldn't love anyone like she loved Kat, so they all eventually left her. After a whole book of Sarah pinning for Kat, I really wish we could've gotten at least a few chapters of Kat pinning. She didn't deserve Sarah, Sarah is so perfect, I am not sure anyone in the world is good enough for her. Basically this book is all pain, pain, pain and then a somewhat satisfying end.
September 9, 2018
Wow!
A turn of events changed forever Sarah's life. It affected her future and the one she loves. My heart felt for Sarah. This is a very impressive love story, spanning years following the main characters on their journey. There are so many emotions and feelings going on in this story. You'll laugh and you'll cry. It is very emotional and it has worked its way deep into my heart. Highly recommended.
A turn of events changed forever Sarah's life. It affected her future and the one she loves. My heart felt for Sarah. This is a very impressive love story, spanning years following the main characters on their journey. There are so many emotions and feelings going on in this story. You'll laugh and you'll cry. It is very emotional and it has worked its way deep into my heart. Highly recommended.
April 24, 2023
mondays are usually pretty busy days for me in that i have 3 classes where attendance makes up 25% of the total grade for each class. i’ve diligently attended every single one of them…except for today. when i didn’t move off my couch for a grand and utterly ludicrous total of 4 and a half hours. i spent so much time frozen in place that my flatmate lit some incense sticks in my general area, hoping to banish my “low vibrational energy” and you know what? she wasn’t wrong.
4 and a half hours. during which time i cried approximately 17 times before i finished this book with the kind of long suffering sigh that’s reserved for when lesbians act lesbianly in the most maddening ways. and yes, all this kvetching and whining is to say that i absolutely loved every minute of this book, despite the concerning amount of times i wanted to literally take a toaster bath<3
the angst, the yearning, the waiting and chasing and not chasing…it was simultaneously so utterly infuriating and yet so, so delicious. will i read it again? fuck no. but will i remember this book for the rest of my life AND recommend it to fellow masochists? absolutely.
4 and a half hours. during which time i cried approximately 17 times before i finished this book with the kind of long suffering sigh that’s reserved for when lesbians act lesbianly in the most maddening ways. and yes, all this kvetching and whining is to say that i absolutely loved every minute of this book, despite the concerning amount of times i wanted to literally take a toaster bath<3
the angst, the yearning, the waiting and chasing and not chasing…it was simultaneously so utterly infuriating and yet so, so delicious. will i read it again? fuck no. but will i remember this book for the rest of my life AND recommend it to fellow masochists? absolutely.
July 28, 2018
If ever there was a novel that unintentionally makes a case against love this is that novel. Never have I read anything so uncomfortable or miserable or emotionally messy that, not too far from the end, suddenly takes a turn for the not-so-worse in the most corny and unrealistic and unauthentic of ways.
Despite my mixed feelings I get every single sad word, even though I don’t want to and even though I am not sure whether I like or dislike what I have just read. I like to see good things happen to good people but what happens here (perhaps because it so rarely happens in real life) feels incredibly forced, more like a dream it hurts to wake from than the truth.
Still...this is a well-written, oddly compelling read and I do know it has impacted me and, in discomforting ways, validated something that I have always believed: that you can’t help whom you love and that knowing that to be true is one of the most helpless and awful feelings in the world. :(
Despite my mixed feelings I get every single sad word, even though I don’t want to and even though I am not sure whether I like or dislike what I have just read. I like to see good things happen to good people but what happens here (perhaps because it so rarely happens in real life) feels incredibly forced, more like a dream it hurts to wake from than the truth.
Still...this is a well-written, oddly compelling read and I do know it has impacted me and, in discomforting ways, validated something that I have always believed: that you can’t help whom you love and that knowing that to be true is one of the most helpless and awful feelings in the world. :(
September 5, 2018
This book kept me up half the night. I really liked it, and it drove me crazy. The situation is difficult, and if the characters weren't so likeable it really wouldn't have worked. Angst, angst, angst.
July 23, 2018
What to say?? It is well written . If I was going to rate it on personal taste alone I would give it a 3. I just hate the fact that she Is pining over her best friend since they were kids . Seriously ? Get over it ! Your an adult and she married your brother 🤦♀️. Have some self respect ✊. I would never take my brothers seconds yuck 🤢 . If you like that kinda of story go for it 🤔😊I still feel creepy about the whole thing . I know your suppose to share with your sibling but really???
October 28, 2018
A beautifully well written book which tries to depict live as realistically as you possibly can. I loved the story though there’s just too much angst, sadness and sacrifices for one person to endure during a span of 2 decades.
4.25 ⭐️
4.25 ⭐️
February 3, 2022
4.5 Stars (KU) - If you are in the mood to be raked over the fiery coals of angst and pining then this book pretty much fits the bill. The angst and pining last pretty much the entire book so be prepared to wait a looooong time. I mean, what are you gonna do when your brother marries your bestfriend and the person you are secretly in love with? Your soul will be tortured for about 90% of the book, but I promise there is a HEA.
September 16, 2021
Get ready for some angst!
This book follows the lives of Kat and Sarah over decades of their lives, and many of the major moments as we see Sarah pine for her childhood best friend who she presumes is straight and ends up marrying her brother.
If you asked me to pick the most heartwrenching (fiction) book I've read in the last several years, this is a definite contender. And I've never actually had the "feelings for your straight friend" issue that many queer people have, and that this book is about. It seems like this book was written just to torture the reader in the best ways. If you read this, get some tissues ready.
If I have to critique anything in this book, is Sarah's lack of true communication skills really started to annoy by the end especially over 20+ years. This book does resolve pretty well though. I appreciated once everyone finally laid their cards on the table, all of the problems weren't magically solved. All parties involved still had growth to do and loose ends to tie up.
Also, for how emotional this book is, it's also a rather quick read, which is nice.
I'm not sure if I'm going to revisit this book, but I did enjoy the story it told and the emotional rollercoaster it takes you on. 4/5
This book follows the lives of Kat and Sarah over decades of their lives, and many of the major moments as we see Sarah pine for her childhood best friend who she presumes is straight and ends up marrying her brother.
If you asked me to pick the most heartwrenching (fiction) book I've read in the last several years, this is a definite contender. And I've never actually had the "feelings for your straight friend" issue that many queer people have, and that this book is about. It seems like this book was written just to torture the reader in the best ways. If you read this, get some tissues ready.
If I have to critique anything in this book, is Sarah's lack of true communication skills really started to annoy by the end especially over 20+ years. This book does resolve pretty well though. I appreciated once everyone finally laid their cards on the table, all of the problems weren't magically solved. All parties involved still had growth to do and loose ends to tie up.
Also, for how emotional this book is, it's also a rather quick read, which is nice.
I'm not sure if I'm going to revisit this book, but I did enjoy the story it told and the emotional rollercoaster it takes you on. 4/5
January 18, 2019
Both really good and a bit painful to read. Sarah fell in love with Kat the first time they met. They were 12. It takes Kat 20 years to realize she feels the same. I felt sorry for Sarah most of the time, and at the same time kind of admired her. The whole story is full of wrong turns but they feel believable, not stretched. I really liked Kat, even when I was mad at her 😉 Neil, Sarah’s brother, was a hard one to like, yet I still get why he acted the way he did.
If you’re not afraid of angst, go for it, it’s worth it.
If you’re not afraid of angst, go for it, it’s worth it.
September 10, 2019
This was such great book. I fell in love with Kit Kat and Sarah from the start. I loved Sarah so much
December 10, 2018
Angsty, but sweet.
April 12, 2021
A nice premise, two girls and one brother meet at 12 when their bikes crash. Over the next 20 years one of the girls has loved the other as a friend and wanting much more, but her friend is on the straight path until 20 years later they finally......
This book had it's moments, but it was far too tedious and the outcome just took forever to happen even though it was a foregone conclusion from the start. There was virtually nothing that worked for me, especially Sarah, being a high profile lawyer working on the West Coast, can return to the East Coast virtually whenever her friend needs her, sometimes for a month at a time.
I did read it to the end, but probably shouldn't have bothered as the journey was not enjoyed.
This book had it's moments, but it was far too tedious and the outcome just took forever to happen even though it was a foregone conclusion from the start. There was virtually nothing that worked for me, especially Sarah, being a high profile lawyer working on the West Coast, can return to the East Coast virtually whenever her friend needs her, sometimes for a month at a time.
I did read it to the end, but probably shouldn't have bothered as the journey was not enjoyed.
April 21, 2020
Such an amazing read! I couldn't stop reading.
Made it to my list of favorites.
Made it to my list of favorites.
July 22, 2019
Thought this was a great read.....until about 50% in then it all just went down for me after that. Kinda irked me near the end. Anyway!
July 30, 2019
This was a very good book that I never want to read again. I cried from the opening chapter as my heart broke for Sarah. I also don’t think I’ve ever disliked a character more than I did Neil. I’m baffled at how easily he was let off the hook for the pure evil hatred he had against Sarah. He can lie to himself and to everyone else by saying he loved his sister, but you don’t do what he did to her and say you love her. I call bullshit on that. It made me sick to my stomach every time it was brought up. Him liking Rusty Wallace was icing on the cake because that guy is the king of prima donna asshole drivers so it was fitting that’s who he looked up to.
My heart broke for Beth too. She ended up doing what was best for both herself and Sarah. What do I say about Sarah? Wow. Like they said in the book, you can’t choose who you love. This was such a good book but I found myself checking reviews to see if I could decipher if there would be a happy ending with all the heartache.
My heart broke for Beth too. She ended up doing what was best for both herself and Sarah. What do I say about Sarah? Wow. Like they said in the book, you can’t choose who you love. This was such a good book but I found myself checking reviews to see if I could decipher if there would be a happy ending with all the heartache.
August 18, 2018
Long build up, but along the way I didn’t want them to get together. When Kat got together with Sarah’s brother I no longer wanted it to take the direction of getting them together. I liked Sarah and Beth together. I am not sure I believe Kat’s turn around to being in Love with Sarah. I did enjoy the close friendship and the brother/sister dynamic.
August 6, 2019
I am such a sucker for novels about childhood friendships growing potentially into something more and here we have one that yes definitely takes the long way to get there but successfully sticks the landing, no complaints at all.
April 25, 2021
i love pain 🥰
June 30, 2020
let me start off by apologizing about the rant i’m about to make, but it feels necessary:
when i was younger, i’d always relate most to characters exactly like sarah, because i used to think this kind of ‘love’ was also my kind of love: unrequited, one-sided, the hurting kind of love. but loving someone so much and “knowing” (in quotation marks because it’s actually thinking you know, and everyone finds out later this is not how it works) you’ll always love them and do everything for them is not realistic or romantic - it’s tragic and pitiful.
being willing to do anything for someone to the point where you not only prefer to suffer yourself but somehow actively makes it happen, also isn’t romantic or noble - it’s self-sacrificing and masochistic. loving someone your whole life - even though they don’t give you the slightest hint that they might one day love you back, that they ever thought about you romantically - to the point where you sabotage all of your relationships because you don’t genuinely try at them, but you still cause collateral damage to the other people involved, is selfish and self-centered; perhaps just plain sad and unhealthy.
that’s not to say i don’t believe in love (i know i’m probably coming off like a skeptic or bitter person, but that’s not it at all); i do believe in it, and i’m still a romantic at heart. but i also don’t believe in one right person for everyone, in people being meant to be or it being written in the stars to the point where your choices don’t matter at all and you’re destined to suffer for someone your entire life. and i know if you actually try, you can get over anyone, so it’s hard to have much sympathy for sarah’s plight when it feels like she doesn’t try. it’s not that love shouldn’t hurt: of course it hurts sometimes, but it’s that it shouldn’t only, constantly hurt.
now that the personal rant is over, let’s get on with the book:
to spend twenty three years actively suffering in silencing is honestly fucking unbelievable. sarah goes through seeing the woman she loves have sex with her brother in front of her and later marry him; she pays so that they can have a kid together, and when he finally leaves kat, that’s the moment she decides to ‘let kat go’? i’m sorry but that’s utter bullshit. and everyone around her - mom, dad, brother, her ex-girlfriends; including the supposed best friend whom she’s in love with and the best friend’s mom - knows about her feelings and not one of them addresses them outright? tries to really confront her about them? advises her that she has to take some time and distance so that she can actually let it go and move on? my god, you don’t need enemies when you have friends and family like this.
kat’s just a selfish, ungrateful character. she knows her best friend’s in love with her, has known it for all these years apparently; doesn’t wanna talk to her about it or confront these feelings between them because she doesn’t feel the same and doesn’t wanna make the difficult choice, but at the same time, she gets pissy and hurt and upset when sarah leaves (because of self-preservation and to try and get distance/perspective to move on). kat actively doesn’t let sarah move on with her life because she’s always after her, demanding that they be close; wanting someone on her beck and call 24/7, but not really giving a damn about the woman herself. and then, after twenty-three years of knowing her best friend’s in love with her but never once ‘thinking about her that way’, she changes her mind in about a month? and is now madly, hopelessly in love with her? what the actual f*? the brother’s resentment, vindictiveness and assholery also just seemed to come out of nowhere: one moment him and sarah were close and loved each other, and the next he wanted to hurt her the worst way he knew how for no reason.
i know i’m probably the only person who pays this much attention to this sort of thing, but the chronology also bothered me a lot: the book begins in may 2007 and then it jumps to fourteen years earlier, june 1993, when they’re both supposedly 12-year-olds. so far, so good. but then it says it’s april 1997 and they’re both seniors in high school and have known each other for six years? which to me can only mean they’re 18-year-olds by this point and it’s actually 99, not 97. but from that point forward, the timeline is just completely off and it doesn’t add up by the end and i don’t understand how the author (or editors) didn’t catch such a blatant error.
i guess i’ve spent enough time now rattling off all the ways this book bugged me, but surprisingly - although it was extremely cheesy and dramatic at times - i did think the writing was good and the style suited me - even if the content didn’t at all.
when i was younger, i’d always relate most to characters exactly like sarah, because i used to think this kind of ‘love’ was also my kind of love: unrequited, one-sided, the hurting kind of love. but loving someone so much and “knowing” (in quotation marks because it’s actually thinking you know, and everyone finds out later this is not how it works) you’ll always love them and do everything for them is not realistic or romantic - it’s tragic and pitiful.
being willing to do anything for someone to the point where you not only prefer to suffer yourself but somehow actively makes it happen, also isn’t romantic or noble - it’s self-sacrificing and masochistic. loving someone your whole life - even though they don’t give you the slightest hint that they might one day love you back, that they ever thought about you romantically - to the point where you sabotage all of your relationships because you don’t genuinely try at them, but you still cause collateral damage to the other people involved, is selfish and self-centered; perhaps just plain sad and unhealthy.
that’s not to say i don’t believe in love (i know i’m probably coming off like a skeptic or bitter person, but that’s not it at all); i do believe in it, and i’m still a romantic at heart. but i also don’t believe in one right person for everyone, in people being meant to be or it being written in the stars to the point where your choices don’t matter at all and you’re destined to suffer for someone your entire life. and i know if you actually try, you can get over anyone, so it’s hard to have much sympathy for sarah’s plight when it feels like she doesn’t try. it’s not that love shouldn’t hurt: of course it hurts sometimes, but it’s that it shouldn’t only, constantly hurt.
now that the personal rant is over, let’s get on with the book:
to spend twenty three years actively suffering in silencing is honestly fucking unbelievable. sarah goes through seeing the woman she loves have sex with her brother in front of her and later marry him; she pays so that they can have a kid together, and when he finally leaves kat, that’s the moment she decides to ‘let kat go’? i’m sorry but that’s utter bullshit. and everyone around her - mom, dad, brother, her ex-girlfriends; including the supposed best friend whom she’s in love with and the best friend’s mom - knows about her feelings and not one of them addresses them outright? tries to really confront her about them? advises her that she has to take some time and distance so that she can actually let it go and move on? my god, you don’t need enemies when you have friends and family like this.
kat’s just a selfish, ungrateful character. she knows her best friend’s in love with her, has known it for all these years apparently; doesn’t wanna talk to her about it or confront these feelings between them because she doesn’t feel the same and doesn’t wanna make the difficult choice, but at the same time, she gets pissy and hurt and upset when sarah leaves (because of self-preservation and to try and get distance/perspective to move on). kat actively doesn’t let sarah move on with her life because she’s always after her, demanding that they be close; wanting someone on her beck and call 24/7, but not really giving a damn about the woman herself. and then, after twenty-three years of knowing her best friend’s in love with her but never once ‘thinking about her that way’, she changes her mind in about a month? and is now madly, hopelessly in love with her? what the actual f*? the brother’s resentment, vindictiveness and assholery also just seemed to come out of nowhere: one moment him and sarah were close and loved each other, and the next he wanted to hurt her the worst way he knew how for no reason.
i know i’m probably the only person who pays this much attention to this sort of thing, but the chronology also bothered me a lot: the book begins in may 2007 and then it jumps to fourteen years earlier, june 1993, when they’re both supposedly 12-year-olds. so far, so good. but then it says it’s april 1997 and they’re both seniors in high school and have known each other for six years? which to me can only mean they’re 18-year-olds by this point and it’s actually 99, not 97. but from that point forward, the timeline is just completely off and it doesn’t add up by the end and i don’t understand how the author (or editors) didn’t catch such a blatant error.
i guess i’ve spent enough time now rattling off all the ways this book bugged me, but surprisingly - although it was extremely cheesy and dramatic at times - i did think the writing was good and the style suited me - even if the content didn’t at all.
July 17, 2018
Wow, just wow, a must read
This is a beautiful story that I can honestly say touched me deeply. The range of emotions I felt while reading Kat and Sarah's story was eye opening. Nancy Ann Healy has a beautiful gift of words and if you've ever Loved someone from a distance the you must read this story.
This is a beautiful story that I can honestly say touched me deeply. The range of emotions I felt while reading Kat and Sarah's story was eye opening. Nancy Ann Healy has a beautiful gift of words and if you've ever Loved someone from a distance the you must read this story.
August 6, 2018
Very Nearly Perfect
Dinged one star because it was hard to get a sense of Kat’s a-ha moment, when exactly she realized what she felt. And there was little/no sense, prior to whichever moment that was, that her feelings were even subconsciously romantic in nature.
Other than that, this was perfect - charming, heart-wrenching, poignant, hilarious, utterly without contrivance. Filled with those no-good-choices dilemmas that face people in real relationships, in the messy love that burdens us IRL humans - but packaged with the escapist HEA simplicity we need to distance ourselves from the pain of IRL love. This novel is why I read romance.
Dinged one star because it was hard to get a sense of Kat’s a-ha moment, when exactly she realized what she felt. And there was little/no sense, prior to whichever moment that was, that her feelings were even subconsciously romantic in nature.
Other than that, this was perfect - charming, heart-wrenching, poignant, hilarious, utterly without contrivance. Filled with those no-good-choices dilemmas that face people in real relationships, in the messy love that burdens us IRL humans - but packaged with the escapist HEA simplicity we need to distance ourselves from the pain of IRL love. This novel is why I read romance.
November 12, 2018
I fell hard for these two best friends obviously destined soulmates. Sarah holding on to her feelings for all those years and watching her brother step in on her girl broke my heart. Happy ending so all is well.
January 5, 2020
Way too wordy, interesting story but how many times does she need to reiterate the same info
February 19, 2020
A bit long winded. Well written.
September 3, 2018
Sweet
This story is painfully sweet, filled with sadness and hopes, sacrifice and love. I liked it very much but I'm also torn. It's well written, romantic and deep. It's a long story but I couldn't put it down. It's worth it.
This story is painfully sweet, filled with sadness and hopes, sacrifice and love. I liked it very much but I'm also torn. It's well written, romantic and deep. It's a long story but I couldn't put it down. It's worth it.
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