The Art of Letting Go (Uni Files #1)by Anna Bloom
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Release Date: September 25th 2013
Synopsis:
One year. One woman. One Diary. One question: can you ever stop history from repeating itself and if you could what would you do to stop it?
When Lilah McCannon realises at the age of twenty-five that history is going to repeat itself and she is going to become her mother—bored, drunk and wearing a twinset—there is only one thing to do: take drastic action.
Turning her back on her old life, Lilah’s plan is to enrol at university, get a degree and prove she is a grown-up.
As plans go, it is a good one. There are rules to follow: no alcohol, no cigarettes, no boys and no going home. But when Lilah meets the lead singer of a local band and finds herself unexpectedly falling in love, she realises her rules are not going to be the only things hard to keep.
With the academic year slipping by too quickly, Lilah faces a barrage of new challenges: will she ever make it up the Library stairs without having a heart attack? Can she handle a day on campus without drinking vodka? Will she ever manage to read a history book without falling asleep? And most importantly, can she become the grown-up that she desperately wants to be.
With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions can Lilah learn the hardest lesson that her first year of university has to teach her: The Art of Letting Go?
Friday Night Out
Last night.
By
the time there was a knock on my door, I was ready and completely geared up. I
enhanced my normal minimal makeup routine with smoky eyes and lashings of
eyeliner. The crazy fuzz cut was managing to look quite funky. I could not
guarantee it would hold.
I
am rewarded for my efforts by Meredith dropping her drink all over the floor
and Beth announcing very loudly that she may fancy me after all. I cringe at
her loud voice, shushing her with my hand, which they both think is hilarious.
“Don’t
worry, Lil, he has already walked over with Jayne. You would have heard them
leave had you not been so busy singing.”
“Bite
me.”
“You
look lovely, Lilah,” Meredith says, seeming very sincere, and I give her a big
hug.
I
should own up to the fact that I have had a few sneaky drinkies in my room
whilst getting ready.
We
head out of the door and run across to Digby. Well, I totter, but at a
reasonable pace despite the stilettos.
As
we push through the doors, I have the immense satisfaction of seeing Ben, who
is sitting in the corner, choke on his beer. I give a little half-interested
wave of my hand, acknowledging that I have seen him, and saunter over to the
bar.
Trev
gives a low whistle when he sees me, and proceeds to give me a drink on the
house.
Blimey!
Who would have thought that getting dressed up would have had this much effect?
I should have done it ages ago. There is a DJ playing, but as yet there is no
one on the dance floor, so we stand at the bar and make girly chitchat.
Jayne
comes over from her table and high fives me. “Well done. Lilah! The whole
football team wants to give you a shot.”
I
blush furiously and swat her away. Shame for them, there is only one member of
the team from which I would be open to offers.
After
a while, Tristan arrives. He actually spends so much time on campus I don’t
know why he does not enrol and just study here as well. He gives me a wink as
he leans in to say hi.
“Going
all out, Lil?”
“Better
believe it,” I respond with a wink of my own.
I
feel completely amazing. For the first time in my entire life, my confidence is
at an all-time high. I grab a drink and start mingling around, greeting people
I recognise. It takes them all a moment to register who I am, and then I get a
lot of hugs. It's great, but then again it's a bit worrying. Do I walk around
looking like scruffy moose the rest of the time? The only person who doesn’t
come and speak to me is Ben. I maturely decide to ignore this. Out of the
corner of my eye, I can see the blues flash as he watches me talk to a couple
of the guys from History class. Ha! Stick that, sucker.
Five
vodkas later and the Lilah dancing machine is out in full force. There are not
that many people on the dance floor but I don’t care. I dance away quite
merrily until I realise that the room is spinning rather a lot. I try to slow
my pace but the room is still spinning which makes me realise that it must be
my head and not the crazy dance I am performing.
“I
am going out for a smoke,” I tell Meredith, who is doing something I would
rather not witness with Tristan on the dance floor.
Outside,
I lean against my tree (yes, it is mine) and merrily smoke away. As I smoke I
start to sober up a little bit. What on
earth am I doing? My whole reasoning for the day begins to make no sense to
me at all.
I
don’t want to get back together with Ben because I want him to go to the States
and have his great career.
It
was me who suggested being friends.
It
is me who has enjoyed the last week of being friends and the casual flirting
that has been simmering under the surface.
It
is me who knows that eventually I am just going to have to let go of him being
a part of my life.
So
why the fuck am I dressed up to the nines attempting to get his attention?
By
the time I am on my second cigarette, leaning against the tree with my eyes
shut, I am feeling like a complete idiot and just want to go back home and get
changed into my comfy jeans and a hoodie.
I
feel a hand slide down my arm. I don’t have to open my eyes to know who it is.
I would know that touch anywhere.
“What
are you doing out here, Lilah? It is freezing.”
I
don’t bother opening my eyes, but wave my cigarette in the general direction of
his voice, hoping I don’t set his hair alight.
“Look
at me,” he says, his voice soft and very close to my ear.
I
open my eyes and meet his. “Hey,” I say.
“Hey,”
he whispers back. “You look amazing. I mean, you always do, but there is
something different about you tonight.”
He
stops to think of the words.
Yep. I am a deranged lunatic attempting to
make you fancy me even though I know I should not want you to.
“You
look confident,” he finally says through lips that are distractingly close to
my neck.
I want him so badly that my entire body could
set alight, burning like dry tinder in a fire of need for this man with his
dark hair, flashing eyes, and his long fingers made to entwine with mine. Even
though we are not touching, I can feel every contour of his body against mine. The
space between us zings with electricity.
I
think about his words for a few seconds. He’s right. I am confident. I am
buzzing with it.
“I
wish I could be this confident every day,” I admit. “Then, I think, I could be
with you.”
The
words are out before I can stop them. I hear him take a sharp intake of breath
as he absorbs what I am saying. I need to correct this, fast.
“It’s
not real though, Ben. It’s just an illusion, someone that I could be if I was
brave enough.”
My
words are a whisper, my lips getting closer and closer to his jaw.
“Be
brave with me, Lilah.”
As
he says my name in the way only he does—half whisper, half wish—I can’t stop
the single tear that betrays me by falling down my cheek. He stops its tracks
with his lips, and my willpower crumbles. I give a shudder as I lean against
him, and his arms slide around me pulling me in tight.
“Ben,
you know this is not the real me. I’m obsessive and negative and worry about
everything,” I explain as I try to ignore his lips that are still against my
cheek. “You deserve so much more than that.”
He
leans down so he can look right at me, the pressure of his body pushes me back
against the tree, long, hard lines moulding against mine.
“I
only see the best in you,” he says, “and you need to see that, too.”
I
just stare at him. His face is so close I can see his freckles illuminated in
the moonlight.
We
shouldn’t do it again. I know that. What is it, two or three times we have
attempted a relationship now? Every time, for one reason or another, we end up
pushing each other away saying words that hurt. I know this, but still I say,
“I can’t stay away from you.”
He
gives a low groan as he crushes us together, his lips on mine. The moment he
touches me, and I feel the familiar sensation of his mouth against mine, I know
it is right. I can’t keep fighting this chemistry between us.
by Anna Bloom
It’s funny, when I wrote The Art of Letting Go, the first novel in The Uni Files it never crossed my mind that it would make readers feel so many different things. That’s a crazy thing for someone like me to think but I did nonetheless. By someone like me, I mean a person of an imaginative persuasion who has been obsessed with books since they were eight years old.
I mean of course I always knew that when I read a book the way it made me feel, happy, scared or sad would not be the same as another person but it never ever occurred to me when I typed The End on the last page of my manuscript that people would find something different to me on the pages I was binding together with my tale. I mean, I’m the author right? If I say it should read one way then surely it should??
Not so much, and a big fat raspberry to me for forgetting the power that the written word has. And a second big raspberry to me for forgetting that perception is the key to everything.
Some readers have found it laugh out loud funny and have related to the fun aspects of the book. For others it has brought back happy but blurry memories of a misspent youth. Others have found it tragically sad and cried buckets at the end.
I’m going to share a little personal experience with you before I tell you how it made me feel, and that is what my most feared reader felt when she read it. My mum.
Now this is quite a sensitive subject because I was quite scared about my mum reading The Art of Letting Go, and I think she was just as worried herself. I mean, what if my mum hated it? Or what if she thought her daughter’s debut literary release was a complete pile of rubbish? That would be a bit awkward around the family dinner table next time I saw her.
Anyway, Mum refused to read it in draft form, not even the final version, she was determined to wait for it to come out so she could buy it. And she did. Then I heard nothing. Nooooothiiiing for days.
Well that’s great!
Finally my dad rang (my parents live abroad) and I answered Skype with fearful trepidation. “Your Mum has been face down crying on the bed for twenty minutes,” he told me. PANIC it was that bad I made her cry! Eventually mum shuffled into view on the computer, still sniffling. “That was so sad, but beautiful,” she said and then started to cry all over again. That was possibly one of the shortest conversations I have ever had with my mum.
My mum was definitely in the ‘Sad’ camp, and I’ll tell you a little secret, it actually made me really proud that I had managed to reduce my own mother to tears with the tale that I had to tell – and yes I know that’s a bit wrong.
So what did I feel when I wrote it? Well I felt it all. I laughed, I reminisced and I cried. I had my heart in my chest when I wrote that scene at the end, but more than all of that I felt this incredibly uplifting feeling in my soul that you can learn The Art of Letting Go and survive it.
It fills me with delight that every person who picks up my book has the ability to read it a different way. I wonder what you will feel when you read it?
Anna Bloom is a contemporary romance writer who writes about life as it happens. Combining a busy schedule of looking after two small children whilst working in a local school and completing The Uni Files series. Anna’s main aim in life is to create the perfect book which makes a reader laugh and cry at the same time, hopefully causing a convulsive (impossible to ignore) donkey noise. It’s a work in progress! Anna also spends a lot of time imagining kissing hot guys – all in the name of her art.
Win (1) ebook copy each of The Art of Letting Go and The Saving of Benjamin Chambers + a signed cover art postcard of both books (INT)
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