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A sweet and extremely relatable F/F second-chance romance by the author of Briarley.
Olivia is on a one-week trip to Florence with her college class when she spots someone she hasn’t seen in seven years – Ashlin, who was her best friend when they were both thirteen, before that relationship came to a disastrous end. She can’t resist approaching her, though she’s nervous about whether Ashlin will still be mad at her.
From then on, the story alternates chapters from when Ashlin and Olivia were both thirteen, and in the present day when they’re both 21. At first it feels very cozy and idyllic, but it soon becomes clear that that’s a reflection of how Olivia idolized Ashlin. The depiction of what it feels like to be 13 and have a friend who’s your entire world and who understands you like no one ever has before, and how you create a two-person reality together, is incredibly vivid. And so is the depiction of the downside of that, and the intensity of being 13 in general.
There’s nothing melodramatically tragic going on – just ordinary pain and ordinary joy –
but it’s intense in a way that captures the intensity of those particular experiences. If you’ve ever experienced social anxiety or had a bad experience trying to introduce a new friend to old friends… let me put it this way, I am still gunshy about that.
It’s a romance, and a very believable, sensual one at that, but a bit of an unconventional one in that its main concerns are slightly to the side of the usual concerns of romance. (Perception, memory, a specific set of real-life experiences – there’s a moment involving crushed magnolias that is just brilliant.) The ending is more romance-conventional than the rest of the book, and I could have used it being either more open-ended or for it to be longer.
A lovely story and one that I think a lot of you could really relate to.
Only $2.99 on Kindle: Ashlin & Olivia
Olivia is on a one-week trip to Florence with her college class when she spots someone she hasn’t seen in seven years – Ashlin, who was her best friend when they were both thirteen, before that relationship came to a disastrous end. She can’t resist approaching her, though she’s nervous about whether Ashlin will still be mad at her.
From then on, the story alternates chapters from when Ashlin and Olivia were both thirteen, and in the present day when they’re both 21. At first it feels very cozy and idyllic, but it soon becomes clear that that’s a reflection of how Olivia idolized Ashlin. The depiction of what it feels like to be 13 and have a friend who’s your entire world and who understands you like no one ever has before, and how you create a two-person reality together, is incredibly vivid. And so is the depiction of the downside of that, and the intensity of being 13 in general.
There’s nothing melodramatically tragic going on – just ordinary pain and ordinary joy –
but it’s intense in a way that captures the intensity of those particular experiences. If you’ve ever experienced social anxiety or had a bad experience trying to introduce a new friend to old friends… let me put it this way, I am still gunshy about that.
It’s a romance, and a very believable, sensual one at that, but a bit of an unconventional one in that its main concerns are slightly to the side of the usual concerns of romance. (Perception, memory, a specific set of real-life experiences – there’s a moment involving crushed magnolias that is just brilliant.) The ending is more romance-conventional than the rest of the book, and I could have used it being either more open-ended or for it to be longer.
A lovely story and one that I think a lot of you could really relate to.
Only $2.99 on Kindle: Ashlin & Olivia
From:
no subject
I think what I related to in Ashlin & Olivia was entirely different from what you and possibly most people did, but that's a good book for you, I suppose.
From:
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From:
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I've never had an intense friendship or ever really cared about friends, I can take 'em or leave 'em, so that part was a bit..."Yes, I have read about this phenomenon among you humans, in the course of my anthropological studies at a Martian university!" (Which is how I feel about a lot of things.)
From:
no subject
“Then we are at an impasse,” said the parson, “for my daughter is not mine to offer.”
The dragon mused. “She is engaged?”
“She is very much engaged,” the parson said gravely, for it was true, in its way: Rose was very much engaged in war work, in her studies, in a great many things that did not involve catering to the moods of a dragon.
BEST QUOTE EVER. Also,
It struck the parson that it had been quite foolish of the enchantress to try to force the young man to learn to love by cutting him off almost entirely from human contact.
See also: everything that is wrong with our society's system of retributive justice.