Publication Date: May 26, 2019

Publisher: Brown Beagle Books

Lilac Sophia Carpenter is sixteen years old. She’s going to be sixteen years old for the rest of her life.

Confined to her bed as her health declines, Lilac lives her life in daydreams, imagining her love story to her former best friend, Nathan Emery. But Lilac and Nathan haven’t talked since that fateful night—the night of her sister’s wedding, when her health worsened and his life unraveled and the already-fractured pieces of their friendship became irreparable.

With the comfort of her daydreams becoming more and more elusive, Lilac must decide if reality can be greater than her own imagination when there’s little time left for living.

Excerpt

My feet sink into the new carpet as I wander the vacant house, soft to the touch like I’m floating on air, and that’s how I feel now—like I’m floating away, distancing myself from this vision I’d created for myself, this fantasy he’s spoiling with the mention of living it with someone else.

“This was my dream,” I whisper, gazing out the windows at the view of soft sand beaches and pulsing waves. I don’t like what’s happening here. My own daydreams are becoming so tainted, there’s no peace in them anymore.

He steps up behind me, kisses me on the cheek. “It should have been you,” he whispers, but I shake my head. I don’t want to hear those words. They’re too late, too late. This town, this house, this imagined life isn’t mine anymore. Now, it belongs to him and his future wife and a dog named Lucky.

I can’t do this. I can’t hope and wish and dream anymore. I can’t imagine the life I wish I had because it will never come true. I’ll never be with him. This place will never exist. The life I want will never happen.

I’m done dreaming. I don’t have any left.

Besides, when you’re too busy dreaming, there’s no time left for living.

Buy on Amazon | Barnes and Noble

About the Author

Susan Pogorzelski is the award-winning author of Gold in the Days of Summer: A Novella.Her first full-length novel, The Last Letter, is a semi-autobiographical account of her experiences living with Chronic Lyme Disease and was an Honorable Mention in the 25th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. When she's not writing her own stories of nostalgia and the magic of everyday life, she works as a consultant, editor, and creative coach at Brown Beagle Books and is the founder of LymeBrave Foundation, Inc. She lives in South-Central Pennsylvania with her family and two dogs.