I am a hopeless romantic. This is not a secret, nor anything new. I love a good and epic love story; most of the novels I read contain a love story between their main characters. I can’t help it – I’m in love with the idea of love. In a world like ours, where it feels as though the true essence of love is lost under sex, games and lust, it never hurts to have a reminder that there is something pure and good still out there. Hearts worthy of being broken for, people worthy of our trust, and souls worthy of chances.
New York Times bestselling author Sandi Lynn has always been one of my favourite romance writers and I always enjoy reading her books and her stories. They fill me to the brim with hope, teach me what true love looks like, and above all, remind me that it’s okay not to be perfect.
I recently came across her novel She Writes Love, and I completely fell for the story. A story about passion, healing and learning to not only just love again, but to live life again. Lynn doesn’t just write love; she writes the love story of a lifetime.
The circle of life. It’s something we all know about but are never truly prepared for the unexpected. The unexpected that comes out of nowhere. No warning, no heads up, nothing. Just God giving us pure bliss and happiness and then taking it away in the blink of an eye. For me, losing my husband to a massive heart attack on our one-year wedding anniversary, and at the age of twenty-seven, was something I didn’t think I could ever heal from. The emptiness, the loneliness, the numbness, and the need just to get through the day was overwhelming. My name is Paisley Logan and this is my story.
I’d never lost anyone before. I’d never experienced death. I felt like God was playing a cruel joke on me. How could he bring her into my life and then take her away so young. Even the best laid plans in life get altered. Mine did. Everyone kept telling me that time would heal all wounds, but this was a wound that would never fully be healed. Trying to get back to the normalcy of life was exhausting, so I didn’t try anymore. My name is Ben Preston and this is my story.
I loved this story and would 100% recommend it to any other hopeless romantic out there. However I will give you a heads up – tissues are most definitely required. This is a beautiful and strong story about two people trying to find their ground in a world that knocked them off their feet. I was hooked from the opening chapter and couldn’t put it down. Not only does Lynn manage to sum up exactly what it’s like to feel loss, but she also reminds us that we can go on, that we can heal.
What I loved most about She Writes Love, is the deeper message I felt Lynn was trying to get across. The idea that we all have more than one soulmate.
According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. However, fearing their powers, Zeus split them into two separate beings, leaving them to spend the rest of their lives in search of each other.
The hopeless romantic that I am, was led to believe that the soul mate is just one person, and if you’re fortunate enough to find that person, you thank your lucky stars, because most search forever for the person destined for them.
However, after reading She Writes Love, I’ve come to know the opposite – that we each have multiple soulmates, each teaching us something. What I’ve learned, is that the soul mates that come after the first soul mate but before the last soul mate (the number can vary from person to person) will teach you valuable lessons; lessons about forgiveness, about not letting anyone hold you back, about being independent and not losing yourself in your relationship.
Not every person you date before you encounter the last will be one of your predetermined soul mates. And we’ll know which ones are the important ones. They’re the ones that leave an imprint on you. You’ll learn a great deal from each soul mate, but every time one leaves, or you leave, you’ll feel empty, nervous that you’ll never meet the last, nervous that you’ll jump from person to person without finding another soul mate.
Near the end of the novel, Paisley said:
“Your deceased loved ones don’t want you to stop living life after they’re gone. They want you to be at peace and continue to love life like you did when they were alive. Someone once told me to embrace the memories you had with each other. Remember them and let them heal you. We all know that life’s too short to drown ourselves in our own sorrow. Life can, does, and will go on for you. But you have to make the effort to live it right.” – Sandi Lynn, She Writes Love
What Lynn is trying to show is that life goes on after you lose the love of your life. You can move on and you can fall in love again. The person you lost wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life alone. They’d want you to fall in love and be happy again.
Reading this novel, and reading about the characters past, I kept asking myself, “What if the person they lost was the One?” Then I realised – they were. And they will always be an epic love. But contrary to popular belief, there are actually multiple Ones. The only way to find another is to let go. And move on.
As I said before, Sandi Lynn doesn’t just write love; she writes the love story of a lifetime.
Page By Paige 