Published: December 31st 2015
Helena Conway has fallen in love.
Unwillingly. Unwittingly.
But not unprovoked.
Kit Isley is everything she’s not—unstructured, untethered,and not even a little bit careful.
It could all be so beautiful … if he wasn’t dating her best friend.
Helena must defy her heart, do the right thing, and think of others.
Until she doesn’t.
F*ck Love is the first book I’ve read in over a month, and I couldn’t put it down! It was so f*ckin' good that it shattered my reader’s block. Thank GAWD! This story is filled with twisted moments, muggle madness, and all sorts of lovely revelations that I felt like I traveled with Helena from Florida to Washington and everywhere in between in two short sittings. Every emotion, every fall, every painful moment was so clearly exposed that I felt absolutely vested in the story.
In F*ck Love, Helena Conway has a vivid dream about her best friend’s boyfriend. In that dream, Kit and Helena are married, have a child, and are madly in love. However, this can’t be farther from the truth than her current reality, where she’s in a relationship and hasn’t noticed Kit in the six months he’s been dating Della.
However, with a dream that feels so real, Helena can’t help but look for ways to make it her reality. She begins to make small changes in her life that parallel her dream, including taking art classes, acquiring a taste for wine, and unwillingly crushing on the one guy she should stay far away from.
When her feelings for Kit become too much and her friendship with Della becomes strained, Helena does what she know best, which is to run away and leave Florida for the farthest point northwest. For reasons unknown, Helena heads to Kit’s hometown of Port Townsend, Washington and takes up residence with his ex-girlfriend Greer! I kid you not! But don’t worry. There’s nothing stalkerish to fret about. How can Helena be creepy when she has so many loveable quirks, awkward moments and clumsy tendencies? Helena loves Harry Potter, manages to trip on anything in her path, and speaks her mind despite how off-the-wall it seems. Undeniably, Kit notices all of Helena's oddities and they begin to develop feelings for one another.
There was so much I enjoyed about this story. Setting aside the lusting after your best friend's boyfriend, I was able to connect with the meaning of the story, which is about searching for your truth. Finding your perspective and embracing your ultimate reality.
“Who wants to hide from the truth? Maybe people who have had too much of it. Or people who have had too little. Or people who are too shallow to appreciate its hard edges. #TRUTH”
I also appreciated Fisher’s message about the difficulties of love. Where most people believe love should be easy and effortless, it’s really not. It comes with twists and turns, hurts and healings, as well as wins and losses.
"Embrace the lows so that you can more effectively enjoy the highs. Love the fight. Love it so much, and let it save you when your emotional muscles have become soft."
Every now and again, we catch Fisher’s inner geek through her Harry Potter references. I loved those moments! Being an avid fan that has placed herself in the house of Ravenclaw, I appreciated all the magical and muggle references!
"Fuck fear, and fuck Kit, and fuck love. I don’t need any of that muggle shit."
There was quite a bit of this story that reminded me of the Love Me with Lies series, and I attribute it to Tarryn Fisher reverting to her natural form of story-telling… a story that is her #TRUTH. Fisher has a way of taking you on an emotional journey where as a reader you reluctantly surrender your senses and allow yourself to experience the awkward moments, painful revelations and hard-earned endings of the characters you can't help falling for. I was hooked and I couldn’t pick a better novel to start off my reading journey for 2016. Thanks Tarryn Fisher for an emotional, awkward and twisted tale of love. I needed that…
5 Suns
Chapter One Excerpt
#wtf
“You are supposed to be with me.”What words are these? They startle me, and at first I think I’ve heard him wrong. He’s leaning across the table while our significant others are twenty feet away, waiting in line for our food.
“You and me,” he says. “Not us and them.”
I blink at him before I realize he’s making a joke. I laugh and go back to looking at my magazine. Actually, it’s not really a magazine. It’s a math journal, because I’m super cool like that.
“Helena…” I don’t look up right away. I’m afraid to. If I look up and see that he’s not joking, everything will change.
“Helena.” He reaches out and touches my hand. I jump, pull back. My chair makes a horrid scraping sound, and Neil looks over. I pretend that I dropped something and reach under the table. Under the table are our shoes and legs. There is a blue crayon lying at my feet; I pick it up and resurface. Neil is at the front of the line ordering our food, and my best friend’s boyfriend is waiting for my response, his eyes heavy with burden.
“Are you drunk?” I hiss. “What the fuck?”
“No,” he says. Though he doesn’t look so sure. For the first time, I notice the scruff on his face. The skin around his eyes is sallow. He’s going through something, maybe? Life is being bullshit.
“If this is a joke, you’re making me really uncomfortable,” I tell him. “Della is right there. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I only have ten minutes, Helena.” His eyes move to the blue crayon, which is resting between our hands.
“Ten minutes for what? You’re sweating,” I say. “Did you take something, are you on the crack?” What type of drugs make you sweat like that? Crack? Heroine?
I want Neil and Della to come back. I want everything to go back to normal. I spin around to see where they are.
“Helena…”
“Stop saying my name like that.” My voice shakes. I make to stand up, but he grabs the crayon, then my hand.
“I don’t have much time. Let me show you.”
He’s sitting very still, but his eyes remind me of a cornered animal: frightened, panicked, bright. I’ve never seen that look on his face, but since Della’s only been dating him for a few months, it’s a moot point. I don’t really know this guy. He could be a druggie for all I know. He turns my hand over so it’s palm up, and I let him. I don’t know why, but I do.
He places the crayon in my palm and closes my fist around it.
“You have to say it out loud,” he says. “Show me, Kit.”
“Say it, Helena. Please. I’m afraid of what will happen if you don’t.”
Because he looks so afraid, I say it.
“Show me, Kit.” And then, “Should I know what this is?”
“No one should,” he says. And then everything goes black.
Author Bio
Tarryn Fisher is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of eight novels. Her newest novel, F*ck Love, released on New Year’s Eve, 2015 and she is currently working on the third installment of Never Never. She is the co-founder of Clothed Caption, a fashion blog she runs with her friend, Madison Seidler. Tarryn resides in the Seattle area with her family. She loves rainy days, Coke, and thinks Instagram is the new Facebook. Tarryn is represented by Amy Tannenbaum of the Jane Rotrosen Agency.
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