*~*Love Note: Dante to Anna – In This Life by Christine Brae*~*

It started out so simply. Anna runs away to Thailand, drags her best friend Dante with her and spends a few weeks away, taking on other people’s problems while getting away from her own. She meets the enigmatic Jude Grayson, and for as long as it’s clear to both of them that it ends when they leave, she thinks she’s got the perfect fling planned out.Or does she?

Anna returns home to find that her life is no longer the way it once was, and that she can’t stop thinking about him. She learns through tragedy that nothing she’s ever believed in has turned out to be true. The worst part? The people she loved were keeping a secret from her. And that no matter what she does, no matter how hard she fights against it, every path she takes keeps leading her back to Jude.

This is a story about love, found in a faraway place by two very unlikely people. It is also a story about friendship and loyalty and fighting for what you have despite the illogical mystery of fate. And with the struggle between morality and guilt, faith and acceptance, there comes a learning that even the best-laid plans are powerless against the alignment of the universe.

From the beaches of Thailand to the streets of New York, three friends, Anna, Dante, and Jude will learn the hard way that once providence steps in, there is nothing in the world that can change what is truly meant to be.

Spark

God I miss you so much.

I’m back at the apartment for the evening, thinking about you and wondering how you are. It’s been two months since I last saw you, although it feels just like yesterday that we had that fight in my office right before I left for Germany.

I was knocked out by the surety of your tone, rendered helpless by the strength of your words.

And yet, here I write this letter. I don’t know if I’ll even send it out.

You’ll love the apartment I’m in. It’s different from the one we had in Manhattan. Smaller, more compact, but with so much character. From the balcony, you can look out to the Seine, peaceful and calm on some days and full of boisterous activity on others. The rainy, cloudy weather gets me down sometimes, but the beauty of this country is different from anything I’ve ever experienced. It’s my first time abroad without you. It feels different, so meaningless.

I’m not alone. There is someone. Someone you know, who knows you. Someone who pulled me back up when I sank to the bottom of the ocean. But she is to me what I am to you.

Do you remember that trip we took – that six-day tour that had us bouncing around Italy on a bus, the dreaded 6 am wake up calls and Americanized Italian meals? You spent the first two days sleepless and jetlagged until that nice man on the bus gave you some Benadryl to help you get some sleep. You could hardly stay awake, nodding off on a bench in front of David’s statue at the Accademia, passing out on the bus and missing the tour. You kept in touch with that man; his name was Bill. You felt so sorry that he was that trip alone – his wife had begged him to go while she lay dying in hospice.

I saw him the other day, could you believe it, at a German market. What a small world! He called out to me, his face shrouded in disappointment when he found out you weren’t here. He was buying painted eggs for his grandchildren. He said that it was you who got him started, that you had sent him some from our trip to Russia two years ago. Before we parted ways, he grabbed my arm and said, “Don’t give up on her. She’s a gift.”

Why do I find you in every single place, even when I’m not looking?

Xx, D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christine Brae is a full time career woman who thought she could write a book about her life and then run away as far as possible from it. She never imagined that her words would touch the hearts of so many women with the same story to tell. Her second book, His Wounded Light was released in December, 2013.

Christine’s third book, Insipid, is a standalone that was released in June, 2014, and her fourth book, In This Life is scheduled for release in January 2016.

When not listening to the voices in her head or spending late nights at the office, Christine can be seen shopping for shoes and purses, running a half marathon or spending time with her husband and three children in Chicago.