Seeing Julia
Authors: Katherine Owen
Tags: #Contemporary, #General Fiction, #Love, #Betrayal, #Grief, #loss, #Best Friends, #Passion, #starting over, #Women's Fiction, #Contemporary Fiction, #Malibu, #past love, #love endures, #connections, #ties, #Manhattan, #epic love story
| Seeing Julia | |
| Katherine Owen | |
| Writing Works Group (2011) | |
| Rating: | *** |
| Tags: | Contemporary, General Fiction, Love, Betrayal, Grief, loss, Best Friends, Passion, starting over, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Malibu, past love, love endures, connections, ties, Manhattan, epic love story |
behind."
Julia is no stranger to loss. She has had more than her share of
grieving over lost loved ones. Her life seemed to have taken a better turn after
marrying Evan Hamilton and especially since the birth of their beautiful son,
Reid. But in a strange twist of fate, Julia finds herself grieving once again
when her husband, Evan, dies a tragic death. Can Julia start over? Will she
start over? Jake Winston believes so. Julia sees Jake at Evan's funeral, and
being around her deceased husband's best friend proves to be more than a little
disconcerting. Being torn between her grief over Evan and the guilt of this
incomprehensible, yet undeniable connection to Jake becomes all too much for
Julia, nearly pushing her over the edge. Fortunately for Julia, she has an
amazing support system in her friends and, surprisingly, ... in Jake. Julia
begins a journey of healing, knowledge, and finding her way back to the
living.
Chapter 1 - In the after again
Chapter 5 - Things that begin with the letter A
Chapter 6 - A never-ending roller coaster ride
Chapter 8 - For the love of white chocolate
Chapter 9
Definitely, definitely the most alive among us
Chapter 10
Absolutely, absolutely fine
Chapter 12 - Navigating a Paris way of life
Chapter 15
Living in a room without oxygen
Chapter 19
It’s the little things
Chapter 20
It’s important to have a plan
Chapter 22 - Connections between people, places, and things
Chapter 23 - Kite without a tail
Chapter 24 - Find a tail that makes your kite fly
PRAISE FOR Seeing Julia…
“I recommend this novel to all who enjoy a highly emotional story that tugs at your heart strings with a main character who shows remarkable growth throughout the book. “Seeing Julia” rightly deserves its 5 stars!”
Ellen Fritz -
Books4Tomorrow
“Katherine Owen is an amazing story teller. Her beautiful writing pulls you into Julia’s grief, and I found my heart aching right along with her.”
Cheles Bells -
A Belle’s Tales
“I found this book to be immediately captivating … The initial chapters reminded me of Maggie O’Farrell’s “After You’d Gone,” that’s how impressed I was.”
Becky Gulc -
Chick Lit Central
“This is a wonderful story that shows the strength of a woman, and mother, and the priceless love of friends. I couldn’t put it down.”
Pat Fordyce -
Amazon Review
“For some reason, I expected ‘Seeing Julia’ to be a fluffy, unreal romance novel. I don’t know where I got this idea but I couldn’t have been more wrong, ‘Seeing Julia’ is so much more. It is deep and real and full of emotion and pain and friendship and love. I can’t say enough good about it.”
Dana Burness -
Let’s Book It
“Seeing Julia was everything I look for in a great book. Heartbreakingly sad, funny, enlightening, and best of all, heart mending. Other reviews have given a synopsis of the story, so I will just say, five stars are not enough for Seeing Julia. It is a beautifully written story and kudos to Katherine Owen. Very much looking forward to reading Not To Us.”
Sandy Lee -
Amazon Review
“This book was a precious gem. I loved it!! I love a good up and down love story and this one delivered. I am always gladly surprised to find such gems among romance books: good dialogue, smart, sensitive and funny …”
Cecelia Trembley -
Amazon Review
Before after
There was
before.
And, there was
after
.
Before
was magical, embraced promise,
and bequeathed good things.
Before
was for the innocent.
After
was haunted; and, it relinquished all promise.
I
had led a magical literary life in New Haven—a college town admired for its Ivy League status and an innocent sentiment held by its residents that nothing bad ever happened there. I had two famous novelists for parents. Yes. A magical literary life.
In one of the last days of
before
, my father’s best friend from Yale came to visit with his family. At seventeen, the man’s son, almost two years older than me, would inspire one of the last carefree days of my life and exemplify a touch point for me for all the ones that followed.
All of him would captivate me—his crooked smile, lean tall build, and clear blue eyes. He wore denim blue jeans with a black Nirvana t-shirt that professed his nostalgia for the band while his golden hair swung around his face impersonating the revered Kurt Cobain. I remember sweeping it out of his eyes without thinking, overcoming my normal shyness, and being spellbound. I’d never known enchantment before, but somehow, he stood in front of me that day. While our two families talked inside my imposing house, the golden boy and I hung out in the backyard under the sweeping branches of our cherry tree on a swing. Hidden, we were. Secret, we were. His lips tasted of the cherries we’d eaten earlier, when they first met mine. My first real kiss. He stirred feelings inside of me I’d never felt before and I remember wanting to kiss him forever to savor the surprising desire that overtook my body and mind.
No one my own age had ever taken that much of an interest in me. He’d asked me all kinds of question about my life. Where did I want to go in the world? I told him all about my travels with my parents to Madrid, Paris and London and the upcoming trip to Athens. I blushed thinking he would find me boastful, but he had only expressed admiration for my worldliness. When he asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I’d shared my secrets to be a doctor and save people; a ballerina if I managed to get up on toe shoes by the end of summer; a veterinarian if only to fulfill my love for animals; and of course, the ultimate, I hoped to be a famous novelist, just like my parents. He asked about my favorite music, but by then, I was too captivated by this strange rush of feelings for him so I said I loved Nirvana, even though I never really played their music. One of his last questions had been what was my favorite movie? I had stammered out Jerry Maguire, before I could rein in the truth about my secret fascination with romance. His engaging laugh was not at me, but with me. He stole the second best line from the movie when he said: “You complete me.” I stole the first, when I said, “You had me at hello.”
I remember being so awestruck by him. He gave me the courage to share myself and my secrets. Why he took an interest in me, I would never know. I had always been the bookish girl with famous writers for parents. As a freshman, everyone in the exclusive Hopkins School I attended had known who I was, who my parents were, but they hadn’t known me.
I blushed under his gaze, as he held on to my hand. Already, his familiarity and possession of me was so complete as he’d tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and kissed me again. I laughed more that day than I ever had before and drank him in like fresh cold water on a hot day. I remember the feeling of being forever altered by him. And, when he said goodbye and reluctantly left with the rest of his family with a promise to write and call, I believed him. How could I have known he would be the last of the magic that had been my world? It would be a sliver of time I would never get back. A modicum of happiness in the before I would never fully let myself experience again. How could I have known that it would be the last of before? And, in the after, everything I had ever loved would vanish. In the after, I forgot his face, even his name. There would be no letters. No phone calls. I’d never reach out to him again. I would only be able to recall his words, ‘you complete me; you’re all I see’, and that acknowledgment, alone, would save me in the aftermath and serve as an everlasting promise of how things could have been. My new reality would take away the magic, turn my dreams to nightmares, make my memories imagined, when before ended and the after came. He saw me that day. And then, the after came and I disappeared.