Is Your Past Holding You Back?

Have you ever felt like your past won’t let you chase your happiest present or future? Are you stuck living in a moment that you can’t forget?

For me, writing All of You was about more than just a romance. It was about the fact that sometimes our lives aren’t clean slates, and we don’t all come from picture-perfect pasts. Too many times, I’ve read about characters who seem to have it all together, or who have problems that seem either too hard to relate to or too simple.

I wanted to portray a different reality, one that’s a little bit more intense but a whole lot more real.

All of You is about the idea that we all have demons haunting us, some bigger than others. We all are held back sometimes by preconceived notions about us, our lives, and what we should do. We don’t always chase what we want in life because sometimes we just feel like we can’t.

This book is about how we can overcome the demons of our pasts and the ideas about ourselves that hold us back. It’s about how sometimes love can actually help us do that.

Through Marley and Alex’s story, I found an inner truth I’ve really come to believe: The best kind of love helps make you the best version of yourself. Marley and Alex’s vulnerabilities help them open up to each other and become even truer, happier versions of who they are. It is their love story that opens up new possibilities. It is their love that helps them shut the door on expectations, on the past, and on the pains they both know.

Real life is messy, complicated, and complex. These are the words I’d use to describe Marley and Alex. This is not your typical, nice-and-neat love story. It has rough edges. The characters are gritty and raw. There are heavy complexities and sometimes a paradoxical feel to who they are.

But Marley and Alex, through all of their difficulties and struggles, taught me that life isn’t a nice-and-neat package--but that’s okay. It is through struggle and complexity that we can uncover our own truths and that love can take on a new meaning.

Do you enjoy reading realistic love stories even if they’re a little heavy and complex? Feel free to hit comment and tell me what you think of a complex, emotional kind of love story.

XoXo,

Lindsay Detwiler

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