Perfection. We all strive for it, but what happens when the desire to be perfect consumes you? What happens when the need to bury your mistakes blinds you?
Melanie Crane has always been the perfect daughter, friend, student – she’s been perfect at everything, in fact. But when she lets her insecurities, the ones that she keeps hidden from
everyone, get the best of her, she falters in her pursuit of perfection. Melanie crumples under the pressure and buries her pain. Numbed by sadness and guilt, she is determined never to let anyone find out how broken she really is.
Bryan Mahoney may appear to have everything in order. He’s charming, witty and completely swoon-worthy. In short, Bryan has life all figured out, but appearances can be deceiving. When the landscape of Bryan’s family changes in an instant, he’s left to pick up the pieces.
Not all bruises leave a mark. Now, weary and afraid, Melanie and Bryan must find a way to let love heal their broken and jaded hearts.
The author of this book, Melissa Collins, made this beautiful post telling us who inspired to write this book, and it is herself. Sit and enjoy this post ''We Are Who We Are''
I recently saw a Facebook post from one of my long-time
friends who wrote that her six-year-old daughter came home from school one day
complaining that she was “fat.” Now, I had only just had lunch with my friend
and her daughter over the holiday break and I can one-thousand percent testify
to the fact that her daughter is most definitely not fat. She is intelligent and creative, shy but
inquisitive – in short, she’s pretty much a dream come true. But even if she
was “fat”, would her “fatness” negate all of those things. Does being “fat”
make you less intelligent? Less important? Less worthy of love?
No, it doesn’t, but somewhere along the way, society has
trained us to think these things. That an extra hundred pounds – hell, even an
extra ten pounds – somehow makes you less worthy of everything.
I know because I’ve been there. My whole life has been
plagued by feelings of unworthiness because of my own body image issues –
because I am not the size two stereotype of American beauty. While I don’t
remember the exact moment that my weight became the focus of my self-image, I
also can’t remember when it wasn’t a part of how I evaluated my worth.
A distinct memory of being driven to the nutritionist for my
weekly appointment – at which I would be weighed and evaluated by the
less-than-caring doctor, where my weight was the focus of the conversation
between him and my parents – still haunts me to this day. It was as if I wasn’t
in the room – and for all intents and purposes I wasn’t: my weight was. That was the only thing that mattered in
those moments – not my self-esteem, or my misunderstanding of why it was so
important for me to lose weight – all that mattered what the number on the
scale. I would starve myself for days before those appointments just to devour
a simple compliment. And from those appointments came the feeling that I was
only doing something meaningful if I was trimming down my waistline.
I have never been skinny. Even as a young girl, I was the
chubby kid. It has always been a part of
who I am. I heard the sly snickers, the concealed remarks about my weight all
through junior high – man, that is just a rough time for anyone. Even in high
school, I remained a bit introverted because I told myself that no one wants to
be friends with me because I wore a size 12.
What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and shake some sense
into the younger version of myself. For so long, I told myself that I was
insignificant as a person because of my weight. I battled the scale through my
entire teenage and young-adult existence. And forget being able to feel pretty
in clothes – this shirt is too tight; it’s shows my curves. These jeans make my
ass look big. This tank-top reveals my flabby arms.
On a daily basis, my self-talk was negative and just plain
mean – it was filled with ideas that I would never tolerate someone else saying
to me. So why was I allowing myself to say these things to me? Why was it okay
for me to hate myself, loathe the idea of my existence just because I wasn’t
skinny? Like my friend’s daughter, I was (and I’d like to think I still am) an
intelligent, funny, caring and genuinely good person. But none of that mattered because I perceived
myself as overweight.
So I hid my feelings of inadequacy. I hid behind sports –
hey, maybe I’d lose some weight in the process. I hid behind humor – sarcasm is
my middle name and if I could make people laugh at my words, they wouldn’t
laugh at my ass. I hid behind my friends – meek shyness became my ally in group
settings. I hid behind my grades – people would notice me for my grades instead
of my size.
Then, there finally came a time when I had too much – too
much noise from the outside world telling me I wasn’t thin enough; too much
noise from inside my own head screaming at me that I’ll never be good enough.
I had an epiphany when I turned thirty. THIRTY! I wasted
thirty years of my life defining myself by the number on the scale. I finally
started to realize that I am so much more than a number:
I am a daughter.
I am a friend.
I am a wife.
I am a mommy.
I am a teacher.
I am an author.
I am smart.
I am funny.
I am kind.
I am loving.
I am worthy.
I am NOT my weight.
I am NOT my size.
I am NOT what society tells me to be.
I’d be lying if I said the negative self-talk vanished
completely. It hasn’t. I’m not sure that it ever will, but I can say that it is
more of a whisper now than it ever has been.
So when I read a blog post where the blogger was begging
authors for more “real” women in books – ones who weren’t perfect, my main
character instantly came to life. She would be me – or I would be her. Let Love
Heal, my third book in The Love Series, features a curvy, not stick-thin,
heroine who faces many of the same body image issues that I’ve faced my entire
life. The overall take-away from the book is that you deserve to be loved – no
matter what size or shape, you are worthy of being loved.
So if you’ve ever felt like you’re not enough – not pretty
enough, not thin enough, not smart enough, take a second look and realize that
you are all of those things and more. Even when the world screams at you that
you aren’t, whisper to yourself that you are.
Link to post ''We Are Who We Are''
Wasn't it wonderful? I think now after this you should buy the book, don't you think it would be great to read something you will identify with?
This is personal and the author know this and I think its good to share, this book well it helped me, it helped me realize that I needed a change in my life, I need to love me for who I was not for what society or my family wanted me to be. I had to struggle a lot growing tell me what curvy girl or as society call it ''fat girl'' didn't struggle even if it was for a short time.
You will see here how many friends and many people who loves you see you when you are out there insecure, hiding behind a smile, and you will see too how you feel when is just you and your mind. That is the worst thing
I can tell you I'm happy I do struggle sometimes with how I look and with family too but the key is to shut it down and don't let it get to you! This book is always on my mind now and I'm grateful to have read it
Just go and buy the book, it will change you and you will fall in love with the characters and after that you will want to fall in love with yourself, trust me on it! ;)
Remember that the First four book in the series are on sale! So get this one and all of them! You can read this one as a Standalone :)
Let Love In •• http://amzn.to/1iImFuo
Let Love Stay •• http://amzn.to/1iImLSL
Let Love Heal •• http://amzn.to/1iImSh5
Let Love Shine ••http://amzn.to/1iImVtl
Let Love Be •• http://amzn.to/1iImZcp
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