Whole Broken World

Annelise is a fantasy fiction writer. An independent and analytical woman who finds solace in structure and writing schedules. While romance has never been her genre-at least, not the one she gets paid for-she spends her warm-up time writing love stories inspired by an old man at the bus stop. Actual romantic relationships have always proven to be complicated for Annelise, and Annelise just doesn't do complicated; that's more her younger sister's style. It isn't until, on a flight to Italy with her family, she meets Murad-an Italian-Lebanese welder with his own dark history and an obvious interest in the stoic Annelise-that she is inspired to wonder about more than the title of the book he reads. Against her carefully constructed nature, she finds herself on an island off the coast of Croatia and unravelling desires she's scarcely thought about, let alone shared with a man she only just met. Worse, she believes she is falling in love - if only she knew precisely what that looks like. It takes befriending a pregnant ex-drug addict named Sarah to further topple Annelise's insubstantial ideas of wholeness, but will it be enough to teach her to trust her heart in a world that she necessitated be predictable and cold? Especially once she discovers she is pregnant. Annelise is forced to discover the beauty of complicated and decide if she wants to fall the whole way.