The Art of Letting Go Blog Tour and Giveaway!!

Title: The Art of Letting Go
Author: Anna Bloom

One year. One woman. One Diary. One question: can you ever stop history from repeating itself and if you could what would you do to stop it?

When Lilah McCannon realises at the age of twenty-five that history is going to repeat itself and she is going to become her mother—bored, drunk and wearing a twinset—there is only one thing to do: take drastic action.

Turning her back on her old life, Lilah’s plan is to enrol at university, get a degree and prove she is a grown-up.

As plans go, it is a good one. There are rules to follow: no alcohol, no cigarettes, no boys and no going home. But when Lilah meets the lead singer of a local band and finds herself unexpectedly falling in love, she realises her rules are not going to be the only things hard to keep.

With the academic year slipping by too quickly, Lilah faces a barrage of new challenges: will she ever make it up the Library stairs without having a heart attack? Can she handle a day on campus without drinking vodka? Will she ever manage to read a history book without falling asleep? And most importantly, can she become the grown-up that she desperately wants to be.

With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions can Lilah learn the hardest lesson that her first year of university has to teach her: The Art of Letting Go?

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Last night.

By the time there was a knock on my door, I was ready and completely geared up. I enhanced my normal minimal makeup routine with smoky eyes and lashings of eyeliner. The crazy fuzz cut was managing to look quite funky. I could not guarantee it would hold.

I am rewarded for my efforts by Meredith dropping her drink all over the floor and Beth announcing very loudly that she may fancy me after all. I cringe at her loud voice, shushing her with my hand, which they both think is hilarious.

“Don’t worry, Lil, he has already walked over with Jayne. You would have heard them leave had you not been so busy singing. “

“Bite me. “

“You look lovely, Lilah,” Meredith says, seeming very sincere, and I give her a big hug.

I should own up to the fact that I have had a few sneaky drinkies in my room whilst getting ready.

We head out of the door and run across to Digby. Well, I totter, but at a reasonable pace despite the stilettos.

As we push through the doors, I have the immense satisfaction of seeing Ben, who is sitting in the corner, choke on his beer. I give a little half-interested wave of my hand, acknowledging that I have seen him, and saunter over to the bar.

Trev gives a low whistle when he sees me, and proceeds to give me a drink on the house.

Blimey! Who would have thought that getting dressed up would have had this much effect? I should have done it ages ago. There is a DJ playing, but as yet there is no one on the dance floor, so we stand at the bar and make girly chitchat.

Jayne comes over from her table and high fives me. “Well done. Lilah! The whole football team wants to give you a shot. “

I blush furiously and swat her away. Shame for them, there is only one member of the team from which I would be open to offers.

After a while, Tristan arrives. He actually spends so much time on campus I don’t know why he does not enrol and just study here as well. He gives me a wink as he leans in to say hi.

“Going all out, Lil?”

“Better believe it,” I respond with a wink of my own.

I feel completely amazing. For the first time in my entire life, my confidence is at an all-time high. I grab a drink and start mingling around, greeting people I recognise. It takes them all a moment to register who I am, and then I get a lot of hugs. It's great, but then again it's a bit worrying. Do I walk around looking like scruffy moose the rest of the time? The only person who doesn’t come and speak to me is Ben. I maturely decide to ignore this. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the blues flash as he watches me talk to a couple of the guys from History class. Ha! Stick that, sucker.

Five vodkas later and the Lilah dancing machine is out in full force. There are not that many people on the dance floor but I don’t care. I dance away quite merrily until I realise that the room is spinning rather a lot. I try to slow my pace but the room is still spinning which makes me realise that it must be my head and not the crazy dance I am performing.

“I am going out for a smoke,” I tell Meredith, who is doing something I would rather not witness with Tristan on the dance floor.

Outside, I lean against my tree (yes, it is mine) and merrily smoke away. As I smoke I start to sober up a little bit. What on earth am I doing?My whole reasoning for the day begins to make no sense to me at all.

I don’t want to get back together with Ben because I want him to go to the States and have his great career.

It was me who suggested being friends.

It is me who has enjoyed the last week of being friends and the casual flirting that has been simmering under the surface.

It is me who knows that eventually I am just going to have to let go of him being a part of my life.

So why the fuck am I dressed up to the nines attempting to get his attention?

By the time I am on my second cigarette, leaning against the tree with my eyes shut, I am feeling like a complete idiot and just want to go back home and get changed into my comfy jeans and a hoodie.

I feel a hand slide down my arm. I don’t have to open my eyes to know who it is. I would know that touch anywhere.

“What are you doing out here, Lilah? It is freezing. “

I don’t bother opening my eyes, but wave my cigarette in the general direction of his voice, hoping I don’t set his hair alight.

“Look at me,” he says, his voice soft and very close to my ear.

I open my eyes and meet his. “Hey,” I say.

“Hey,” he whispers back

The Art of Letting Go by Anna Bloom is a nice, light hearted NA romance. It is written in a diary style, but the author does a great job at making the story have a casual feel with loose sentence structure and personal responses mixed in with the story telling, without it feeling too choppy or overly whiney. Twenty-five year old, Lilah has started university a few years later than most of her freshman classmates, but it is her only option to break free from her parents' prearranged life-plan for her. She basically runs away from her life to start fresh, even though she only goes 20 minutes up the road. Lilah sets herself 4 rules: No alcohol, no cigarettes, no boys, no going home. But all 4 of her rules get broken one way or another as she becomes close with her roommates and lives up the normal university experience. Fun story to read, not filled with unnecessary melodrama and heartache, but enough action to keep you interested and into it as Lilah goes through the trials and errors or trying to find herself and stand on her own two feet.

This story definitely had the Briget Jones' Diary feel to it; possibly the British connection, plenty of "British-isms" and English humour. Also Lilah is a bit of a crazy character as well, she is very impulsive and has a sarcastic and at times slightly dark sense of humor. And of course there's the fact that its also written in a diary style, getting a direct tap into her inner most thoughts and self talk. I really liked rock singer, love interest Ben, he is definitely swoonworthy! Even though they do have their ups and downs, there is a good amount of angst and moments you want to smack some sense into Lilah but they do have a great balance of fun and playful and hot hot hot! I think the novella from Ben's perspective would be a great addition because I did feel like she could have delved into more of his backstory. Bloom does a great job at developing her secondary characters too, I personally really liked Meredith a lot, she was the voice of reason and gave Lilah sage wise advice even though Lilah is older than her. I'm sure Bloom is setting up plenty of character development and growth for the following books in the series. 

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Anna Bloom is a contemporary romance writer who writes about life as it happens. Combining a busy schedule of looking after two small children whilst working in a local school and completing The Uni Files series she also spends a lot of time imagining kissing hot guys – all in the name of her art.

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