We are thrilled to share an exclusive first look of All That We Never Were, the first book in the Let It Be series by internationally bestselling author Alice Kellen. This highly anticipated New Adult romance is sure to take you on an unforgettable emotional rollercoaster ride. Mark your calendars for this August 29th, when this must-read book is set to release, and its sequel, All That We Are Together, released on January 23rd 2024.
All That We Never Were is now available to pre-order from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Bookshop, and Kobo, so read on to discover the synopsis, cover, and an exclusive excerpt!
SYNOPSIS
He’ll do anything to bring the light back into her eyes.
Leah Jones used to love her life. Now, she can barely get out of bed in the morning. Still shaken by the sudden loss of her parents, her older brother is the only person she has left to keep her from falling into an emotional abyss. But as he prepares to move across the country for work, soon he’ll be gone too, and Leah will have no one.
Axel Nguyen is her brother’s best friend, and the natural person to turn to. Seeing Leah so despondent is a punch to Axel’s gut. At her brother’s request, Axel drops everything to move Leah in with him, to meet her every need. He’s determined to push her to her limits, to break down the walls she’s built to protect her fragile heart. Little does he know, she has loved him forever, and now his love for her expands to so much more. As Leah and Axel’s undeniable bond grows stronger, Axel must break Leah’s heart in order to guarantee her the life he knows she deserves…
Fans of Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, and B. Celeste will immerse in this thrill of a heartbreaking emotional rollercoaster.
All That We Never Were
EXCERPT
I don’t remember when I fell in love with Axel. I don’t know if it was one day in particular or if the feeling was always there, asleep, until I grew up and became aware that it was love, wanting someone, yearning for a glance from him more than anything else in the world. Or at least, that’s what I thought when I was thirteen, when he was living in Brisbane with my brother. If he came to visit, I would spend the night before sleepless with butterflies in my stomach. I used to write his name in my day planner, talk to my friends about him, memorize his every gesture, as though they hid some important message. Later, when Axel came back and settled in Byron Bay, I started to love him down to my bones. All I needed was to have him close and let that feeling grow even as I kept silent, as though it were in a locked box where I protected it and nurtured it with my daydreams.
The first time he set eyes on one of my pictures, it was as if the world stopped, every blade of grass, every flap of a bird’s wings. I was breathless, looking out the window while he turned his head, keeping his eyes on the canvas. I had left it there after spending the morning painting that stretch of woods that grew behind our house, trying to follow my father’s instructions.
When my legs would obey me, I went outside.
“Did you do this?” he asked me.
“Yeah.” I looked at him warily. “It sucks.”
“It’s perfect. It’s…so different.”
I could feel myself blushing as I crossed my arms. “You’re kissing up to me.”
“I’m not either, damn it. Why would you think that?”
I hesitated, not taking my eyes off him.
“Because my father asked me to paint them,” I said, pointing at the trees, “and I did this, and they don’t look anything like them. It started out right, but then…then…”
“Then you did your own thing.”
“You think?”
He nodded before smiling at me. “Keep doing that.”
