Most of my writing life these days is centered around my JJ Knight romantic comedy pen name (Pickles forever!) But sometimes I take a break from all the wildness, book signings, and whirlwind of that and write a quieter, more emotional book of my heart.
I wrote This Kiss years ago, published it in 2023, and knew back then that I would tell Ava and Tucker’s life story. Now, this November, I will give readers the next stage of their journey.
This Kiss showed the pair meeting in the disco room of an epilepsy ward at the hospital at age 17 and took them through the painful period of finding their own way to young adulthood despite medical challenges for them both.
The new book, This Love, will begin with their wedding day. And how their next disaster unfolds, and the steps they take to keep going.
I hope these books will stick with you for a long time. I think of Ava and Tucker often.
The paperbacks have gorgeous new floral edges. They are the prettiest books I’ve ever made, and you can get the special editions direct from me if you want them signed, or most anywhere paperbacks are sold. Full links are below.
Emotional. Intense. A love for a lifetime.
A woman with a form of epilepsy that causes her to repeatedly lose her memory resists falling for the man who has pledged to always love her, even when she can’t remember who he is.
Book 1: This Kiss
The first time I lost all memory of Tucker, we had just met.
We were in the disco room of the epilepsy ward, both of our heads covered in electrodes. The music thumped, and lights danced across his face. We were the only ones there, other than the nurses.
I was reluctant to meet him. My seizures were worse than most, because they erased my memory. So even if I got the nerve to talk to him, I would eventually forget he exists.
But Tucker didn’t know that. He approached with “Come here often?”
My recent bout of amnesia meant I didn’t know that was a terrible pickup line, although maybe it was a little funny, given the circumstances.
But that was all we got. The disco lights switched to strobes, the kind designed to cause a seizure. That’s why we were there. For the wires on our heads to collect data. To show the doctors what was going on inside our brains.
I took one more look at him as my legs gave way, and the sizzle in my head turned my vision black.
Tucker.
I had no idea then that I had just met the love of my life.
In a few seconds, I wouldn’t remember him at all.
Book 2: This Love
My wedding day is the biggest disaster imaginable.
I’m in the limo, made up, dressed, and holding a bouquet the size of Dallas when I realize I’ve forgotten my seizure meds in all the rush.
This would be an emergency in any circumstance, but as my hand starts to shake, the tremor rippling up my arm, I know no ceremony will happen today.
My seizures are different. They cause amnesia.
When I wake up on the floor of the moving car, hurtling toward the hospital, I don’t recognize anyone around me. Not the photographer, who insists he is my coworker and best friend. Not my father, who I only recently got to meet. And certainly not the half-sisters and stepmother I barely know.
As we enter the hospital, me tearing away the lace on the itchy, uncomfortable dress, there is apparently one other person who thinks I should remember him. He strides through the curtain, handsome and concerned.
My groom.
But no matter what anyone says, what my circumstances were an hour ago, there’s one thing I absolutely know:
I am not going to marry a stranger.