She Writes Love

By: Sandi Lynn

Narrated by: Erin Mallon, Chris Chappell

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Two lives, two losses, and one meeting that changed their lives forever. Learning to move on and to love again isn't always easy.

The circle of life. It's something we all know about, but we are never truly prepared for the unexpected. The unexpected that comes out of nowhere. No warning, no heads-up, nothing. Just God giving us pure bliss and happiness and then taking it away in the blink of an eye.

For me, losing my husband to a massive heart attack on our one-year wedding anniversary, and at the age of 27, was something I didn't think I could ever heal from. The emptiness, the loneliness, the numbness, and the need just to get through the day were overwhelming. My name is Paisley Logan, and this is my story.

Life. Full of surprises, disappointments, and heartache. It's strange how we live life with certainty. We're certain that we'll find the love of our life, get married, have children, and live happily ever after. No one is ever prepared when a life-threatening illness hits. We're so busy living our daily lives that we don't think about such things.

I was naïve until my wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer and passed away less than a year later. I was angry. She was the love of my life, and we'd been married only five years. We wanted to start a family, and it was when she had trouble getting pregnant that she was diagnosed. I'd never lost anyone before. I'd never experienced death. I felt like God was playing a cruel joke on me. How could he bring her into my life and then take her away so young? Even the best-laid plans in life get altered. Mine did. Everyone kept telling me that time would heal all wounds, but this was a wound that would never fully be healed. Trying to get back to the normalcy of life was exhausting, so I didn't try anymore. My name is Ben Preston, and this is my story.

©2015 Sandi Lynn (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A Beautiful Story of Healing and Finding Love!

I really liked She Writes Love. A lot. From the synopsis, we learn Paisley and Ben both lose their spouses at relatively young ages. Losing your other half at any age is hard enough, but I feel like Paisley and Ben dealt with an added element of hurt and loss because of their young age; they both felt cheated out of their future. One of the things I enjoyed the most was seeing the way both of them dealt with their respective losses (I swear I don’t mean that the way it sounds!). Their feelings were raw and real. They both threw themselves into their work and each day was a struggle to move on. They put on happy faces for everyone else, because let’s face it, that’s what you do after you lose someone you love. You pretend you’re ok for those around you meanwhile you’re struggling to get out of bed some days. I’ve been there. Everything about their journey of healing and finding love again was real and honest. I loved the way Paisley and Ben formed their friendship by sharing their stories of loss and finding and finding someone who wholly understood what the other was feeling. It was sweet to watch their friendship, little by little, without them realizing it, turn into more. I also appreciated the honest and open communication between them when it came to their feelings regarding their spouses. They never made each other feel guilty for missing them; they encouraged the other to talk about them and truly wanted to know about the people they were. I knew going in this would pull at my heart, and it did! It tugged hard, but the emotional journey and destination was well worth my tears and heartache! I would absolutely love to read more about these two or any of Paisley or Ben’s family’s because they were an awesome set of (meddling lol) secondary characters!

Wonderful story!

I highly recommend this audiobook story about two people who lost their spouses and are feeling devastated by it. Encouraged by family and friends, they both go to a support group for those who have lost spouses to death and they meet there for the first time. This book is cleverly written and has a little surprise at the end. It is about coming to terms with loss, guilt and new love. The narration is very good and I enjoyed the audiobook very much.

made me cry!

Any additional comments?

Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian I Dig Good Books.

**AUDIO REVIEW**

Paisley lost her husband on their first wedding anniversary to a massive heart attack. Ben's wife died after a battle with cancer. This is their story.

Okay, first up, I usually write a story review and then an audio bit, but for this book, the lines blurred, and I struggled to separate the story from the narration, so, this review runs away with itself, and I apologise if it makes no sense. I couldn't stop, I just needed to get it all out.

Had I READ this book, I would have been in tears, almost constantly throughout. LISTENING doesn't have that same effect, but it has a different effect.

Its deeply emotional, from both Ben and Paisley's POV, in the first person. They meet when they attend, at great protest, a bereavement group.

Erin Mallon tells Paisley's story and Chris Chappell tells Ben's. This is the first audio I've listened to that has dual narration, and I loved it. Loved we get Paisley in a female voice, and Ben in a male. It made a very refreshing change, and not something I would turn down again.

Each voice is clear, concise and very easy to listen to. I do, personally, have some issues with female voices, but I had no such problem with Erin's speech. Chris' voice is deep and even and I had no problems with either of them. All emotion, I mean every single one, and there and MANY in this book, come across in all the right places and all the right ways.

I have one niggle with the dual narration, and this is way the narration gets 4.5 stars, and not 5.

When Paisley is having her say, her chapters, and Ben speaks, its not Chris who does his voice, but Erin, and vice versa for Ben's chapters when Paisley speaks. When I realised it was dual narration, I EXPECTED Erin to do Paisley's voice throughout, and for Chris to do Ben's. I ASSUMED they would. But they don't. And that threw me off. Don't get me wrong, I still loved the narration, its just as I said, I EXPECTED something and it didn't deliver.

This is one of those books that you KNOW who to recommend to. I won't recommend this to y sister, she's not ready. If you've lost your soulmate, don't read it. If you are still suffering a bereavement, don't read it. It might not be for you.

Everyone else, read it. Read it because it gave me hope, for my sister. It showed me life can get better, you can fall in love again, and you really can have more than one missing piece of your soul.

OH!!!

And that bit at the end?? When Ben sees Paisley's husband for the first time?? I absolutely, never in a month of Sundays, or in a full blue moon, not ever did I see that coming. Nuh-uh. No ma'am. I'm not elaborating, you gotta read it to get it.

I will certainly read other work by Ms Lynn, and listen to other work by Ms Mallon or Mr Chappell, either separately or together. I WON'T read this though. I've discovered I don't like reading a book I listened to first.

5 stars for the story,

4.5 for the narration.

**same worded review will appear here, on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and on Amazon.co.uk**

Finding love after loss.

Beautiful, heartfelt and so much love. Overcoming grief and finding love again. Such a beautiful book, I absolutely love it, those characters are perfect. I enjoy this book a lot.

Great Happy Ever After

Enjoyed reading this story it touched my heart and had me in tears. Gave chills
love her husband was looking out so that his wife and even Ben's wife encouraged him to go on. Narrator was fantastic

Horrible Male Narrator

The male narrator was just awful. If it wasnt for him I would have continued listening to this story. Except I do want to ask why is everyone telling them to move on after only one year after the deaths of their spouses?! i mean after one year is there even grass on theirs graves?!?!?!

One of her best

This is one of her better books because the story is good and not hindered by sex scenes every few pages. More like this please

She writes love

Warning: this is a three box of tissues novel. You WILL cry! Written and narrated perfection. I felt everything I was expected to feel. This beautiful interpretation is encouraging to anyone who has lost a loved one. There is hope.

Adorable Sweetheart story!!

This is for the romantics that like perky, very little drama, no angst, a touch of passion with an HEA. The story was predictable to me but I like the narrators. Both Erin and Chris Chappell are favorites of mine, especially Erin. She can narrate anything written accordingly. It wasn't a bad story at all, just missing a tad more passion but that's just me.

You want to read this one

I went into this book blind, so all I knew about this book was that it was a romance story. I am so happy I took a chance on this story and this new-to-me author. Sandi Lynn has created a hopeful and emotional romance about two people helping each other put their pieces back together. The heaviness of Ben and Paisley's loss was broken up with light-hearted familial banter that had me laughing during the moments I wasn't tearing up. Erin Mallon and Chris Chappell did an outstanding job bringing Sandi Lynn's words to life in the audiobook version. They brought Ben and Paisley's story to life and pulled me into their story. I definitely recommend one-clicking She Writes Love and adding on the audio narration, if you are an audiobook listener. You will fall in love with this story and these characters.

Heartbreaking

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I loved this book so much the story is so painful. I loved everything about it I could not stop listening.

What did you like best about this story?

It was such a painful subject but done so well. I felt so sorry for both characters and was willing for them both all the way through

Which character – as performed by Erin Mallon and Chris Chappell – was your favourite?

Paisley and Ben were just perfectly performed by Erin and Chris could not ask for more as a listener.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I don't often listen in one sitting but i could not sleep not knowing the outcome so for this one I pulled an all nighter.

Any additional comments?

This is just perfect from the story to the performance I never wanted the story to end.