FIVE YEARS LATER: Author Sarah Kraft on love, loss, and Oregon.

 

A Romance. A Family Drama. An Ode to the Pacific Northwest.

It's been - ironically- five years since I released my last novel, XENOPHOBIA, published by small press, WiDo Publishing. A lot has happened since then and a lot was happening at the time! 

I am pleased to announce, at long last, the release of my first contemporary new adult novel, FIVE YEARS LATER, due to be released on August 22nd in both ebook and paperback. 

Already the book has gained great praise... and great dislike. It's unlike anything I've written before and -regardless of preference- sure to leave an impression.

"An enjoyable, easy beach read." 

- Reedsy Discovery Reviewer

When people ask me what this book is about, I find it hard to produce a simple answer. This book covers a lot of topics: first love, relationships, divorce, the cycle of grief, and forgiveness are all themes.

What possessed me to write such an "intense" novel after writing lighthearted, teen fantasy for so many years?

Well, it started while I was standing in the bookstore looking for a novel with a good plot and a character that could relate to where I was at in life. As it turns out, there aren't a lot of books about being a daughter in college with divorcing parents and the aftermath that comes with that. Sure, we talk about being a kid or teenager with a split family, but what about the new adults? We're in one of the most critical turning points of our lives, trying to figure out where we belong in this big, terrifying world and the foundation we've relied on since birth has just been torn out from under us. Where's the book about having to jump before you're ready and, worse, having to jump with broken wings?

Where I grew up family was everything, which is probably why it took so long for my mother to lay her failing marriage to rest. It was a very hard decision and we all endured a lot of grief, something that I learned had not one, but many forms. Grief makes us do things we didn't think we would ever do. It brings out emotions we didn't know we could have. There are pros and cons to this reality. For me, grief made me braver than I'd ever been and I began to travel outside my comfort zone. I ventured to (and fell in love with) Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and Alaska. But it also broke me in places I didn't think I'd ever break. I had a lot of fear and anger, mostly because my father's method of coping with grief was to rapidly find a new normal. Within a matter of months after the divorce, the man I doted on had a new partner and a new family he catered to. Five years later (no irony intended) he was remarried. My brother and I were not invited to their fancy wedding. I doubt our existence was even mentioned to the guests.

So after my unsuccessful hunt in the bookstore for the kind of book I wanted, I began pondering my own life and the things I had been through and if I should in fact write the very story I was looking for! 

It takes a lot of courage to write a book, even one of fiction, with elements from your own life. It takes even more courage to decide after years of small press publishing and writing query letters to big agencies that you're going to self-publish this one and go the venture almost entirely alone.

At it's Core, A Love Story

While family drama plays a huge role in the plot of FIVE YEARS LATER, the power of love is also a big theme as our story is centered around the romance between characters Elle Fox and Scott Darcy, two millennials who fell head over heels for each other as teens, broke up, and are thrown together five years later at a beach party on the Oregon coast.

 

 

 

Llewellyn "Elle" Fox is my firecracker protagonist, a quick-witted dog mom born with "passion in her blood." She isn't your average Joe, and I didn't want her to be. Elle is brave and loyal but she also has trauma, both from her own breakup and her parents' split, and I loved creating her journey from spicy, naive teenager to trauma-informed adult who is forced to face her own shit and take responsibility for her actions. She also has to face the fact that there are some people in her life she will always love, regardless of what they've done, and instead of hating this fact she has to own it. When we own our truths, they really can set us free.

Despite his Austen-worthy name, Scott Darcy is a different breed of gentleman. With his icy blue gaze and the start of what soon becomes a tattoo obsession on his arms, he comes off as a cold and snooty character until a car accident lands him in Elle's service. During their day-to-day carpooling, Scott slowly opens up and proves himself to be a lover of all things wild and untamed - including Elle. 

The book is written in dual timelines, and I loved taking readers on two separate yet perfectly linked stories: the then and the now. Their relationship plays out across a rich Oregon landscape and we get to watch two characters, each with their own insecurities, grow up while forming a deep and unique bond.

The Perfect Stage

Oregon has appeared in a couple of my previous works, but it is a major setting as well as a huge part of the story in FIVE YEARS LATER.

Nature and hiking played a huge part in my healing as a new adult, and it plays a major role in both Elle's and Scott's lives. Oregon, despite its rapid suburban development, remains my greatest love of all things natural and wild. The Pacific Northwest and all its rivers, forests, mountains, and creatures resides in me like blood, and I couldn't be happier about its place in my latest novel.

 

My greatest hope for this book is that it will find its way into all major bookstores, onto the right shelf at the right time for that struggling son or daughter who just wants to find a book they can relate to, one that says it's okay to not be okay. It's going to be okay again someday, and in the mean time go explore. Go fall in love. Go make mistakes and own them and stand back up when you fail. There's a big, wide world out there full of adventures to be had and lessons to be learned - go find them. 

Get Your Copy Now!

FIVE YEARS LATER is available for Pre-Order but will launch on August 22nd for Amazon Kindle at a special price of $2.99

Paperback will also be available for order starting the week of August 15th!

Learn more about Author Sarah Kraft (Roozenboom) at her website: The Official S.B. Boom

Special thanks to Unsplash.com for Free Images