“Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.”
–Vincent Van Gogh
Louisa Donovan’s Perfectly Curated Life
This summer, Louisa Donovan’s perfectly curated life unravels.
First, she bought her small town’s beloved art gallery from Georgia O’Keeffe’s great-niece, and now she has an intern with an attitude. Then, their long-shot application to host a traveling Van Gogh exhibition in the Pacific NW is approved. And now, her emails with the museum’s pesky art conservator are getting more personal, but the thought of dinner with him is making her anxiety spike.
Louisa likes to tell people she avoids the murky depths of the mid-30s dating pool to focus on her career, but it’s really to keep her fears of failure at bay. She has her dog and her art—what more could a woman need, right?
But if she can’t learn to accept help, change, or love this time around, she’ll ruin not only the Van Gogh exhibit, but her gallery’s reputation forever.
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone. Because I am the person I know best.”
-Frida Kahlo
HeArt Lessons
Middle school art teacher and serial people pleaser Melody Andrews expects to spend her fall semester as usual: Watching You've Got Mail and dreaming of life in New York City.
But then her ex-boyfriend lands the music teacher job at her school, and her quiet life in the small town of Fairhaven, Wash., looks anything but normal.
When the pair are forced to coach the school’s soccer teams due to budget cuts, they end up spending even more time together. Can they forgive and forget the past in order to pull off the big spring field trip, or will old wounds get in the way?
Usually, the only thing standing between Melody and a positive attitude is how many triple chocolate brownies she’s eaten that day, how much Diet Pepsi is left in her fridge, and which 90s rom-com she and her tabby cat are watching that evening.
But this year, Melody must decide if she’s finally ready to heed the advice of her favorite artist, Frida Kahlo, and live life boldy, or will she carry on pretending everything with her is just fine?
Can she admit how much the breakup—plus an ill-timed death in the family—hurt her heart, even if it means expressing emotions she’s tried so hard to keep hidden?