ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #Extract from The Memories of Us by Vanessa Carnevale @v_carnevale @AvonBooksUK
I’m delighted to be posting an extract from The Memories of Us by Vanessa Carnevale today as part of the blog tour. I think this book sounds absolutely lovely. My thanks to Sabah Khan from Avon Books for the place on the tour.
One moment can change your life
When Gracie Ashcroft wakes after a crash with severe amnesia, she must choose whether to live a life through other people’s memories or to start a new life all her own.
Discovering her late mother left her an old flower farm, Gracie leaves her fiancé, best friend and the home full of forgotten memories behind, hoping to learn who she is now.
Torn between wishing she could remember and afraid of losing what she now has, Gracie starts to wonder: if you had your time over, would you live the same life twice?
The feel-good and sweeping love story that fans of Harriet Evans, Lucy Dillon and Ruth Hogan will love
Aside from one small detail about loving egg-free coconut-cream cake, days pass with no memories of Blake, or any other significant aspect of my past surfacing. After several failed batches (despite following the recipe and using kitchen scales), I’ve managed to bake my favourite cake with success. Even though Dr Cleave told me that simple tasks could be challenging, I’m still finding it hard to accept. Hence, my six attempts at making coconut-cream cake until I got it right.
On this particular morning, I’m trying to master the fine art of tying shoelaces, with the aim of taking a walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens before lunchtime, when the landline rings. I wait before answering. What if it’s Blake calling? I’ve had my mobile phone, with its countless unread messages from him, switched off and tucked away in a drawer since I returned home from hospital. When I can no longer ignore it, I take a deep breath and answer on the fifth ring.
‘Hello, this is Gracie.’
‘Oh, Gracie, it’s Amanda Chadwick of Chadwick and Nelson Real Estate. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for weeks. Your mobile keeps going to voicemail. Anyway, I was wondering if you could come in for a chat. There are a few things we should talk about regarding your mother’s property. I’ve got a busy week in front of me, but does this morning happen to suit? I could fit you in around ten.’
‘Uh, yeah, sure … this morning’s fine. What’s the address?’
She titters. ‘Still the same.’
‘Right. Okay, well, I’ll see you then.’ I hesitate. ‘Um, what’s the street name again?’
After a slight pause, she reels off the address, which I silently repeat in my head several times over. I hang up the phone and contemplate how I’m going to make this appointment. Deciding that I’m going to need to embrace autonomy sooner or later, I look up the address and manage to work out that Amanda’s office is only a few tram stops away. As soon as I reach the end of the street, the thought of throwing myself onto a congested tram with other commuters is too overwhelming, so I make the trip by foot, instead. After stopping several times to ask for directions, I eventually make it to Amanda’s office, its large frontage visible at the end of a tree-lined street. The trees look unhappy here surrounded by concrete, their naked boughs almost completely free of the weight of their leaves. I reach for a leaf from the nearly bare canopy of an elm, and trace the veins with my thumb. The veins don’t meet in the middle.
Vanessa Carnevale is a freelance writer based in Melbourne, Australia, who has contributed to The Green Parent, The Huffington Post, Muse, and Italy magazine, among others. Her debut novel, The Florentine Bridge, was published by HQ in Australia earlier this year. She was a finalist in the Best New Author category for the AusRom Today Readers Choice Awards 2017.
