Hearts and Diners

"Relationships, both brutal and redemptive, are at the heart of Reilly’s debut. The author shows a good grasp of why people make the same mistakes over and over, and of the intense, fragile pleasure when a long-nursed desire is finally fulfilled." -- Kirkus Review

Heather Sand has always given 100% at doing the right thing; from being the perfect big sister to the girlfriend who wears a loving heart on both sleeves. After the passing of her father, a measuring stick for perfect, she’s met with the not so unexpected—a cheating boyfriend. Plucked from a wholesome little world into the abyss of a cold reality, Heather comes face to face with a man who wears confidence like cologne with tattoos to decorate his charisma. For the first time in her life she discovers in herself a deep shallowness laced with jealousy, lust, neediness and passion. With the closest one’s pleading that she has embraced a darkness that is her new found love, she learns that she must also be the angel on the shoulder to her mother, who only after six months of losing her husband has found “love” online. Struggling with that revelation while dealing with her own rocky relationship, Heather decides to do some snooping and just as she feared: her mother’s new romantic interest is bad news. The dilemma-- Will Heather fend off her unrelenting inner demons or will she embrace the insecure love that makes her happy?

"It's a book for anyone who's been blinded by love or fascinated by those who are; for the ones who get told to leave their relationship, and even the ones who are doing the telling." -- Author Joseph Reilly