Holly C. LaBarbera

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All I Know

Title in script, over a pool of water with concentric rings

As a spirited nine-year-old child, Kai Martin sees her life as a series of concentric circles—her twin brother and other half, Kade, occupying the center sphere with her, their loving parents surrounding them in the next, and the Tyler family in the outer loop. Their families have been linked since before she was born, and she plans to make that connection official someday by marrying Josh Tyler. The Tylers and Martins share many good times, but under the surface, they are two dysfunctional families struggling with alcoholism, depression, and abuse, all of which Kai becomes increasingly aware as she grows up. Her circles become less and less stable, until a great tragedy knocks her completely off her axis, no longer sure of anything.

Years later, Kai and Josh reconnect as young adults, falling in love and embarking on a life of travel and adventure, building on their shared history, yet also haunted by it. They share a deep connection, but as time goes on, Kai sacrifices more and more of herself to hold on to Josh, the one thing left in her life of which she thinks she can be certain. Eventually, though, she learns that she herself is precisely the one thing that she can trust, and that she is whole and complete all on her own.

ALL I KNOW is about loss and resilience, rising from devastation to build and rebuild a life, over and over again. The story explores the heartbreaking truth that as much as we try to help and hold onto the people we love, we can only truly save ourselves.

Five Days

by Holly C. Labarbera

Alexa is a loyal wife, loving mother and successful entrepreneur who admires the sacrifices she routinely makes, ignoring her deep, latent longing for essential parts of herself. Her constant pleasing, planning, and worrying have led to a shrinking smallness rather than a full life of expanding growth. When she meets Trey, she leans into feeling rather than thinking, into desire rather than responsibility. Yet that’s not who she is either. Her challenge is to accept all messy parts of herself and integrate them into a unified whole.

Alexa’s complicated affair with Trey occurs alongside an easier romance between Alexa’s and Trey’s best friends, for whom the future looks beautifully bright, until a tragic death propels the main characters to face the fact that love is inextricably linked with loss. Loving in spite of the risk requires courage but is also vital to being alive.

  • I loved Alexa because she was brave enough to find what she was missing. I loved her because she found a way to have what her body and soul desperately needed to be complete. ~Kathy M.
  • It had moments of joy, moments of sadness, moments of conflict, and unexpected twists and turns. ~Jim D.
  • The choices that were made by the main characters were not what I expected…they were, however, choices that became very believable, and even logical, considering the sensations and emotions that were so beautifully expressed. ~Carol S.
  • Hard to put it down to do my errands and projects around the house. ~Tobie L.

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