What happens when you fall in love at the worst possible time?
Vivian Sklar has always depended on her wise and feisty grandmother—not just because Grams raised her after Viv’s mother took off twenty years ago, but because she seemed to have life all figured out. So when Grams dies, Viv feels completely alone. Everything she once knew seems unfamiliar and unwelcoming—until she finds hope in a most unlikely place: the cluttered second-story walk-up of an alarmingly perceptive astrologer. Viv thinks horoscopes are about as reliable as fortune cookies, but when Kavia’s first reading dissuades her from taking a train that later crashes, she’s hooked.
Under Kavia’s guidance, Viv begins to process her grief and rebalance her life. She faces her mother, gets her career back on track, and even shares some meaningful moments with Len, her handsome new neighbor. Every prediction seems to speak directly to Viv’s life, and so far, the stars haven’t steered her wrong. Then the stars tell Viv that the bond she has forged with the insightful yet guarded Len isn’t meant to last. Len has become her greatest source of security and comfort, but just as she settles into his arms—and into his heart—Kavia insists that a relationship with him is dangerous. Now Viv faces a choice: should she follow the path that’s been written in the stars, or trust herself to write her own story?
Witty and honest, Daniella Brodsky’s charming novel is a powerful tale of moving on, letting go, and keeping the faith—in any form it happens to take.
“If you read one book, make it Vivian Rising by Daniella Brodsky”
— SHAPE Magazine
“Vivian Rising by Daniella Brodsky is an absolute delight to read.”
— Rundpinne.com
“…I found I could not put this book down, at all.”
—Bella Novella
“It’s a story of one person (okay, really two, when you include Len whom I fell in love with, too) but it’s really the story of anybody who has suffered loss and struggled to define life again. 4 stars.”
—Amusing Reviews
Shesheme.com named Vivian Rising a “Best of Summer Beach Read.”
Vivian Rising was named BOOK OF THE MONTH on herfuture.com.
Backstory
Vivian Rising began to take shape a year after the death of my best friend and grandmother, Sylvia. When once again head-on with the blank screen, there appeared a woman named Viv, locked in an ensuite bathroom, faced with the terrifying prospect of losing the one person who’d always cared for her. She had her own unique circumstances and sensibilities, but we shared our grief and the seemingly unanswerable question: “now what?” As the novel unfolded, it became an ode to the grieving process that at one point or another we all go through. Along with a gigantic thanks to the influence and support a grandparent can be, my wish is that the novel provides a flicker of promise—that the hopeful place we emerged from can once again be ours if we learn to adjust to, and learn from, the inevitable realities of loss and change.
