The Thunder Beneath Us
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
To the world, Best Lightburn is a talented writer rising up the masthead at international style magazine James, girlfriend of a gorgeous up-and-coming actor, and friend to New York City’s fabulous. Then there’s the other Best, the one who has chosen to recast herself as an only child rather than confront the truth.
Ten years ago, on Christmas Eve, Best and her two older brothers took a shortcut over a frozen lake. When the ice cracked, all three went in. Only Best came out. People said she was lucky, but that kind of luck is nothing but a burden. Because Best knows what she had to do to survive. And after years of covering up the past, her guilt is detonating through every facet of her seemingly charmed life. It’s all unraveling so fast: her new boss is undermining and deceitful, her boyfriend is recovering from a breakdown, and a recent investigative story has led to a secret affair with the magazine’s wealthy publisher.
Best is quick-witted and headstrong, but how do you find a way to happiness when you’re sure you haven’t earned it—or embrace a future you feel you don’t deserve? Evocative and emotional, The Thunder Beneath Us is a gripping novel about learning to carry loss without breaking, and to heal and forgive—not least of all, ourselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Blades's second novel, a talented but self-sabotaging writer is forced to grapple with her painful past as years of secrecy and shame come back to haunt her. Best Lightburn is an ingenue making a name for herself in the New York magazine world; she is surrounded by fabulous, fun friends and is dating a handsome movie star. But things take a bad turn when her boyfriend, Grant, has a breakdown and her beloved boss leaves the style magazine where she works. Suddenly, Best finds herself forced into a corner by the new leadership and under pressure from a reporter who wants to break the one story Best has worked for years to keep quiet: when she was a child, she and her brothers fell through the ice on a lake; she was the only survivor, a secret source of guilt that she has kept hidden from even those closest to her. Blades layers her narrative with twists, snap decisions, and deep introspection, building a story that feels realistic and human. Although at times Best's stubborn self-preservation feels overwrought, as a whole the book is a fascinating look at the way people process their own survival in the wake of death, and the many ways the past can wreak havoc in the present.
