Cracks in the Pavement by VampiresHaveLaws

Official Description:

Life is never perfect, the cracks always appear. “My Polaroid would show the face of a girl who has forgotten how to truly smile.” Even the strongest of dreams can fail to become enough.

Cracks in the Pavement is a beautifully told, painfully raw love story by the wildly talented VampiresHaveLaws. She weaves a refreshingly mature tale of a once romantic, hopeful marriage that has lost it’s way in the truth and rush of life. Fragile, reactive hearts remain barely intact as periphery threats and distance rage.

It doesn’t surprise me that he pretends I’m not here.

We’ve known each other for so long, I sometimes forget that hasn’t always been the case.
It feels like he’s always been in my life, long before he’d spoken those first words to me all those years ago.

I can list off his favourite foods; his favourite sounds and sights without hesitation. At least I used to think I could—now I’m not as sure. Things are different now. He’s different… I’m different. We’re different.

VampsHaveLaws offers a seamless flow of flashbacks from their young love. Peppered throughout, the incredibly poignant, point of view perfect writing leaves these innocent, delicate scenes dripping off the page.

His lips pucker against them for the smallest of seconds, the atmosphere around us changing like the seasons—winter to spring and back again. “I’m going to marry you someday, you know,” he states, his words holding so much promise, like rings on certain fingers.

But it is these beautifully crafted words of the past juxtaposed with present pain that leave us reeling, aching. Bella has abandoned all she’s dreamed in college and teaching for Edward’s career ambitions, family traditions. Heightened emotion is the breath of their days. Gone is the texture of pure love and life, these lovers are stripped bare and lost.

Sometimes it’s easier when he faces the other way, that way I don’t have to lie beside a constant reminder of what is so close… mine, but also so far away.

It was never said out loud; it simply happened over time, the distance growing further apart, stretching like an elastic band that I keep willing to snap, but never does. It holds strong and fast and I hate it.

Metaphorical phrasing and vivid imagery are woven throughout, leaving an extremely palpable read. Layered, true characters share their way through the most complicated intimacy.

The downpour is almost a warning, a scoff at a stupid idea. It’s only then I notice that the engine is no longer running.

I let go of my hair and simply stand there, defeated.

And here we go again.

My eyes squeeze shut, lashes thick with rain, and I turn my head to the side, the first to break this stupid, stupid battle of wills—this stupid battle of the heart that should have been conquered a long time ago. It wouldn’t have mattered who came through triumphant, we both would have been winners.

A door opens. “Go inside, Bella.” And I almost think he cares.

There is a delicious torture in the twisting, jagged edge of angst and passion. Through Cracks in the Pavement, VampsHaveLaws will grip and stir, while you savor the ache. And… leave you dizzy with hope that she will deliver these lovers where they need to land.

[dcs_p][/dcs_p]