A Thousand Sleepless Nights

by Teri Harman

[sstaley]

As soon as I started reading, A Thousand Sleepless Nights, I couldn't get over what beautiful words had been written in this novel. This author paints a world, both dark and light with her words. There is so much feeling in what you're reading. A perfect example is a paragraph found on the back of the book...

"I sit beside you and I breathe more air. I look at you and I see a universe. I touch you and I connect with everything that has ever lived. I kiss you and I exist."

This story hooked me from the beginning. I love how this story is told, chapter by chapter from either Henry or Matilda's point of view. You were able to connect to both characters so much by having the novel written this way. I'm not going to go into details about what happens in the story because you can read that yourself up above. Instead, I want to tell you about a few other passages that really affected me. This book is very much a lesson in learning to live after grief. Henry is given advice about dealing with grief from Abby, an older woman who took him in and treated him like a son. Abby was childless after losing eight children, from miscarriages',a stillbirth, and an infant death.Abby knew and had lived with pain.

She told him, "After each one,I wanted to give up.I wanted to hide from the pain I had and the possibility of more pain.But after I stopped hurting so bad I couldn't sleep, I realized something else. Fearing the pain also kept me from the chance of having some joy. And Henry, joy is worth the pain."

Wow! Those words shook me to the core and spoke to me so much. The only way I can describe how I felt is another passage I read in the book describing how Henry felt after reading a certain book, "Each word lingered inside him, like bees in a hive buzzing."

This slow burn romance has a hint of the magical to it's story. You have to keep your mind and heart open to a little fantasy playing out in it's pages. I can promise you, you'll enjoy this book and the wonderful story that was meant to be shared.