True Love Story

True Love Story is my favorite love story. It pulled me in from the very first sentence and didn't let me go. Now it is firmly entrenched in my heart, mind and soul! I read the first chapter at the end of Dirty Red and instantly fell in love with Sparrow and Ian and their author. Willow Aster is exceptionally gifted with her writing style and her way with words. I laughed, cried, gasped, sighed and kept my hand over my open mouth through all the twists and turns. It is filled with enough passion to make you hot and even swoon; humor to make you smile and then break out laughing, gut-wrenching heartbreak to make you cry and even bawl (keep tissues handy); and situations that will keep you guessing how this will end. This story is so real it pulls every emotion from you as you read Sparrow and Ian's story. My grandchildren were very concerned about me while I was reading this book, and I had to explain many times that I was okay, I was just crying, or laughing, or yelling over the book I was reading. It is so good. Like rich delicious chocolate, you want to savor every word. I read it 3 times straight and I confess I'm reading it again. Sigh. It's just that good! I haven't enjoyed a book this much - ever! Willow Aster is an extremely talented author. It is amazing that this is her first book. Buy it now and read it immediately! Enjoy this special treat from first time author Willow Aster. 10 huge stars! And thank Tarryn Fisher for putting her chapter at the end of Dirty Red! I love Tarryn's The Opportunist and Dirty Red......and I'm awaiting with eager anticipation The Thief! She is the queen of angst!

"You are my first And last And only True Love" True Love Story is my first Willow Aster read and I was completely blown away. Aster writes with so much heart and soul it is extremely difficult to not get caught up in the whirlwind of emotions that contribute to the essence of True Love Story. True Love Story is written with such conviction, readers will be empathising with the main characters till the very end. The book is told from Sparrow's perspective and straight away readers know she has been hurt by the love of her life. The story travels back in time to where she met Ian Sterling - famous singer, guitar extraordinaire and ultimate heartthrob. The book explores in detail their passionate, all consuming and heartbreakingly beautiful love story. "I've been looking for you, his eyes are saying. You've found me now, I'm certain my eyes are responding." As readers get caught up in Ian and Sparrow's love and chemistry, the relationship's inevitable demise, is still a shock and proves to be be excruciatingly painful. Willow Aster captures Ian's love and Sparrow's hurt so perfectly, readers will be left feeling broken and sensitive. Using an effective amount of realism and eliminating any excessive drama, Willow Aster not only writes about the elated feeling love brings, she focuses in detail on the dark and destructive cloud that hovers when it all goes horribly wrong. True Love Story not only follows their lives together but it also highlights Ian and Sparrow separately. How they grew, matured and accepted things they could not change. The exploration of their individual characters, impacts the story development and story outcome significantly. True Love Story is magnificently honest. taking readers on a journey of feels, Ian and Sparrow's love will be remembered always.

True Love Story is a knot-in-throat, both happy and sad tear-inducing kind of story that is both hilarious and meloncholic. This is going to be lengthy, folks - there is just too much to say about one of the best stories I've EVER read. True Love Story is a breath of fresh air amongst a polluted indie market. A story that will have you laughing, crying, and thrashing about from beginning to end. I loved the characters more than I think I've EVER loved characters before. Sparrow is your best friend. She's the quirky and hot, yet innocent, God-loving girl-next-door whom everyone wants to protect from Ian Sterling, the tattooed rock God who breaks hearts without even trying. The story begins over a year AFTER Sparrow and Ian break up, with a chance airport encounter, and it's painfully obvious Sparrow is a woman scorned: 'It’s as if no time has passed at all. I see with sickened clarity that I will never be over Ian Sterling. Never. He’s watching me, waiting for me to say something. Just one word to give him hope and we will be back in our own little world of love and lust and banter. I turn to face him and he looks at me with expectancy, willing me to let him back in. Willing me to say yes… I shake my head and the cobwebs clear. I remember. I remember it all. I want him to hurt.' After that, the book goes back to when Ian and Sparrow first met five years prior, where Ian shamelessly flirted with Sparrow in front of her boyfriend: 'He pulls the number out of his pocket and hands it to me. “If you’d put your number on this paper, it would be worth something,” he says quietly. “Are you really hitting on me with my boyfriend sitting right here?” I am both proud and appalled by his audacity. Scratch that, I am loving his audacity. I’m a horrible person. Let’s not even try to sugarcoat it."' Sparrow deals with the relatable anxiety of debating whether or not she had as strong of an effect on Ian as he did on her: 'I think Ian Sterling fell for me today. There is no way that Ian Sterling feels anything real for me. I fell for him at first sight four years ago. Of course, I don’t believe in love at first sight. Okay, if not love at first sight, then I fell in love with him today, when we spoke … when he took my hand in his. That was pure lust, not to be confused with love. I’ve never felt like this. I’m young and don’t know what I’m feeling. I’m not an idiot; I know my own mind better than anyone. He is a master flirt and it was meaningless. I think I rocked his world.' Ian is an enigma in the sense that he's openly infatuated and earnest with Sparrow from the moment they meet, yet feels the need to constantly warn her that he's no good for her. '“You know I’m trouble. Right?” And then before I can say anything, he runs his fingers through his hair, making it go every which way. His eyes look green with the bright sunlight behind him. They look haunted. He reaches over and grabs my hand and laces our fingers together. “You’re going to break my heart, Sparrow Fisher.” And I think, Not before you break mine.' The relationship between Ian and Sparrow moves sloooooowly. With Ian constantly touring and Sparrow busy starting college, there aren't plentiful opportunities for a flourishing relationship. Plus, Ian doesn't 'do' commitment, and although he has met his match in Sparrow, he doesn't think he deserves her. With Ian, Sparrow feels like she can be herself instead of trying to live up to a perfect ideal of who she should be. Sparrow gives in to being with him temporarily, knowing she is going to get hurt in the end. And what girl can't relate to feeling like this?: 'I can’t get Ian out of my mind. I’ve played and replayed every single part of that day and cannot figure out what happened. Why did he go so cold on me? How could we seemingly have such an intense spark and then … nothing? I have not heard a single word from him.' The fact that Ian and Sparrow are constantly in a state of limbo is what makes True Love Story so believable. The relatability of having a certain expectation after spending months apart, and being hurt when the excitement isn't only not reciprocated, but the other person is unaffected and distant. Other times, the reunion is so achingly sweet, it renders me speechless: 'Ian opens the door and is hugging me before I have a chance to think. After a long embrace, which renders me limp and useless, he pulls back and cups my face in his hands. “Little Bird,” he says. He looks almost relieved when he says it. I love him.' Already knowing it ends badly creates an anxiety of constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop and I was wondering how that was even possible when it was never really 'starting!' And then it does... "I love you so much, it hurts. I love you so much, it’s taken over right here—” he puts my hand on his chest “—and swallowed me whole until I can’t think of anyone or anything but you. You have completely captivated me. And I only want more.” This story broke my heart. Willow Aster basically taunts her readers with the grisly outcome at the beginning of the story when Ian and Sparrow run into each other again. To know it will end badly is the worse kind of torture. I'd compare it to knowing you are going to die an insufferable death in five minutes but not knowing how it's going to happen, as opposed to being blissfully blindsided by it.... That's how talented and potent this author's words are. True Love Story is about whether or not love is always enough. It's for anyone who has ever been 'in limbo' in a relationship and not knowing where you stand. It's about shamelessly taking what you can get, even if it hurts more in the end. Having been there, I felt every word like a sharp knife reopening an old wound.

Wow! I think my heart is still in tact. I was supposed to be studying today, however, after dreaming about Sparrow and Ian last night (I was half way through the book when I went or bed) I had to finish it. My emotions have been well and truly played. Even though I was getting a little annoyed that Sparrow just couldn't let go (I know what Ian did was truly bad ... however ...). Anyway, finally I had my happy ending and am confident that Sparrow and Ian's love will last for eternity. Thank God!

4🍭🍭🍭🍭 Rating polemic books is hard. The cheating trope is a very difficult one and I will never cheer for the cheater. That said, I enjoy the angst, the drama, the anger. I’m a masochist reader sometimes 🤷🏻‍♀️ This story made me feel everything. I was in tune with Sparrow and her journey after the devastating news that I enjoyed the book so much. Impossible to be indifferent. You can hate the trope, the guy, the epilogue, but you cannot not feel.

True Love Story is told in the first person point of view by our heroine,Sparrow,so the readers fully experience her most joyful days and the most agonizing ones through her eyes.Ian,our hero is really hot and not the most trusted guy of the world but he can definitely win Sparrow's and the readers' hearts with his grand gestures (I love the desserts he buys) and love letters.

This definitely the best grovel I have ever read. If you enjoy a good grovel, I highly recommend. The emotional upheaval that Sparrow and Ian goes through is an experience I will not soon forget.

This was a beautifully written story full of angst and drama. I love books like this that the romance builds up and I loved the way Willow Aster wrote about it, her description, the emotions and then the downward spiral. Perfect. It has been one year, two months and seventeen days since I last saw him. Two years, ten months and five days since he broke my heart.................. and that is how we are introduced to the love story of Ian Sterling and Sparrow Fisher. She has avoided him for almost two years and she cannot believe that he is walking towards her and about to board the same plane as her. They end up sitting together on the flight and we are then taken back five years to when she first met him. Sparrow is only 18 when she first meets Ian Sterling, a master flirt, who rocked her world, their attraction is instant, but their relationship isn't so simple. This story tells us what it is like to be so deeply connected to someone and being unable to resist the temptation of love no matter how painful it is. Sparrow is so in love with Ian but his betrayal makes it impossible for her to move on. Their story isn't something new or unique. We read about a young inexperienced Sparrow who falls in love with an older man. He consumes her thoughts and takes her heart prisoner. Their love story is passionate until he screws up and shatters her heart. I read this book one day. It was too hard to put down and all I wanted to do was get to the end to find out would they find each other. Is their love strong enough to save them and bring them back from the depths' of their despair and can she find the inner strength to trust Ian and eventually forgive and love again? One of the best books I have read this year and I hope we get to read a lot more from Willow Aster. A pleasure also to read a story from beginning to end, no cliff hanger and no follow up. I loved it.