SHE ONLY LOOKED ONE WAY: A New Year’s Eve Novel

SHE ONLY LOOKED ONE WAYAthena Theron is twenty-one years old, months away from graduating from NYU, and certain the best part of her life is still ahead of her.A gifted singer and actress studying drama and music, Athena has built a life filled with rehearsals, performances, sorority sisters, unforgettable friendships, and plans she assumes she has plenty of time to complete. There is a theater fellowship she desperately wants, an ex-boyfriend she may never completely stop loving, and a beautiful oceanfront trip to San Diego waiting for her and her mother just after New Year's.Then comes New Year's Eve.After a night of celebrating with friends, Athena leaves a party to catch a cab. She sees one across the street and, in one rushed, alcohol-impaired moment, looks left but never looks right.She steps into the road.In seconds, every plan she made for tomorrow disappears.What follows is not only the story of Athena's final night. It is the story of everyone forced to live after it.Her mother wants someone to blame. Her best friend cannot stop wondering why she let go of Athena's wrist. Her sorority sisters turn their grief against one another. Her former boyfriend is left with words he will never get the chance to say. Even the driver who struck Athena must learn how to carry a tragedy he never intended to cause.As anger gives way to unbearable choices, Athena's family discovers that one decision she made long before that night may allow pieces of hope to survive the worst thing that has ever happened to them.Through friendship, family, guilt, forgiveness, organ donation, and the music Athena left behind, the people who loved her slowly learn that finding peace does not mean forgetting.SHE ONLY LOOKED ONE WAY is an emotional contemporary novel about a young woman who believed she had all the time in the world, one devastating moment that changed dozens of lives, and the extraordinary ways a life can continue to matter after it ends.Athena's story may begin with the mistake that killed her.But that is not where her story ends.