Carin Frost doesn’t understand what’s happening to her. A confident businesswoman, wife, and mother, she begins to resent everything about her life. Nothing makes sense. Nothing makes her feel. Maybe it’s the recent loss of her mother in a tragic accident. Or maybe she’s just losing her mind. 

Enter Matias Torres. As their new business partnership thrives, so does their friendship—and his interest in her. Carin is determined to keep her distance, until a work assignment sends them to Southeast Asia where a storm is brewing on the island. In the midst of the chaos, Matias asks her to do something unimaginable, exhilarating, BOLD. Carin knows the consequences could be dire, but it may be the only way to save herself. 

An honest look at love and marriage and the frailties of the human heart, this is a story of a woman’s loss of self and purpose and the journey she takes to find her way back.

6 Holy F***! Holy F***! Holy F***! Stars

Favorite read of 2019. 

Have you ever read a book and just knew it was going to be a favorite of yours for years to come? An automatic reread? A must have for your signed shelf? That's The Year I Left, for me. This book and its characters impacted my being. Carin and Matias are forever cemented in my heart and soul. I won't soon be forgetting them and the affecting, self-reflecting exploration they took me on.

"They say it takes just one thing to push you over, to rouse you from your sleep. For me, it was a long time coming, shredding parts of myself and what little resilience I had left."

I can't really go into detail with my review. I know its cliché but you really need to experience this book blind, with no bias. Just know by the time I closed the cover of this book I was a train wreck; a complete emotional mess. I was forever changed. 

Weeks later and I am still finding myself thinking about Carin and Matias and all the feels that came with them. Their dynamic. Their chemistry. Their love. Their penance. Their recklessness. Their selfishness. Their happiness and sadness. Their survival. 

While reading, keep in mind that sometimes we have no other choice but to make the ultra, hard decisions in order to fix the broken pieces within us. Even if isn’t a decision society or ourselves would deem appropriate. We aren’t robots. We aren’t just mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, and friends. We are humans; with real human actions, thoughts, and feelings. 

"I just stopped giving a damn. Nothing interested me. I was beset by indifference. I just couldn't keep up anymore. The sleepless nights, the exhaustion, the constant streaming in my head. Everything seemed so insignificant, so mundane."

And when you add that on top of mental illness… 

So when you start to get pissed off or frustrated (You will. That I can promise.) push forward. Take this journey with Carin. See this through her eyes and the eyes of many of us who have felt that all-consuming desolate, depressive existence. 

"In every life, there is that one time. When for one minuscule moment, you are selfish, self-serving, even hedonistic. You become a mercenary for yourself, an advocate for your own happiness."

I highly recommend The Year I left and the poignant, raw, gritty look at love, sacrifice, choices, strength, and self-discovery it delivers. The journey Brae and her characters take you on isn't for the faint of heart. It isn't for the judgmental. It isn't for the close minded. For most of us it will resonate on a myriad of levels. It will have you taking a second look at life around you. It will leave you altered. It will leave you questioning your own moral code/reality. 

This exquisitely written gem is Brae at her best!

Thank you, Christine Brae, for the compliment copy of The Year I Left.

Christine Brae was born and raised in the city of Makati, Philippines before she met and married her best friend who whisked her away to Chicago over twenty years ago.

Christine is a full time career woman who thought she could write a book about her life (The Light in the Wound, 2013) and then run away as far as possible from it. She never imagined that her words would touch the hearts of so many women with the same story to tell. Her second book, His Wounded Light was released in December, 2013.

Christine’s third book, Insipid, is a standalone that was released in June, 2014, and her fourth book, In This Life, released in January 2016. Eight Goodbyes is scheduled to be released in August, 2018.

When not listening to the voices in her head or spending late nights at the office, Christine can be seen shopping for shoes and purses, running a half marathon or spending time with her husband and three children in Chicago.

Christine is represented by Italia Gandolfo of Gandolfo Helin Literary Management.