Love a good love story!
Donnaldson Brown has captured the the hill country of East Texas in 1972 in this touching love story. It’s a turbulent time. Especially for youngsters who want to escape their small town and travel to the big city to seek a new way of life. Leni and Caleb have plans for a bright future together, but circumstances tear them apart.
It’s a coming of age story that takes fourteen years. When Leni and Caleb bump into each other at an art show in New York City they discover that there are still sparks. But can their love be rekindled? Does first love ever die? Or would it be a mistake to play with fire?
Donnaldson Brown has written a charming story that touches the heart. She writes movingly about West Texas horse country and Leni’s love for her prized mare, Foggy. I particularly liked her mother, a World War II bride from France. Her story, plus the story of Caleb’s brother who has returned for the Vietnam War and is fighting his own demons, make for an intriguing story. It is a story that touches on three time periods: 1972, 1986, and 2016
A few great reviews for this debut novel...
“The characters in this deeply moving, lushly imagined novel stayed with me long after I turned the last page. A novel of passion and place, ambition and expectation, Because I Loved You is a beautifully written story that speaks with equal tenderness to the wild abandon of young love and the awful heartbreak of dreams deferred. A gorgeous debut.”
—Amy Brill, author of The Movement of Stars
“…a gorgeous book, heartbreaking and joyous, full of love and wisdom. In chiseled prose that evokes a precise sense of place and time, Brown explores the conflicting pulls of love and duty and what a life can be.”
—Alexandra Enders, author of Bride Island
“Cal and Leni first fall in love with horses, then with each other, a love that not even Donnaldson Brown’s beautifully rendered North Texas landscapes can contain…Because I Loved You is deeply affecting, swooningly romantic, hard as diamonds, too: dreams don’t always add up, and trouble can sometimes be our friend.”
—Bill Roorbach, author of Lucky Turtle, Life Among Giants, and The Remedy for Love
“The story is compelling….Leni and Cal’s relationship at its core….fully realized characters, not just star-studded lovers…complex secondary characters, especially Foy and Hank…a page-turning story that will keep readers invested.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Listen to Interview
Buy the Book
