APPROACHING THE SPEED OF LIGHT - Tapa blanda

"Deeply evocative...Lustbader's prose is remarkably eloquent as she takes on a wretched subject. She carefully mines Jody's damaged psyche, presenting a vivid and compelling portrait of a child trauma survivor." --Publishers Weekly

"A beautiful book. Victoria Lustbader has crafted a well-written and highly readable story that also serves as a profoundly intelligent exploration of love." --Lisa Scottoline on Stone Creek

"Piercingly personal descriptions of love, loss, and desperate attempts to plug life's gaps give Lustbader's second novel its emotional edge, while there's plenty of steam for romance readers." --Publishers Weekly on Stone Creek

"Although themes of death and mourning, abandonment, and revenge run deep through Lustbader's second novel, her character's ultimate resolutions communicate reassuringly affirmative and promising messages." --Booklist on Stone Creek

"An intensely romantic and heartfelt story of three fascinating people bound together by the inescapable ties of loss, love, and passion." --Patricia Gaffney, author of The Saving Graces on Stone Creek

"My heart truly ached for the protagonists in this poignant, affecting story about love, loss, being lost and finding your way." --Elizabeth Noble, author of The Reading Group and Things I Want My Daughter to Know on Stone Creek

"The plot is firmly grounded in the reality of the characters' lives, making for an emotionally nuanced read...except during the moments when the electricity between the two new friends practically leaps off the page." --Hallmark Magazine on Stone Creek

"Those looking for a novel to slip into the suitcase before a trip would do well to choose Stone Creek." --Oklahoma City Oklahoman on Stone Creek

"What You'll Love: The author's affection for her emotionally wounded characters is palpable and infectious, making it nearly impossible not to get invested in the plot." --Washington Post on Stone Creek

It's said that the flapping of a butterfly's wing can start a chain reaction that leads to an unstoppable storm. In the same way, random twists of fate and transitory acts of kindness and cruelty can shape our destinies, just as we affect the people around us . . . sometimes in ways we can't possibly imagine.

Jody is a likable young man getting by in New York City at the turn of the millennium. On the surface, he seems to have it together, with friends, family, a decent job, and a steady string of girlfriends. But a secret history has left Jody scarred and broken inside, lacking faith in the future or himself. Like the ceaseless pull of a black hole, his buried secrets hold him back, defining him, until his trajectory crosses the path of three very different women, who, in their own ways, hold out the tantalizing possibility of healing, connection . . . or self-destruction.

VICTORIA LUSTBADER's Approaching the Speed of Light is a thoughtful, deeply moving tale about the things we cannot leave behind—and how, sometimes, we have to go through the black hole to come out the other side.