The Ballad of Emery Brooks Series by Allyson Kennedy

Never settle for anything less. A combination hopeless romantic and old soul trapped in a teenager’s body, closet musician Emery Brooks wonders if she’ll ever find a love as timeless as her grandparents’. Fear of judgment and social alienation due to her older brother’s past mistakes render her incapable of writing a love song... moreNever settle for anything less. A combination hopeless romantic and old soul trapped in a teenager’s body, closet musician Emery Brooks wonders if she’ll ever find a love as timeless as her grandparents’. Fear of judgment and social alienation due to her older brother’s past mistakes render her incapable of writing a love song. Still, Emery holds fast to the ideals her Grandma Adeline instilled in her from a young age, vowing to allow God to handwrite her love story, to never settle for anything less. That is, until love cynic Sawyer Alston enters her world. Broken by the wrath of his parents’ failed marriage, Sawyer has been uprooted from everything he’s ever known and now sees love as a void of empty promises. When Emery and Sawyer meet due to their mothers' rekindled friendship, Emery soon realizes she’s in over her head. For, despite her resistance, her first crush, her first glimpse at love, involves a boy who doesn’t believe in love at all. Releasing October 24, 2020. less

When you’ve lost all you’ve desperately sought to keep, why bother hoping for a second chance? With her pent up faith in love unraveling, former hopeless romantic Emery Brooks is a shell of the girl who once craved a love story that mirrored her grandparents’ fifty-year marriage. Taking all efforts to guard her heart, she isolates herself from everything she’s ever loved, including her music and faith, now battling the same cynicism she worked so hard to protect Sawyer from... moreWhen you’ve lost all you’ve desperately sought to keep, why bother hoping for a second chance? With her pent up faith in love unraveling, former hopeless romantic Emery Brooks is a shell of the girl who once craved a love story that mirrored her grandparents’ fifty-year marriage. Taking all efforts to guard her heart, she isolates herself from everything she’s ever loved, including her music and faith, now battling the same cynicism she worked so hard to protect Sawyer from. When Emery is asked to post the video for the song she and Sawyer wrote online, her first instinct is to resist. No one understands their story. No one can relate to what they’ve gone through. Grief should not be publicized. Resistance proves to be futile, as the video plunges Emery into a world of new possibilities. Will Emery succumb to her stubborn tendencies and avoid all risks, or learn to leap again into the comfort of God’s arms, despite uncertainty? Nicholas Sparks meets contemporary YA in this tear-jerking continuation of The Ballad of Emery Brooks trilogy. Fans of A Walk to Remember will appreciate this throwback to timeless romance, along with the themes of overcoming hardships and learning the basis of faith. less

When you know God made you for more, why fall into the trap of settling for anything less? Emery Brooks has carried a song in her heart since she was that little girl who took center stage during her family’s jam sessions years ago... moreWhen you know God made you for more, why fall into the trap of settling for anything less? Emery Brooks has carried a song in her heart since she was that little girl who took center stage during her family’s jam sessions years ago. Now that God has revealed a new opportunity to chase that pent-up dream of hers and she’s determined to freefall into His arms, will that be enough to guarantee a life of stability? As Emery journeys into her twenties, she’s bombarded with well-meaning yet discouraging advice, and begins to compare her path to others'. Is she a failure for having no desire to take the beaten path, or is she merely doing what her Grandma Adeline always taught her to allowing God to write her story, and never settling for anything less? In the conclusion of The Ballad of Emery Brooks trilogy, will Emery at last see her greatest dreams fulfilled, or is happiness a concept lost on her entirely? less