My first full-length queer adult romance, THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH, is a profound and heart-tugging sapphic adult romance about death, love, and what it really means to be alive.
I had so much fun trying to cast who would play the characters from THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH– like, it was a challenge, but one that I really enjoyed. Especially considering there is an absolute DEARTH of authentic queer representation in film, I loved taking the time to imagine what a film version of my steamy sapphic romance might be.
ABOUT THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH:
Funeral crashing has been the best way for Noemi Moretti to release her pent-up emotions after the death of her parents. But on the anniversary of their passing, she meets Amara Forsythe, a beautiful UCLA student mourning her grandmother. Fate brings them together again at another funeral, but Noemi hides her true intentions from Amara. As their relationship blossoms, so do the lies that threaten to tear them apart. Can Noemi find a way to make things right before it’s too late?
THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH follows Noemi as she navigates through her grief and falls for Amara. But with secrets and guilt weighing heavily on her conscience, Noemi must confront the consequences of her actions before it’s too late. Fans of emotional and thought-provoking sapphic romances will love this poignant tale of love, loss, and what it means to truly live. As their connection deepens, so do the lies, and Noemi doesn’t know how to make it right. She soon becomes caught in a tangled mess that threatens to tear her, and her burgeoning relationship, apart.
WLW Meet-Cute at a Funeral, Forbidden Love, Secrets and Lies, Fate and Coincidence, LGBTQ sapphic/FLINTA contemporary romance, steamy, Queer Romance with HEA 💕📖✨
Okay, so I was feeling BIG feelings while I was writing this book, and I’ve been told by many readers that THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH made them cry—and they also thanked me for it. I mean…as a writer, this touches my heart so deeply. When we talk about what motivates me to write, hearing that my writing has impacted readers in such a powerful way? Well, yes—I feel motivated to want to write more!
So yes—apparently, my latest novel makes people feel all the things. I mean, it’s a book about a funeral crasher, after all!
A funeral crasher who falls in love with a mourner at one of the funerals she crashed.
Oops.
Meet Noemi
🩷🧡 20 years old
🩷🧡 Student at Alameda Community College
🩷🧡 Loves baking, massages, and her old cat, Bacio
🩷🧡 Funeral Crasher Who’s Most Definitely NOT Looking For Love
Excerpt: “I started funeral crashing by accident, two years ago on my parents’ deathiversary. It was post-Covid, post-stuck-together-for-way-too-long, Jonathan was less than a month old, and Betty was in full-on regression mode. Ava was drowning in masks and nasal swabs, bottles and diapers, and screaming babies, so I didn’t particularly blame her for not remembering that it was January 18, the anniversary of the two worst days of my life.I hopped on my bike and rode the forty minutes to the Forest Lawn cemetery to visit my parents’ graves by myself.”
I would LOVE to see Sadie Sink from Stranger Things in this role. Sadie and Noemi both share a fierce but wholly vulnerable kind of determination and resilience.
https://www.instagram.com/sadiesink_/?hl=en
Meet Amara
🩷🧡 20 years old
🩷🧡 Student at UCLA
🩷🧡 Loves football, Rubik’s Cubes, and justice-oriented documentaries
🩷🧡 Noemi’s Love Interest / Filmmaker / Mourner
“Well, it was because of Grandma Edith that I decided to major in literature at all…My dad was pushing for pre-med, but Grandma Edith helped us talk him out of that potential disaster, reminding him how I cried when we dissected frogs in the seventh grade.”
Amara looks a lot like her dad with her slender frame, high cheekbones, and heart-shaped face. She’s got her mom’s bright hazel eyes, though, and Amara’s dark-brown curls are long and voluminous.
She’s wearing a tight, black romper that fits and large gold hoops.
She’s cute…
I’m struck by Amara’s openness about her grandmother, by the way she’s moving the crowd so beautifully. The thing is, though, I’m not crying anymore. I’m feeling something else, something I’m certainly not used to feeling at a funeral. Amara is charming and smart, and so damn beautiful and, well…
She’s more than cute.
She’s hot.
Like Amara, Kiersey Clemons, the incredible actor from DOPE and Justice League is confident, outspoken, and compassionate. It would be amazing to see her in this role.
https://www.instagram.com/kiersey/?hl=en
Funeral crashing has been the best way for Noemi Moretti to release her pent-up emotions after the death of her parents. But on the anniversary of their passing, she meets Amara Forsythe, a beautiful UCLA student mourning her grandmother. Fate brings them together again at another funeral, but Noemi hides her true intentions from Amara. As their relationship blossoms, so do the lies that threaten to tear them apart. Can Noemi find a way to make things right before it’s too late?
The Paradox of Love and Death follows Noemi as she navigates through her grief and falls for Amara. But with secrets and guilt weighing heavily on her conscience, Noemi must confront the consequences of her actions before it’s too late. Fans of emotional and thought-provoking sapphic romances will love this poignant tale of love, loss, and what it means to truly live. As their connection deepens, so do the lies, and Noemi doesn’t know how to make it right. She soon becomes caught in a tangled mess that threatens to tear her, and her burgeoning relationship, apart.
For readers who enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, you won’t want to miss out on this powerful and heartfelt novel. The Paradox of Love and Death is a profound and heart-tugging sapphic adult romance about death, love, and what it really means to be alive.
Warnings: grief, loss of loved ones, abortion, family dysfunction, depression
Get It On Amazon
Artemis is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:
Amara looks at me and her eyes widen. “Oh my God. It really has. My grandmother’s funeral on the same day as my ex-best-friend’s funeral, and then I get caught up in the horribly tragic family soap opera that was his life? It’s been the shittiest day of my life.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say. I rest my right hand on her elbow as a gesture of sympathy and kindness. She responds by wrapping her fingertips around my wrist.
Her touch feels like something more than kindness. It feels intimate. It feels like an invitation.
“What I can’t understand,” she says, her voice shifting ever so slightly. “If it’s been the shittiest day of my life, then why do I feel so, I don’t know… like, jittery—but almost happy right now? Why do I feel like—like I have butterflies flitting around inside my ribcage?” I feel her graze the length of my fingers.
“Why do you have butterflies flitting around inside your ribcage?” I ask, my own heartbeat suddenly flitting wildly, too.
“Because,” she whispers. “I really want to kiss you.”
“Oh.”
“Is that okay?” I nod and let her tug me closer to her.
She wraps her fingers around mine and breathes in my hair. I feel the soft skin of her fingertips trace my jaw. She moans, and I feel my whole body alight with possibility.
I haven’t felt like this since Valeria—and we haven’t even kissed yet.
Fuck, is this really happening? I pull back. What am I doing? Am I really going to make out with a stranger at a funeral?
Her hands loosen in response to my hesitance. “Shit, sorry,” she says. “I thought I felt something between us. I shouldn’t have—”
“I want to kiss you, too,” I hear myself say, and then I pull her towards me. I place my lips on hers, and I feel her body relax and her mouth smile.
Our kiss is clumsy at first—we nearly bump noses, we’re both so nervous. Once we move past our awkwardness, though, we settle into each other’s touch, each other’s breath, each other’s rhythm. Amara’s lips are soft, her skin smooth.
The coarse tips of her long curls graze my cheeks, my forehead. Every time she steals another taste of tongue, every time she bites my bottom lip, ever so gently, she whimpers in pleasure.
My own body is enlivened, too.
It’s been so long.
This feels so good.
Fuck.
I am making out with a stranger at a funeral. This might be a new low, even for me.
Artemis Glass is a multi-genre author of sensually empowering queer adult romance who is on a lifelong journey to reclaim her sources of pleasure.
Her first full-length queer adult romance, The Paradox of Love and Death, is a profound and heart-tugging sapphic HEA about love, death, and what it really means to be alive. Available now on Amazon/KU.
Her Amazon bestselling series, Audrina’s Year of Yearning, follows Audrina Axler-Perez as she undergoes a funny, joyful, and spicy LGBTQ+ midlife awakening.
The novellas, Book 1: A New Year and Book 2: Valentines, Book 3: Lucky, and Book 4: True Colors now available! More coming all year. (Insert Michael Scott joke here.)
Author Website: https://www.artemisglassbooks.com/
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