A Virtual Conversation with Leesa Cross-Smith | This Close to Okay

Join us for a conversation with award-winning writer, Leesa Cross-Smith, on February 4th at 6PM! Her first novel, Whiskey & Ribbons, was published with Hub City Press in 2018. We couldn't be happier to welcome her back to talk to us about her newest novel, This Close to Okay.

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This Close to Okay

by Leesa Cross-Smith

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From the award-winning writer Roxane Gay calls "a consummate storyteller" comes a cathartic novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers and the love that forms between them.

On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home when she spots a man precariously standing on the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally, reluctantly, shares his first name: Emmett.

Over the course of the emotionally-charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe and comfortable space for Emmett, although she doesn't confess that she works as a therapist. However, Emmett is not the only one who needs help—and he has secrets of his own.

Alternating between Tallie and Emmett's perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge, This Close to Okay is an uplifting, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they need it the most.

"Leesa Cross-Smith is the most intimate and tender writer on my bookshelf. Once I started reading This Close to Okay, I couldn't stop. Weekend reading at its finest, this story about chance strangers in the mist will spark every ember in your chest and leave you breathless. Cross-Smith's wondrous and nimble heart beats true on every page."--Amy Jo Burns, author of Shiner

Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and the author of Every Kiss A War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, and This Close To Okay. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and their two teenagers. Find more at LeesaCrossSmith.com.