An Optimist's Guide to Heartbreak (Heartsong, #1)

by Jennifer Hartmann

Beautiful things never last, and that’s why fireflies flash. Ron Pope

Hope is why I’m here—it’s my name, after all; it’s in my blood. But, I suppose the trouble with hope is that it’s nothing more than a feeling, and feelings are fleeting. Names are eternal, but feelings don’t last forever.

You think you know what’s coming, but you never really do. And sometimes, when you think something is coming to an end, it’s actually the beginning of something beautiful.

I’m not a stalker. Not technically. Well, maybe technically—I need to look up the exact definition—but my intentions are far from sinister, and that’s what counts. I hope.

After all, Lucy is my heart, and Cal is my soul.

Deceptive Cadence: When you think something is coming to an end, it’s actually the beginning of something beautiful.

It doesn’t seem fair that Lucy needs a heart monitor. She has a perfect heart. The best heart. A heart like Lucy’s should never be broken.

“I just mean…not everything that makes us hurt needs to be forgotten or banished. It hurts because it mattered. And things that mattered once, will always matter,”

As I stand here with tears tickling my cheekbones, I know that life’s truest treasures live inside the unexpected moments. The little curveballs that sweep us off our feet and steal our breath.

I told my parents the bike was the best gift I ever received, and nothing could ever top it. I meant it at the time. But then… Cal smiled at me.

“God help the woman who breaks that streak.”

Beautiful things never last, and that’s why fireflies flash.

It’s fascinating how two people burned from the same experience can come out on the other side with completely different scars.

And I’m convinced that laughter from that one person you don’t expect it from is like a symphony.

I allow him to fill that black hole that hides inside me until there’s nothing left for it to take.

We rise and rise and rise, just like this feeling swimming between us, but the trouble with rising is there is always a fall. Sometimes it’s with grace, and sometimes it’s devastating.

I’ll take these broken bones and build a bridge.

Two angels are pressed into the fallen snow, while I’m certain another watches from above.

Things that make us sad aren’t all bad. Sometimes, sad things serve as a gentle reminder that we still feel.

“A girl as sweet as you shouldn’t look like sin,” he murmurs, voice full of grit. “Brings me to my goddamn knees.”

“Dad lives in the strings of your guitar. Emma in the fireflies on a warm summer night. Jessica in your laughter and every inside joke.