The Summer of Cigarettes and Hot Chocolate

The Summer of Cigarettes and Hot Chocolate is a collection of poems written over the years, tracing love in every shape it takes: the giddy first rush of it, the anxious waiting, the quiet joy of being known, the ache of losing it, and the slow, often unwilling work of becoming someone new on the other side of heartbreak.These poems don't move in a straight line. They circle back, contradict each other, sit in confusion before they find clarity because that's what love actually does. They are honest about what it costs to keep loving, keep hoping, keep opening up, even after it's gone wrong before.At its heart, this collection is about growth disguised as heartbreak, about the person you become when love asks more of you than you thought you had to give. It's for anyone who has loved fully, lost painfully, and come out the other side still willing to feel it all again.