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Goodreads Review

 

“Where you are is home…”

At age fourteen, Zelda Rossi witnessed the unthinkable, and has spent the last ten years hardening her heart against the guilt and grief. She channels her pain into her art: a dystopian graphic novel where vigilantes travel back in time to stop heinous crimes—like child abduction—before they happen. Zelda pitches her graphic novel to several big-time comic book publishers in New York City, only to have her hopes crash and burn. Circumstances leave her stranded in an unfamiliar city, and in an embarrassing moment of weakness, she meets a guarded young man with a past he’d do anything to change…

Beckett Copeland spent two years in prison for armed robbery, and is now struggling to keep his head above water. A bike messenger by day, he speeds around New York City, riding fast and hard but going nowhere, his criminal record holding him back almost as much as the guilt of his crime.

Zelda and Beckett form a grudging alliance of survival, and in between their stubborn clash of wills, they slowly begin to provide each other with the warmth of forgiveness, healing, and maybe even love. But when Zelda and Beckett come face to face with their pasts, they must choose to hold on to the guilt and regret that bind them, or let go and open their hearts for a shot at happiness. The Butterfly Project is a novel that reveals the power of forgiveness, and how even the smallest decisions of the heart can—like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings—create currents that strengthen into gale winds, altering the course of a life forever.

 

 

 

 
 

I feel truly honoured that I got to read this book as an ARC. Ah Ms. Scott where have you and your enchanting story telling been all my life? I fully hang my head in shame and say that this is my first book by this author but it most certainly will not be my last. I am fascinated by the ripples of the butterfly effect. We should all apply more kindness and compassion in life.

There are complex layers upon layers of emotions. A spectrum of emotions that bashes down any chance you have of keeping your emotions in check it doesn’t matter how hard you try it just won’t work. I squeezed out a tear here and there and that was justified.

Split into three parts and told in a dual POV you truly get to feel the emotions of the characters in the book. Ms. Scott wrote:

I wanted to believe words had power. The power to change the past. To fix what was broken. To heal. By writing them down on paper, they could work some kind of magic on the reader.

Ms. Scott this is exactly what you did for me. You created a special kind of magic for the reader, a magic of words which will be hard to forget.

I really do not know how Ms. Scott did it with the right balance of banter and then with the heart wrenching, soul ripping revelations that both our main characters come to.

Zelda Rossi has suffered rejection on a project that is her heart and soul. It’s just missing something. But with changes to make it could be something brilliant. If life beats you down then you get up and keep swinging. For some home comfort she goes to an Italian restaurant but her emotions get the best of her.

“Now what the fuck do I do?” I whispered. “I don’t know,” a low, gravelly voice said behind. “Maybe not freeze to death in the stinking alley?”

And so Zelda met Beckett.

Beckett Copeland has also suffered but in different ways. Forced to bear witness to what he had done. A felon one mistake that will lead him to life time of paying.

They come to arrangement. They share a flat. To try again. To gain something so beautiful in the darkness, to find that light, that glimpse that will shoot colour through a black and white world. He doesn’t want to sell blood and Zelda doesn’t want to go back to Vegas.

They are such complex characters that don’t want to ruin a good thing when they know it. A friendship that will change and bloom to something special. They can’t stop it even if they want to. But they are friends and they truly get to know one another.

“Beckett?” He was lying with his head on the pillow beside me. “Shh.” He traced the curve of my cheek and over my temple. “If you don’t go to sleep, you might remember I said that. We’re supposed to be friends.”

Day two, Rossi, and you’re already having impure thoughts about your roommate. But they are electric. They have a connection that neither one expected to have or to even deserve. We all deserve happiness. About forgiveness not from others but forgiving yourself more than anything else.
There were promises in our kiss. Unspoken vows to take care of what we had, of what we were creating in that moment, because after tonight, there was no going back.

And then when it came to Phantasus I was balling my fucking eyes out at 59 %. With the ballons with the emotions with everything. I still find it hard to put into words what I feel. I’m no Beckett.
There are so many powerful words her. So many words with so much meaning. Peace or at least reckoning, love, forgiveness. Forgiving yourself more than anything else. Beckett’s words to Mrs. J got me every single time.

 

 
 

The Butterfly Project is a beautiful, poignant with multiple layers. A book that you will have to read more than once to really let every facet of the book sink in. To feel the true beauty, the chance for me, the chance to deserve something you never think you should. I am blown away with this book and it IMO is a must read for 2017.

 

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