Through the Jungle

By Deirdre Riordan Hall

This novelette is smaller than a novel and tinier than a novella; it’s a bite sized, single serving of reading. Through the Jungle captures six snapshots of your favorite Follow your Bliss characters before they step on the road to bliss and then glimpses into their lives, after...

Before: There’s Kira in her little white dress, and then Ian, who realizes sandy feet and cold feet are synonymous. Brighton careens recklessly from bachelorette party to torn bridesmaid’s dress pre-wedding march, and Alex finds himself drunk at the altar, in Vegas. Baskia, not sure marriage will ever be in her future, gets okay with uncertainty, despite how fabulous she looks in a gown...and then there’s Trace, who, after a long and winding path, finds himself saying all the right things to the one.

After: With a wedding planned in Hawaii, the events during the days leading up to the I dos are a gloriously tangled mess of lives overlapping, past loves reappearing, and drama igniting. Engagements, rehearsal dinners, wedding ceremonies, and an escape to the jungle brings everyone right to the edge, discovering happiness is imperfect, then sends them over, whooping and laughing into the pool of bliss below.

The first several chapters are a prequel to the Follow your Bliss series and the subsequent chapters follow-up, uniting the characters on an island in paradise. Told from the unique perspectives of the main protagonists from each of the Follow your Bliss books, readers get to dive more deeply into the sometimes chaotic, messy, and always wildly flawed lives they’ve followed from tragedy and confusion to bliss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deirdre Riordan Hall
• Release date: Jan 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311011503

Deirdre Riordan Hall

Words, Waves & Wonder.I write, surf, and believe in magic. I also have a very healthy case of wanderlust, love salsa, guac, and tortillas, and dream about learning to play piano.I'm the author of upper young adult and new adult fiction including the novels To the Sea (and it's companion short story, Surfaced) & the rock and roll romance, In the Desert.

Book preview

Through the Jungle

By Deirdre Riordan Hall

A Follow your Bliss Novelette*

*A novelette: smaller than a novel, tinier than a novella.

A novelette is a bite sized, single serving, itty-bit of reading.

In other words, a taste of bliss.

Through the Jungle

Copyright© 2015 Deirdre Riordan Hall

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author/publisher except where permitted by law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover Design by Panagiotis Lampridis

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of

the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial

purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own

copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

Website: http://www.deirdreriordanhall.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/deirdrespark

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeirdrerRiordanHall

Click here to sign up and get your free copy of To the Sea

We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.

–Gloria Gaither

BB … Before Bliss

Chapter One ... The Little White Dress

Kira

On the job applications Kira completed, it never asked, Do you feel well suited to make outfit selections for big events? One of her strengths did not rest with fashion, though she’d never say no to a shopping trip. Thankfully, her best friend, Nicole, had the styling talent Kira lacked and a large closet, figuratively speaking.

The apartment they shared was a turn of the century brick affair and apparently, the architect didn’t consider women in the future would have shoes, and lots of them. Storage space existed solely in a broom cupboard, which, of course, held Nicole’s shoes. But the location was perfect, right in the middle of Cambridge with a climbing rose bush, just outside Kira’s window. It smelled delicious when there was a breeze, which there rarely was when it was in bloom, but still.

Nicole found Kira fretting in a pool of strewn clothing, belts, and skirts puddling around her, hopelessly. I told you to figure out what to wear before graduation day. You should have come with Renee and me when we went dress shopping— Nicole shook her head.

I had a paper to turn in.

Excuses, excuses, Nicole said, scooping up garments and draping them over the footboard of Kira’s bed. What am I going to do with you?

My professor told me there wouldn’t be a diploma in my future if I didn’t—

Nicole shot her over-achieving best friend a knowing look. Not completing an extra credit essay won’t keep you from graduating. I don’t care what Professor Liar-Pants told you.

Kira held up a floral sundress and then tossed it with the rest. She did the paper because having a 4.0 straight through was her goal. A recent distraction in her life, by the name of Jeremy Annandale—her first and only boyfriend—wasn’t helping her GPA. She considered herself a late bloomer, but certainly wasn’t about to let her grades slide, prompting the extra credit assignment.

"Listen, I know figuring out what to wear stresses you out more than standing in front of a mock jury and making