This one is for the folklore and evermore girlies. For fans of second-chance romances and strong, but struggling, heroines.

Sawyer Smith has an iron clad life plan. Her plan is perfectly on track: she has a doting fiancé, a juris doctor, and is weeks away from starting a job at the firm she always dreamed about, so long as she passes the bar.

Her life is where she wanted it-- and she is miserable. Because besides the fiancé, the degree, and the potential job, she also has a broken relationship with her mother, a best friend she hasn't seen in months, and an eating disorder she just can't kick.

In an effort to help her daughter, Sawyer's mother forces her to spend the summer at her grandfather's house in their hometown with the hopes that time together will repair their relationship. Life at her grandfather's house is tense, and Sawyer finds solace in a book recommended to her by her grandfather that chronicles the marriage of a couple named Will and Charlie.

Like every book in her Italian grandfather's library, the book is rooted in Sicilian culture and tracks the highs and lows of the couple's marriage as they struggle against different backgrounds, infertility, and the lingering scars of war that neither of them can manage to escape. As the summer progresses, her former best friend Finnick, the man that Sawyer lost due to her unrequited feelings, returns and brings with him a desire to fix their friendship.

As both Finnick and her mother fight for her forgiveness, Sawyer must fight her own mental health battle, as well as fight the feelings for Finnick that just won't go away. As the summer concludes, Sawyer is devastated by the realization that the love story she has immersed herself in is not as fictional as she thought, and that sometimes, there is not enough love in the world to overcome betrayal.

She has to decide if that applies to her, or if maybe, just maybe, she can overcome the hand she has been dealt and allow herself to put herself out there for those who love her but have hurt her. The Things We Carry is a story about broken promises, broken relationships, and broken people.

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