Becca Freeman + Olivia Muenter: Back Where We Started

Moderating this discussion is writer, reader, and co-host of the Bad on Paper podcast Olivia Muenter. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

Can’t make the event? Purchase a signed copy of Back Where We Started here.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at events@strandbooks.com by Oct. 1 to request.

Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact events@strandbooks.com

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A rising Hollywood star explores the road not taken with her first love in this tender second-chance romance by the author of The Christmas Orphans Club

Katie’s wildest dreams have come true. She’s a Hollywood actress, booked and busy, and promoting her latest film. Sure, she still struggles with sexist media misalignment and unimaginative roles, but from where she stands today, her hometown of Dutch Ridge, Pennsylvania feels a million miles away—and that makes it all worth it.

Because Dutch Ridge can only ever represent Drew. Every street is filled with memories of their shared adolescence, how they were each other’s first everything, the hours they spent planning for the future. Drew was the only person in Dutch Ridge who didn’t make Katie feel delusional for dreaming big, because he did, too. She was going to be the next Julia Roberts, and he was going to be president someday. Was it their extraordinary level of ambition that brought them together at sixteen? It was definitely what drove them apart in the years after.
But now, a promise to her sister forces Katie to return to Dutch Ridge for Christmas, where she runs into Drew, who seems to have followed a different path from the one they once dreamed up. And strangely, he seems...happy. As their run-ins heat up and the two can't keep themselves away from each other, Katie begins to wonder whether her accolade-filled Hollywood life really fulfills her after all. Back Where We Started is an emotional second-chance romance, a story about allowing oneself to change, the addictive nature of achievement, and how we make room in our lives for what matters most.