All-encompassing passion and heart-rending love are something not everyone has the chance to experience. But once you do, it is hard to let go of. Belle, a high school student, was deeply in love with her high school sweetheart, Bradford. But when fate intervenes, causing them to separate, it leaves Belle’s heart jaded and scorned in “After All These Years.”
As Gayle Deguzman debuts in the world of published writers, she captures the perfect blend of yearning for love but swears off of it due to heartbreak as we see Belle completely close herself towards anything to do with love and focuses on furthering her career. However, she never forgets what it felt like to have a love of your life beside you and then them getting snatched away in the blink of an eye. But Belle is headstrong in the face of all that she has been through, as after her heartbreak, she gets laser-focused on her studies and then works.
As Belle progresses through her life, we see that she becomes increasingly guarded of her heart and feelings. She doesn’t let anyone too close hurt her but tackles everything with steadfastness. Along the way, there are many suitors that try to open up her heart for them, but Belle is as stubborn as she is strong and holds out against the unwanted advances of men. But just as the twist of fate had taken away her first love, it brings him right back to her at a time and place she was least expecting, on her T.V screen!
What follows is a battle between Belle’s head and hurt. One urges her to follow the logical route and get closure from the man who had broken her heart without giving her a reason and finally move on. The other wants her to give in to the whimsical feel of a love she had lost long ago, but fate was giving her a chance to snag it away from its tight grip.
The journey is exhilarating as it is tragically beautiful, just as Gayle Deguzman, an enthusiast of romance, wanted to achieve. She seeks pleasure in writing stories that will tap into the world of young adults hoping to find a love story for themselves. The feelings she communicates with her characters are innately human, which makes them all the more relatable and easy to understand. To be able to express strong emotions through their characters confirms that Gayle is a woman that leads a life filled with various adventures and experiences. She enjoys life to its maximum capacity, along with her quest to find success in helping others.
Gayle enjoys life as it comes and has diverse working experience as she has worked as a banker, a real estate agent, a data quality control supervisor, a programmer, and a nurse assistant, just to name a few. Now she is stepping into the world of fictional writers with a soulful bang.
Join Gayle in her journey as she forays into the heartstopping world filled with eclectic romantic tragedies with an ending that might make you jump for joy. But that will only be revealed once you get to the ending of Gayle Deguzman’s latest novel, “After All These Years.”
