Australian author Lana Penrose (pictured) has ended her three-part memoir, which began with the best-seller ‘To Hellas and Back’, on a rather sour note with ‘Addicted to Love’. But as the author herself said, “life isn’t a Hollywood movie in which everyone always lives happily ever after”.
The self-published memoir ‘Addicted to Love’ sees Lana returning to Greece (the setting for her first book) where she falls in love with a real life Greek Adonis.
Like all bad romances, the relationship between Lana and Adonis begins well and for a little while at least, it appears our Aussie heroine may have found the love she has been waiting for. But then tragedy strikes on the beautiful Greek island of Kythera, and despite Lana’s best efforts to save the relationship, the love shared between them isn’t enough to exorcise her lover’s personal demons. To save herself, Lana must make an agonising decision – to walk away from the man she loves.
Today, Lana says she’s completely content and happy. “I have found true love in ways unimaginable,” Lana Penrose told Australian Women Online. “Today I realise that true love is about self-love which can then be shared around. While that may sound corny, I know it to be true.”
After following her journey over the past five years, I was expecting this realisation to be the way Lana Penrose would have chosen to end the trilogy. But this was not the case.
‘Addicted to Love’ has none of the humour and the ‘all you can do is look back and laugh’ quality of the first two books (which I loved) To Hellas and Back: My Modern Day Greek Tragedy and Kickstart My Heart: A Carnival of Dating Disasters (originally published by Penguin/Viking). Addicted to Love stands alone and very far apart from the first two books and as a fan of the author’s work, I can’t pretend that I’m not disappointed. But this is Lana’s story, not mine, and as such, I have to get over myself and respect the author’s choices.
Lana told me, “With something of this magnitude there was little room for jokes. So, yes, the trilogy ended on a ‘sour’ note as you put it. But life isn’t a Hollywood movie in which everyone always lives happily ever after.”
“I was penning ‘Addicted to Love’ in real time as events were unfolding. Like many of my readers, I guess I was hoping for that glorious happy ending as well.”
“I then sat on it for many years and debated during many dark nights of the soul whether I should release it. [But] with so many ‘Kickstart My Heart’ readers asking what happened next with me and Adonis, I finally decided to bite the bullet, but with a bigger picture in mind.”
“It is my hope that this book will land in the hands of those who need to read it and see that they’re not alone in enduring what they endure and that sometimes you’re forced to walk away, despite the incredible torment that goes with it.”
“Others have thoroughly enjoyed it and benefited from it, particularly those who have dealt with others’ addiction issues. Unfortunately this is a very real problem in this world and I’m not the only one to have faced it, albeit in a small way.”
The trilogy may have ended but fortunately this is not the last we’ll hear from Lana Penrose.
“To Hellas and Back has been optioned for film adaptation, so I’m involved in that process,” said Lana. “I’m also doing a bit of ghostwriting and editing if anyone wants me to work on their memoirs!?” 🙂
Lana tells us there will absolutely be another book from her.
“My next book is about overcoming depression, an affliction suffered by one in five. I spent a couple of years on a quest to see if I could overcome that tricky little illness which has already been reported in the Sun Herald, and which in turn piqued the interest of ’60 Minutes’.”
“These days I’m a woman on a mission, Deborah! I’m burning to pass on my findings.”
For more information about Lana Penrose visit her website at lanapenrose.com.au
All of Lana’s books can be purchased exclusively online at Amazon.com (for print and Kindle editions) or at smashwords.com (for all other digital reading devices, including direct download to your computer).