_RelleLebby_
Tori Anderson's life shattered the night she found her fiancé in bed with her best friend.
Broken and betrayed, the 26-year-old interior designer makes a radical choice: accept a full scholarship to a prestigious design program in Kyoto, Japan-and leave everything behind.
But healing isn't as simple as running away.
As the only Black woman in her cohort, Tori navigates hypervisibility, culture shock, and the weight of past trauma while learning the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi-finding beauty in imperfection. With the help of unexpected friends and the ancient art of kintsugi (golden repair), she begins to rebuild herself piece by fragile piece.
Then she meets Ren-brilliant, beautiful, and utterly unavailable. A commitment-phobic architectural designer with his own hidden wounds, Ren has perfected the art of intimacy without connection. But when their late-night workshops and vulnerable conversations crack both their carefully constructed walls, neither can ignore what's growing between them.
Can two broken people learn to trust again? Can gold fill the cracks between them?
A story about survival, self-discovery, and the courage it takes to love after loss-Kintsugi is an achingly beautiful journey of a woman learning that healing isn't about becoming unbroken.
It's about honoring the scars that made you whole.
©️ Relle H