She taught me how to breathe

Celie never knew what love felt like. Not the soft kind. Not the safe kind.

All her life she's been surviving - surviving silence, surviving being unseen, surviving hands that hurt instead of hold. She doesn't dream about romance because she's never been given a reason to believe it exists for someone like her.

Then Shug Avery walks back into town like a storm in red lipstick.

Shug is everything Celie was told not to be - loud, fearless, sensual, unapologetic. She takes up space like she owns it. And for the first time in Celie's life... someone looks at her and actually sees her.

What starts as admiration turns into something deeper. Something terrifying. Something healing.

Because loving Shug means learning how to want.
And wanting means risking everything.

In a world that taught Celie to disappear, Shug teaches her how to breathe.

But can love survive in a place that was never built for it?

A slow-burn LGBTQ+ romance about healing, freedom, and finding your voice through someone who refuses to let you stay small.