Parallel Pasts: A Novel (Zane Presents)

Fatima and Cory are fighting their very existence for the chance of love and commitment—and in the process they find out more about themselves and their pasts than they bargained for, and they’ll have to try to rid their demons for good in order to survive.

Love is the one thing missing from Fatima’s life, beginning when her parents left her at the age of four. Usually she enjoys calling the shots in her love life, but when she runs into a mysterious man on a night out, everything changes.

Cory Hines would give anything to undo his childhood. Growing up with an abusive father and distant mother left him wary of family and relationships. And as he tries to straighten out his life, the nightmares return and send him down a drunken spiral. His siblings force him into therapy, but it’s not until he meets Fatima that he begins to learn what commitment is all about.

Though their pasts continue to haunt their relationships, it is their common problems that draw Cory and Fatima closer. In the process of getting their lives on track, they find out more about themselves and their pasts than they bargained for and realize they must rid their demons for good in order to survive.

But just when Cory and Fatima get comfortable with each other and the idea of a relationship, news of an unexpected pregnancy sends them both running back to the familiar. Full of raw emotion and a vulnerability that pulls you in, Parallel Pasts offers an inside look at what it takes to escape a history of domestic abuse, as Fatima and Cory fight to save their relationship despite the challenges from their pasts that threaten to pull them apart.

Julia Blues has grown up around the world, thanks to a military father. Julia is a featured author in Zane's Z-Rated: Chocolate Flava 3 anthology. Parallel Pasts is her first novel.