Two broken pasts. One last chance. An unforgettable story of star-crossed lovers, found family, and the fight to live fully…no matter the cost.
Sawyer Hawkins and Paxton Banks were inseparable as children, their secret bridge in Louisiana a sanctuary from the world—until Hurricane Katrina swept them apart. Thirteen years and a lifetime of battles later, fate brings them back together when Sawyer returns for college.
Sawyer, unbroken and unapologetically alive after a relentless battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is determined to seize every moment she's been denied. The bucket list she writes is her lifeline: each item a rebellion against the years stolen by illness, each day a chance to taste freedom, friendship, and love.
Banks, now a reserved architecture student, carries the weight of his father’s abuse and his best friend's addiction, feeling unable to save those he loves. But when he discovers his long-lost friend Sawyer is his new neighbor, her courage and warmth begin to melt through his walls.
Their reunion is electric, with witty banter, shared secrets, and a spark that refuses to be extinguished. But as their friendship deepens into a complicated, aching romance, old wounds and new tragedies threaten to tear them apart, and Sawyer’s still-declining health becomes impossible to hide.
Both must confront the truth: sometimes loving someone means letting them go.
Filled with longing, laughter, and heartbreak, this is a story about living fiercely in the shadow of loss, about the courage to love even when time is running out, and about the bridges we build—between hearts, across years, and beyond grief.
Perfect for fans of If He Had Been with Me, Five Feet Apart, and All the Bright Places, as well as readers looking for:

• New adult contemporary romance
• Star-crossed lovers
• Tragic romance
• Second chance romance
• Childhood friends to lovers
• Found family
• Stories that will break your heart—and heal it

Praise for Past the Broken Bridges:
"Heartbreaking, beautiful, raw, inspirational, pure, deeply moving, powerful, and so personal. The snot bubbles were bubbling and the tears were just flowing endlessly. B. Celeste, where should I send my therapy bill?"
"Highly recommend for all my heart-crushing, sob-inducing, tear-jerker-loving besties!"
"It was heartbreaking yet perfect, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way."
"A love story worth reading and a heartache worth crying over. This will be living rent free in my head for the foreseeable future."
"This book wrecked my entire being. This is 6 stars and one of my top reads of the year."
"B. Celeste wrote this from her soul and hit me square in the soul with it too."