Welcome to what led me back to you.
It all started with a dream. A bright light kinda felt like I was flying through the sky at lightning speed. Then suddenly, I stopped. I was on top of a cliff. There was a white pickup truck. She walks to him, her white shoes dusted with red dirt. A black guitar rests against the truck beside him. She walks closer - Their eyes collide. Time stops. She whispers, " I found you... I knew I'd find you again. She lifted her hand to his face. A current- deep, electric-races through her, igniting every nerve like wildfire. I felt it all, like it was real- like it had happened before in another life. And yet.. I've never felt anything like it.
They dance under the stars above, as the blue moon lights the blackened night sky. His watch, old- from a different time, reads 10:29. John Mayers version of XO plays on the truck radio. Resting his cheek on hers, as he sings the lyrics quietly into her ear. A warmth spreads through her, deep steady quieting the current that once surged through them. He wraps his arms around her, then sinking into a place she's never been but has missed all her life. At the moment, proving that when one life together ends and your soul fades away to the space in between where it waits for the other to arrive. So the start of another life together can begin. In some love stories, the end.... isn't really the end at all....
On April 6th 2023, the night of a pink moon, the first words hit the screen of my laptop, the original title "what you do to me" The main characters Leah Thomas coffee shop owner and poet, and Edward Post, a musician from California, were born.
After getting some feedback from friends and family, I changed up the characters. Their thought was that people would think it was coping twilight, with the dreams and then the main character having the same name. As for Edward and Leah, they wait patiently in my mind -ready for their story to be told in the next novel.
After some long thought, I came up with Dylan Hutton and Kathrine (Katie) Thomas. In writing masterclass I took they said write what you know, so it takes place in Toronto and sable beach in Ontario, Canada. Dylan is a carpenter and Katie is a blogger. I have a blog and love all things design. So this made more sense to go this route.
I must admit, AI did a great job creating these two. Honestly, they are pretty close to what I envisioned them to look like.
Dylan Hutton 28
Stoic, tall, dark and handsome (of course, I mean this is a love story after all) think Damon Salvatore-meets James Dean with a splash of prince charming, Add some dangerously alluring dark hazel eyes, facial scruff, messy hair and a smirk that can unravel you in seconds and well you have the perfect main character.
went to law school
aspiring carpenter
Daddy issues
Katie Thomas 25
Sweet, and effortlessly stunning. Tiny, with light brown hair that falls in soft waves, framing a face too delicate to be real. Beautiful green eyes that leave the world breathless. The kind you fall into without ever finding your way back. She might look cute and innocent on the outside, but she's a feral kitten on the inside.
Blogger
Born with congenital heart disease
Parents abandoned her
What led me back to you
playlist
You put a spell on me Austin Giorgio
Love the hell out of you Lewis Capaldi
Are you even real? James Blake
This is what slow dancing feels like Jvke
You saved me Ed Sheeran
Everything I did to get to you Ben platt
This is the cover! The title went from what you do to me to what led me to you. Then I found out someone had that title, so I changed it to what led me back to you. Which now I think it goes better with the past life story. You can read it at the end of this post.
The book design
I knew I wanted something non traditional. I know people use bright colourful covers that get the readers' attention, but I really wanted something classic and beautiful, just like the story.
Brian, from Brandish designs, created this beautiful cover, and I only made him adjust it 40 times lol. He was patient and I honestly couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I'm sure not everyone will love it, but for me it's everything I could have ever dreamed of.
What led me back to you
They aren't the best at saying things out loud- especially Dylan. But love finds its own language. For them, it's quiet spaces, the ink to paper, notes slipped between finger tips. Or a screenshot, sent across the distance, a quiet 'this made me think of you' hidden between the lines.
As trust grows, so does the understanding between them until silence is no longer - but a language only they can speak.
Chapter 10 So many Butterflies
"My imagination runs wild with thoughts of his large, strong hands- how they would feel exploring the curves of my body. The overwhelming desire to have him now is taking over me. I bet he tastes as good as he smells. The way he's looking at me right now is giving me butterflies, and all I want to do is chase them. It’s taking every ounce of strength not to crawl across this oak table, slide into his lap, and devour every inch of this irresistibly attractive man. Imagining what I could do to him in that chair is sending me into “feral mode,” I think I just snarled." -Katie
Chapter 10 So many butterflies
"I look up at her. That look she gives me- where her eyes lock on mine, scanning my face as she smiles. It’s this look, like she wants me and only me. That adorable smile mixed with those seductive eyes. It drives me crazy. It's wreaking my tough-guy image, dragging out a softer side I didn't know still existed. Tearing down walls, exposing a part of me I swore I'd never show again."
"I hold her stare for a minute… she looks shy, then her eyes drop to my hands. That's new. Are women into beat-up, calloused hands now? Must be a thing in one of those spicy books, PIC was always reading. I smirk, rubbing my face with my right hand. She's smiling and focused. I feel like her thoughts might be dirty. Those eyes.. linger. Oh, she has ideas. I feel like she's going to crawl across this table and take me right here in this chair. Fuck… I wouldn't stop her. We're playing this naughty little mind game while we eat our breakfast, and I'm about to surrender everything and let her win." -Dylan
Quote from What led me back to you
A line from chapter 9 What led me back to you
In October 2024, I had another dream. This one was a past life, perhaps the beginning of this love story. And well, it changed everything. I honestly think this is one reason I decided to not to publish my book in august and do a rewrite. It was like it was missing something. I'm loving the direction it's going in and I can't wait to finish it. Writing a book is really hard guys.
Below is just a rough copy of the dream. I'm kind of loving the idea of ending the book with the beginning. Don't worry, no spoilers. Since this dream came after the others, I feel like it was meant to be this way. Serendipitous if you ask me, and to be honest I live for that sh!t.
I'm aiming for summer 2025 release date, and my perfectionism is just gonna have to keep up.
A short story
Where we end…we begin again.
Sometime in the early 1900s
The moment his body hit the ground, he knew. There was no coming back from this. The sudden crack, the blinding pain, the eerie silence that followed—it all told him what he didn’t want to accept. His neck shattered. His body, useless. His breath, fading.
And yet, he didn’t fight it.
He didn’t want to fight it.
Because if this was the end, at least he had known her. Loved her. Laughed with her. Touched her. If this was his time, at least his soul had found hers, even if only for a little while.
Fate had already decided he was merely playing along...and so he let go.
She knew the second the telegram arrived.
Before she even unfolded the paper, before the inked words confirmed what her heart and soul had already screamed, she knew.
Her husband was dead.
And the world as she knew it ended.
Days passed, weeks, maybe even months—it no longer mattered. Time was nothing but a cruel, endless loop of waking up to an empty bed, reaching for someone who wasn’t there. She had loved him with every breath in her lungs, and now those breaths felt wasted. The pain deep within her soul was too much to bear. No laughter, no more trust, no more love to share.
A life without him? A cruel nightmare. One evening, she sat by the window, the fading sun casting over the picture of them she held in her hand. His eyes, full of life. His smile, tears slipped down her cheeks as she traced his face with her fingertips. “I found you in this life, my love. I will find you in the next.”
And with that final thought... she let go... just as he had.
But that wasn’t the end. A bright light guiding her through at lighting speed.
To a place…somewhere, in the space between one life and the next, she saw him.
A Cliffside. Lit by the moon. Wind whipping through his hair. His hand reached for hers.
“I found you,” she declares…And the next life begins again... What led me back to you.
Screenshot
Meet the author
Hello, I'm Leighann, a 42 year old mom, from Canada. Hairdresser, turned blogger, turned home stager, turned writer lol.
I had a dream one night of a young couple dancing under the stars and, well, I couldn't stop thinking about them. The way I felt in the dream, I had never felt love like that before. Then the dreams kept coming. They played like a movie in my mind. All I could see was their story. Or was it mine? A past life? My future, perhaps? I didn't know. All I knew was that it would make a damn good story. So I started writing it and what a ride it's been.
Will it be one of those great love stories we see in the movies? I sure hope so. But something in my soul... tells me it is so much more than that.
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