When we met Ayanna Dale in Forbidden: An Anthology, she was a woman on a mission with a focus on dishing payback. Ayanna grew fed up with her relationship. In fact, Ayanna was tired of being tired. She’d been in a relationship with her boyfriend, Dominick, for a year, and the year had not been pretty. Despite that, Ayanna stuck through the rough times believing that things would eventually get better, despite being hurt and lied to since day one.
She’s young, so her thinking can still change. Her views on love aren’t of her own, so they are subject to change as well and to be challenged. In her short story in Forbidden, Ayanna loved the idea of love. However, in So This is Love (STIL), her feelings shift.
Ayanna fell into the trap of giving her best to someone who didn’t deserve it and now she’s turned off by the idea of doing it again. She has gone from wanting a relationship to being jaded by them. Because she experienced heartbreak in her last relationship, she now associates romantic relationships with impending heartbreak. Her view on relationships in STIL is not ifshe’ll get hurt in her next relationship, it’s more so when because she’s convinced it’s destined to happen.
Besides being over relationships, she’s dealing with a mini-crisis, well two, if you count her realization that she may have romantic feelings she can’t shake for her friend Dallas. She’s in the final year of her academic career and she doesn’t think she wants to work in the field she’s been studying.
Life as Ayanna knows it is becoming something she believes is out of her control. She can’t control the budding feelings she’s having for Dallas (her friend and ex-boyfriend’s brother) and she can’t control being afraid of her future.
Ayanna is outgoing, intelligent, down to earth, and unfortunately resistant to change. She’s the girl next door who appears to have it all together, but inside she’s desperate for guidance. She’s one of my favorite heroines, and I cannot wait for you to go on this journey with her. Ayanna will discover love and self and the truth behind the meaning behind why some gifts get wrapped in sandpaper.
Have you read her story in Forbidden: An Anthology? So This is Love will continue the story “A Delectable No-No” and will be the last story continued in the anthology. Get caught up!