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She gave everything to the life she was building…until it fell apart.
Over the course of a lifetime, women collect labels. Daughter. Friend. Partner. Wife. Mother. Colleague. Somewhere along the way, hobbies fade, passions are shelved, and pieces of the self are quietly set aside.
Eleanor Nolan knows what it feels like to lose one of those defining labels—perhaps the most important one of all, after the devastating loss of her young son. Still reeling, she discovers a series of letters her husband wrote over the course of their marriage. Written at pivotal milestones, the letters reveal Matt’s private doubts about the life they built together and whether he was ever truly happy.
Suddenly, Eleanor is forced to confront the possibility of losing another defining role…and the realization that the life she gave everything to may not be what she believed it was.
In search of clarity, Eleanor retreats to a quiet coastal town, supported by her mother and friends (both old and new) who remind her she doesn’t have to do this alone as she learns to carry her grief while imagining a life beyond it. Slowly, Eleanor begins to reconnect with herself and imagine a future shaped not by the roles she’s lost, but by the woman she’s becoming.
All You Have To Do is a hopeful, emotionally rich novel about marriage, identity, and the power of female friendship. While it explores the impact of loss, it’s ultimately a story about what women give up—and what they can reclaim—when the roles they’ve lived for fall away and they find the courage to begin again.
Content note: This novel includes themes of child loss and grief, explored with care and compassion, alongside a strong focus on healing, friendship, and hope.
What People are Saying…
Some lines from the book…
Meet Eleanor Nolan…
Eleanor has everything she ever wanted… until the world falls apart around her. She loses her son. Her marriage unravels. No longer a wife or a mother, the future she thought she was building disappears.
She’s not loud about her grief…she holds it close, trying to keep it neat and manageable, even when everything inside her is anything but. But grief doesn’t stay quiet for long. It finds the cracks.
When I started writing Eleanor, I thought I was telling a story about loss. But I was wrong. Hers is a story about resilience. About love. About the messy, impossible, necessary act of finding your way back to life when everything feels broken. About learning who you truly are when the labels society has placed on you are removed.
That’s Eleanor’s story. (And, maybe, a little bit of mine too.)
