I’ve been holding this one close.
Not because I was afraid to share it—but because I wasn’t ready to tell it from the place I’m in now. And if you’ve been following this journey since 2022, you already know: this series didn’t come from a textbook. It came from my life.
When I wrote Volume 1: Married Men and F**kboys, I was bleeding on the page. That book was survival. Raw confessions, cracked humor, and embarrasing reflections from a woman who was still looking for love in the lowest of places—and sometimes confusing love with whatever showed up dressed like attention.
Then came Volume 2: Friends with Benefits but Mostly Liabilities in 2023. By then, I had written a little more healing into my bones, but needed to look at how my emotional and internal life impacted all of my relationships: platonic, business and intimate. I had filmed Thirsty AF, a short movie that captured the satirical truth about how thirsty we all are for connection, even when we pretend it’s just about sex. That second book gave language to the emotional liabilities I had called “friends” and showed how many of us negotiate intimacy like it’s a debt we’re trying to repay.
But Volume 3: Optical Delusions?
This one’s different.
Because now I live the healing I used to write about aspirationally. I’m no longer just identifying the patterns—I’m actively disrupting them. I’m in a relationship where accountability, curiosity, and growth are central, not optional. And I’ve brought everyone along, my partner, my readers, my community not as a perfectly healed woman but as a real one who’s still learning how to stand in truth without shame.
So why now?
Because sex addiction and love are not the same thing. And we need to stop pretending they are.
We live in a society that conflates hypersexuality with love and belonging. Where “empowerment” is often reduced to how well we perform for the male gaze—or how transactional we can be before losing our sense of self.
But what happens when the costumes come off? When no one’s texting back? When the sex doesn’t fix the sadness?
That’s where this book lives. In that quiet, sometimes painful place between performance and presence. Between desire and delusion.
Optical Delusions is a mirror. It’s a love letter. It’s a call-out and a call-in. Every chapter ends with self-help strategies not because I think I have all the answers, but because I’ve earned enough wisdom through failure and reflection to ask the right questions.
This book doesn’t promise that “bad things” won’t happen anymore. It promises that you can become someone who can handle them better when they do. That you can stop bartering sex for love. That you can stop calling survival a lifestyle. That you can reclaim the parts of yourself you gave away before you knew their value.
We can’t heal what we don’t name.
And Optical Delusions names it all.
So if you’re ready to stop performing and start participating in your own healing, come celebrate with me.
📣 Official Book Launch of Volume 3: Optical Delusions
Blackhurst Cultural Centre (Inside A Different Book List)
Friday, August 22, 2025
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Admission: FREE (RSVP required – limited seating)
Join me for an intimate evening of wine, reading, and real talk as we launch the highly anticipated third volume in The Adventures of a Recovering Sex Addict series.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
A Live Reading from Optical Delusions
A Guided Wine Tasting from my exclusive collection, courtesy of my sponsor C.H. Haughton Wines:
- Trilogy – bold, layered, unforgettable
- Moscato – sweet, seductive, with a twist
- Riesling – crisp, refreshing, full of light
A Community Conversation exploring:
- Have you ever bartered sex for love?
- Healing as a Lifestyle
- How women become co-conspirators in their own pain—and how we reclaim our power
Book + Wine Sales On Site
Get your signed copy of Optical Delusions and secure your favorite wine before it sells out.
WHY YOU CAN’T MISS THIS:
Be the first to hear powerful excerpts from Volume 3
Taste wines that were born from the stories themselves
Engage in honest, healing conversation with a vibrant community
Support a Black woman-owned storytelling brand
Come reflect. Sip. Connect. And walk away reminded that healing is not a destination—it’s a lifestyle.
— L.A. Wade
