Spotlight: The Dresser Series by Cynthia Neale

The Irish Dresser, A Story of Hope during The Great Hunger (An Gorta Mor, 1845-1850) YA

During the Irish Famine from 1845 to 1850 over a million people perished due to hunger and fever. Thousands of ships brought more than two million Irish people to North America in search of food. The Irish Dresser is the saga of the McCabe family who struggle to survive during this difficult time. When thirteen-year-old Nora McCabe crawls into the old dresser that sits next to the hearth holding a few pieces of her mother’s china, she dreams of luscious cakes and fairies as hunger pains grip her. It is in the dresser that Nora finds hope when her father declares they must leave their beloved Ireland for America. Hidden in the dresser aboard the ship traveling to a new land, Nora lives an adventure that transforms her life and turns hope into a reality.

The Irish Dresser is an exciting, entertaining, and highly recommended story of taking risks and facing new challenges for the sake of hope.
—Midwest Book Review

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Hope in New York City, The Continuing Story of The Irish Dresser YA

This sequel continues the saga of Nora McCabe and her family now dwelling in New York City where they encounter poverty, violence, and racism as Irish Catholics and immigrants. Desperately homesick, Nora vows to save money and return to her homeland of Ireland. She becomes a newsboy, meets Walt Whitman, visits Barnum's Museum, and experiences an adventure. The Astor Opera House Riot of 1849 occurs and her father disappears. Will Nora return to Ireland? Or can she stay and maintain her spirit while finding the true meaning of home? Hope in New York City is a story of immigration and the struggle to become an American in the midst of prejudice and hardship. It is a story of questioning where home is and learning that true belonging endures in the human spirit as well as in the love of family and friends.

This novel is full of convincing historical detail.  Young readers should enjoy getting to know a courageous and engaging teen-aged heroine, and they will learn a great deal about the Irish immigrant experience.

—Historical Novels Review

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Norah, The Making of an Irish-American Woman in 19th-Century New York

Norah McCabe defies the roles and limitations of her race and gender, throwing off the washer woman domestic's apron to become someone as worthy as any Yankee Protestant woman. Norah stumbles and falls into her real self in this evocative, adventurous, romantic, historical novel.  She strives to strip herself of an impoverished past and experiences corruption, exploitation, and enchantment in a city that is forever mythic and magical. Norah McCabe opens a second-hand store, joins a rebel Irish organization to free Ireland from British rule, writes for an Irish newspaper, falls in love, and suffers a ship-wreck.  She also attends the Seventh Annual Women’s Rights Convention, but ultimately is unable to cross the chasm between herself as an Irish immigrant woman and Protestant feminist ideology. Norah is the story of a woman who confronts prejudice, violence, and greed in a city that mystifies and helps mold her into becoming an Irish-American woman.

Make no mistake, although at times the language is breathtakingly lyrical, Cynthia Neale tells it like it was, grit and all. ~Deborah Swift, Author of The Lady's Slipper and The Gilded Lily

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The Irish Milliner

The Irish Milliner continues the saga of Norah McCabe in New York City during the Civil War. Norah, a single mother with a young daughter, has become a milliner and struggles to survive in tumultuous times. Norah meets Abraham Lincoln, befriends the extraordinary African-American woman, Elizabeth Jennings, and assists the Underground Railroad. She falls headlong in love with Edward M. Knox, son of the famous hat-maker, Charles Knox, but he is lace curtain Irish and she is shanty Irish. Edward joins the 69th regiment and leaves for battle. Can their love endure through class differences and war? This is a story of survival, intrigue, romance, as well as exploring the conflict of Irish immigrants thrust into a war that threatened to destroy a nation. 

Cometh the hour, cometh the book. The Irish Milliner spans centuries to bring a topic as old as yesterday, as timely as to-morrow to our attention ---emigration. Neale's work, written with love and insight, reminds us that our neighbor is all mankind.

~Tim Pat Coogan, Irish broadcaster, journalist, writer and author of 1916 The Easter Rising, Michael Collins and The Famine Plot

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About Cynthia Neale

Cynthia G. Neale is a native of the Finger Lakes region of New York and now resides in New Hampshire. In addition to the above publications, Ms. Neale has published Pavlova in a Hat Box, Sweet Memories & Desserts, a dessert cookbook with essays and art work. She has written a screenplay series adapted from her four published novels she is pitching to producers. Her current work in progress, Catharine, Queen of the Tumbling Waters, is a novel set in 18th-century New York. She is also co-writing a cookbook, Transatlantic Tarts, Stories and Recipes by Two Celtic Cake Queens. Ms. Neale writes short stories, plays, essays and movie reviews for Willow and Thatch. Ms. Neale enjoys Irish set dancing, ballroom dancing, traveling, especially to Ireland; reading; painting; baking; hiking; kayaking; creating events for food, dance, and fund raising. She has conducted and presented living history events and book talks since 2004. Cynthia holds a B.A. in Writing and Literature from Vermont College.

Connect:

www.cynthianeale.com

https://www.facebook.com/TheIrishDresserSeries/

https://twitter.com/cynthianeale7

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/623099.Cynthia_G_Neale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8POEuv1xf8

Spotlight: Outfox by Sandra Brown

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown combines heart-stopping suspense and forbidden passion in this psychological thriller about an FBI agent’s hunt for a ruthless conman turned serial killer

FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the conman once known as Weston Graham. Over the past thirty years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace, their families left without answers and the authorities without clues. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished, leaving behind no evidence of his existence . . . except for one signature custom.

Drex is convinced that these women have been murdered, and that the man he knows as Weston Graham is the sociopath responsible. But each time Drex gets close to catching him, Weston trades one persona for another and disappears again. Now, for the first time in their long game of cat and mouse, Drex has a suspect in sight.

Attractive and charming, Jasper Ford is recently married to a successful businesswoman many years his junior, Talia Shafer. Drex insinuates himself into their lives, posing as a new neighbor and setting up surveillance on their house. The closer he gets to the couple, the more convinced he becomes that Jasper is the clever, merciless predator he’s sought–and that his own attraction to Talia threatens to compromise his purpose and integrity.

This is Drex’s one chance to outfox his cunning nemesis before he murders again and eludes justice forever. But first he must determine if the desirable Talia is a heartless accomplice . . . or the next victim.

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About the Author

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-nine New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 Seeing Red. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas.

Spotlight: Tidelands by Philippa Gregory

The #1 New York Times bestselling author and “one of the great storytellers of our time” (San Francisco Book Review) turns from the glamour of the royal courts to tell the story of an ordinary woman, Alinor, who cannot bear to conform to the life that lies before her.

Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, England is in the grip of a civil war between renegade king and rebellious parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even the remote tidelands —the marshy landscape of the south coast.

Alinor, a descendant of wisewomen, trapped in poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead, she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.

Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbors. This is the time of witch mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.

It is dangerous for a woman to be different.

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About the Author

Philippa Gregory is the author of many New York Times bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl, and is a recognized authority on women’s history. Many of her works have been adapted for the screen including The Other Boleyn Girl. Her most recent novel, The Last Tudor, is now in production for a television series. She graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and was awarded the 2016 Harrogate Festival Award for Contribution to Historical Fiction. She is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She founded Gardens for the Gambia, a charity to dig wells in poor rural schools in The Gambia, and has provided nearly 200 wells. She welcomes visitors to her website PhilippaGregory.com.

Spotlight: The Bar Next Door by Katia Rose

The Bar Next Door
Katia Rose
(Barflies, #1)
Publication date: August 22nd 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Sometimes you take the shot, and sometimes the shot takes you.

As the manager of Montreal’s most infamous dive bar, Monroe—and it’s just Monroe, thank you very much—is used to serving up her signature pearls of wisdom alongside an array of shots, pints, and pitchers. In fact, she thrives on it. Taverne Toulouse is a mighty ship, and she its fearless captain, trusted by patrons and bar staff alike to steer them through choppy waters.

If only she’d been given a little warning before a full-on tsunami swept in next door.

Julien Valois’ wining and dining empire is making waves. The next item on his agenda is opening a trendy lounge right next to Monroe’s beloved Taverne Toulouse—one that’s meant to run the dive bar out of business so he can buy up that property too.

His plans did not include falling for a five-foot-nothing brunette with an impressive vocabulary and an even more impressive ability to manhandle drunk frat boys twice her size.

They’re rivals in every sense of the word, but when Monroe and Julien are in a room together, the battle lines fade away. Their defences lower, their hearts get louder than their heads, and the burn between them goes down like just the right shot—intense, intoxicating, and able to sweep their priorities away with a single taste.

Until reality decides to slap up a big ‘For Sale’ sign and force them remember those priorities all too clearly.

The Bar Next Door is part of the Barflies trilogy, a series of standalone romantic comedies that follow the ups and downs of the staff at a Montreal dive bar.

Goodreads / Amazon

—

EXCERPT:

My relationships have all been duds, just packs of seeds I hopefully sprinkle onto freshly tilled soil and nurture for weeks on end, only to watch some runty little weed poke its head up and then wither a few days later. My mother says I have a habit of taking on boyfriends as ‘projects’ and that I like to ‘seek fulfillment by helping others reach their potential instead of working toward my own.’

That’s what you get having a former psychologist for a mother.

The man in front of me doesn’t look like he needs any help on the road to Potential Town; everything about him announces he’s already there.

“I think I know that guy.”

Roxanne’s declaration startles me back into the present. I realize we’ve both moved so close to the door we’ve almost got our noses against the glass. I step back and rip my gaze away from beardie to give her an incredulous look.

“You know that guy?”

She might as well have just told me she’s real tight with Zeus and that they hang out all the time on Mount Olympus.

Author Bio:

Katia Rose is not much of a Pina Colada person, but she does like getting caught in the rain. She prefers her romance served steamy with a side of smart, and is a sucker for quirky characters. A habit of jetting off to distant countries means she’s rarely in one place for very long, but she calls the frigid northland that is Canada home.

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Spotlight: The Last Post: A Novel by Renee Carlino

Release Day August 20th

In this evocative and poignant novel from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Blind Kiss and Wish You Were Here, a young widow in the midst of grieving her late husband through Facebook posts learns to heal and fall in love again. 

“See you on the other side.”

Laya Marston’s husband, Cameron, a daredevil enthusiast, always said this before heading off on his next adventure. He was the complete opposite of her, ready and willing to dive off a cliff-face, or parachute across a canyon—and Laya loved him for it. But she was different: pragmatic, regimented, devoted to her career and to supporting Cameron from the sidelines of his death-defying feats.

Opposites attract, right?

But when Cameron dies suddenly and tragically, all the stages of grief go out the window. Laya becomes lost in denial, living in the delusion that Cameron will come back to her. She begins posting on his Facebook page, reminiscing about their life together, and imagining new adventures for the two of them.

Micah Evans, a young and handsome architect at Laya’s father’s firm, is also stuck––paralyzed by the banal details of his career, his friendships, and his love life. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, only that there is someone out there who can bring energy and spirit to the humdrum of his life.

When Micah discovers Laya’s tragic and bizarre Facebook posts, he’s determined to show Laya her life is still worth living. Leaving her anonymous gifts and notes, trying to recreate the sense of adventure she once shared with her late husband, Micah finds a new passion watching Laya come out of the darkness. And Laya finds a new joy in the experiences Micah has created for her.

But for Laya, letting another man in still feels like a betrayal to her late husband. Even though Micah may be everything she could wish for, she wonders if she deserves to find happiness again.

Written with Renée Carlino’s signature “tender and satisfying” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Maybe in Another Life) prose, this warm and compassionate novel shows us how powerful the courage to love and live again truly is.

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About the Author

Renée Carlino is a screenwriter and bestselling author of contemporary women's novels and new adult fiction. Her books have been featured in national publications, including USA TODAY, Huffington Post, Latina magazine, and Publisher's Weekly. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their sweet dog June. When she's not at the beach with her boys or working on her next project, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate. Learn more at www.reneecarlino.com 

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Spotlight: The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks

Erik Satie begins life with every possible advantage. But after the dual blows of his mother’s early death and his father’s breakdown upend his childhood, Erik and his younger siblings — Louise and Conrad — are scattered. Later, as an ambitious young composer, Erik flings himself into the Parisian art scene, aiming for greatness but achieving only notoriety.

As the years, then decades, pass, he alienates those in his circle as often as he inspires them, lashing out at friends and lovers like Claude Debussy and Suzanne Valadon. Only Louise and Conrad are steadfast allies. Together they strive to maintain their faith in their brother’s talent and hold fast the badly frayed threads of family. But in a journey that will take her from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, Louise is rocked by a severe loss that ultimately forces her into a reckoning with how Erik — obsessed with his art and hungry for fame — will never be the brother she’s wished for.

With her buoyant, vivid reimagination of an iconic artist’s eventful life, Caitlin Horrocks has written a captivating and ceaselessly entertaining novel about the tenacious bonds of family and the costs of greatness, both to ourselves and to those we love.

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About the Author

Caitlin Horrocks is the author of the story collection This Is Not Your City and a recipient of the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the Plimpton Prize. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Paris Review, Tin House, One Story, and elsewhere and has been included in The Best American Short Stories. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan.