My new novel The Garland Belles is available today on Amazon in either paper or Kindle formats. It's my seventh novel and I am really proud of it. It's completely different from any book I've done before, for a number of reasons.
It's completely set in South Carolina, the state I am most at home in, other than Georgia. I have a lot of family living in small towns in South Carolina. Several chapters take place in Charleston, probably my favorite city in the world besides Atlanta. You can learn so much about history there, while also being right on the water and being able to eat fabulous food everywhere.
I started thinking about the plot of this one not long after my mother died. The precipitating event in the book is when Hadley's mother dies, and Hadley starts to find out a lot of things she never knew about her mother Grace. In her youth, Grace was a wild child. Hadley is a shy conformist, with none of the beauty and boldness of her mother. Grace falls in love with an entirely unsuitable man and pays a very high price for that relationship. So does Hadley, years later, but in a different way.
My mother was absolutely beautiful, as a young woman. I was not. [right, my gorgeous mom] That got me to thinking, plus my mother fell in love with one of her first cousins, in her late teens. She never told him her feelings and they were never more than friends. That interesting fact was unknown to me until I was grown, after my dad had died.
I began to wonder what it would be like to fall in love with a guy who might or might not be your first cousin. How thrilling and scary. All of my male first cousins are attractive guys but I never felt anything but brotherly love for them... fyi -- but then again I knew them growing up. Hadley doesn't meet her cousin Bo until both are in college.
I am in a Facebook group for folks (mostly ladies) who like to read romance novels. I did a post more than a year ago and asked if anyone would be willing to read a book about a young woman falling in love with her first cousin. All the comments were variations of EEEUW, NO! So I had to write a first chapter that made it clear that Hadley and Bo are not first cousins. Hopefully that doesn't spoil things. There are still questions to be answered throughout the book.
Hadley goes through a transformation in the book which I have never undergone, because I've never been married, but I know a thing or two about controlling guys so it wasn't really hard to write those parts. I giggled a bit while writing those scenes.
The mother/daughter dynamics in the book are a central theme. I adored my mother and I miss her greatly but it was also something of a relief when she passed because I don't have to deal with her judgment any more. My mother and I were great friends but she could also be very critical. Most everyone I know has (or had) that kind of relationship with their mother.
The book is also about sisterhood. I have a number of friends and cousins who have the same sisterhood dynamic; serious, traditional wife/mom older sister and rebellious wild younger sister. It's a fascinating dynamic, especially to gals like me with no sisters.
As in all my books, there is a lot about food. I love to eat and I love to write about food and cooking.
There is a lively old lady, who has a lot of wisdom, because I always have an old lady in each of my books who is an important character. Another old lady is a pivotal character and I liked writing her, too. She is named Augusta, after the city of my birth!
I think The Garland Belles will appeal to most any female of any age. There are characters of all ages, and all socio-economic classes. It's about life in a small town, the value of female relationships, love, marriage, motherhood, and more. You can check it out here and read the first few chapters, see if you like it. Just look under the photo of the cover where it says READ SAMPLE.
#forbiddenlove, #motherdaughterbooks, #smalltownromance, #garlandbellesbackstory, #bookssetinthesouth, #sisterhoodbooks, #bookssetinsouthcarolina
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