On submission soon …
Their sister’s disappearance wrenches them apart. The discovery of her body forces them back together.
College represents the ultimate freedom for Arden Frost, who longs to escape the clutches of her codependent mother and pursue her dream of becoming an artist. But when she vanishes from campus, her disappearance sends shock waves through her already faltering family, throwing her older sisters into a tailspin.
Tristan, the middle sister, embraces “van life,” traveling the country in an effort to outrun her trauma. Sawyer, the eldest sister, remains resentfully at home, sacrificing her grad school plans to care for their deteriorating father.
Seven years later, a break in the case forces an unexpected reunion in their small Midwestern hometown. As the two surviving sisters navigate a new shared reality full of bitterness and blame, they struggle to determine whether their bonds, and the ones they shared with former lovers, are still salvageable. Questions arise over the presumed identity of Arden’s killer, and when the truth emerges, it upends everything Tristan and Sawyer believe about the circumstances of Arden’s death and their own culpability.
This multi-POV, dual timeline novel weaves the stories of the three sisters through past and present as they grapple with family dynamics, floundering relationships, and conflicting definitions of what freedom really means.
What beta readers are saying about STILL LIFE WITH DANDELIONS …
Work in Progress …
When the patriarch of the last indie bookstore in the Midwest dies unexpectedly, three employees—including his contrarian daughter, Cecilia; exhausted perfectionist Hazel; and floundering Evan—become saddled with keeping his legacy alive amid an avalanche of personal and professional hardships.
This contemporary upmarket adult novel is multi-POV, single timeline. It’s the anti-”Succession” meets the humor and poignancy of Allison Espach’s THE WEDDING PEOPLE.
Books “in the drawer” (for now) …
Lucy DeSoto was only seven years old when she witnessed the crash of Flight 174 from the balcony of her airport hotel in Miami. The tragedy claimed every passenger on board except one: Alexander McKenzie, a young boy whose survival was hailed as a miracle.
Twenty years later, Lucy, now a newspaper reporter, is tasked with covering Flight 174’s anniversary memorial, an assignment that equally repels and intrigues her. As she wades through interviews with victims’ families, she gains a deeper insight into the varied ways people—including herself—process grief and loss. But the assignment also turns her obsession with the doomed flight all-consuming, and sparks an insatiable desire to locate Alexander, who disappeared from the public eye shortly after the incident. When Lucy's editor denies her the time and resources to pursue the story further, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
The deeper she digs, the more determined Lucy becomes to track down the elusive missing passenger and conduct the interview she longs to secure the most. And when she finds him—risking her job, her integrity, her relationships and even her sanity along the way—she realizes he’s been much closer than she suspected all along.
What beta readers are saying about TERRA FIRMA …
After a routine traffic stop goes horribly awry, a jaded local reporter, her earnest intern, and a rookie police officer get pulled into the web of a sadistic killer. This multi-POV novel rotates between the three protagonists and the antagonist, with feminist themes, #ownvoices mental health rep, enemies-to-lovers romance, snappy dialogue, and plenty of suspense against a Midwestern backdrop.
Relegated to Evergreen Island, a rural outpost in the middle of Michigan’s Lake St. Clair, rookie deputy Connell McMillan is accustomed to his patrols being dull and predictable. He has no idea that the next car he stops will have a gruesome secret stashed in the trunk: a woman’s torso.
When the murder story lands in her lap, reporter Maddie Mitchell is eager to tackle something more meaningful than municipal meetings and ribbon cuttings. Shadowed by her earnest (and irritating) new intern, Leo Miller, she covers the case with relish — until the suspect, Lincoln Landry, becomes fixated on her, drawn in by a unique physical characteristic she shares with someone from his past.
When Landry ends up back on the streets and the body count continues to climb, Connell, Maddie and Leo become unlikely allies in their efforts to uncover the motives behind the murders and secure justice for the victims. But they’d better hurry: Landry is determined to possess Maddie, and he won’t stop until she’s his.
What beta readers are saying about THE ISLAND ROAD …