MAY 2025 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, Life's too Short, Abby Jimenez

 

MAY 2025 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS

Life’s too Short, Abby Jimenez

“Sloan Monroe” Painting, copper-colored dog on the shore of a lake…

20 Bookers met for our annual “wine & cheese” evening meeting to toast the end of our 21^st year at the home of Debbie Yarger who came to the rescue when Jane Shaw was feeling under the weather. We hope she feels better and stronger every day and are so appreciative of Debbie for opening her home to our group. Many thanks to Kim Nalls for coordinating our hearty food items to soak up our spirits. We’re happy that Jeana Cunningham decided to celebrate her birthday with us tonight!

Sunshine:

Barbara Creach had another successful hip replacement surgery and is doing well. We now have our own bionic Booker with two new knees and hips, and we hope Melba Holt is recovering from her recent knee replacement surgery as well.

Business

The Tri-County Library, 132 E. Market Street, Mabank has three little free library locations and are always in need of books to stock them. If you can donate, please drop them by the library during their business hours – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday 8:30-4:30; Thursday, 8:30-6:30; Saturday, 9:00-1:00. Also, Malakoff Elementary is in need of age-appropriate books to restock their “vending-machine” type library.

We will begin our 22^nd year on September 9^th where we will discuss our summer read, The Women, by Kristin Hannah. The selection committee will have met over our break to choose our books for the 2025-2026 year. If you have a book to recommend, please let Jane Shaw, Patty Evans, Kat Mackey or me know. Our criteria is simple – it must be well-written and capable of fostering discussion.

A note from Abby Jimenez

While Vanessa’s character is fictional, Jimenez says she went into this book in awe of the inspirational real-life activist and YouTuber, Claire Wineland who lived with cystic fibrosis, an illness she refused to let define her. She used her platform to inspire and educate, traveling the world encouraging those with chronic illnesses to find fulfillment and live proudly. She passed away in 2018 at twenty-one from complications after a lung transplant and donated her organs to those in need.

About the author:

Abby, a resident of Minnesota, took a complete leap of faith and founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen in 2007, which is now recognized as an award-winning cupcake shop and custom cake studio completing her lifelong passion for baking and a love for beautiful desserts. https://www.nadiacakes.com

While pregnant with her third baby, Abby decided to take cake decorating classes at a local craft store. Although her baby arrived before she could finish the classes, she took what she had learned and started making free cakes for family and friends which were a big hit and in high demand prompting her to quit her full-time job to start her own business.

With a newborn, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, all in diapers, Abby set out on two of the most challenging years of her life. She not only survived those years, but experienced success and opened a beautiful cake shop in the fall of 2009. It was so well received that just two months later, Carlos, Abby's husband, quit his full-time job and joined the family business as CFO. She won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and was featured in two seasons of Fabulous Cakes on TLC, a British pay-television channel. She is now an international bestselling contemporary romance novelist who has penned two three-book series novels and four standalones.

Synopsis

My name is Vanessa Price, and I don’t live my life like there’ll always be one more day because I may have the same genetic disease, ALS, as my grandmother, sister, aunt, and mother although she was killed in a car wreck before experiencing any symptoms of this death sentence disease. Tomorrow is not a word in my vocabulary. My career as a famous traveling YouTuber came to a screeching halt when my addicted half-sister abandoned her newborn on my doorstep and suddenly, I was this child’s guardian and there didn’t seem to be an instructional manual included in the package. When this precious bundle began to wail in the wee hours of the morning, my hunky lawyer-neighbor, Adrian Copeland, came to the rescue using his innate baby-whispering skills to soothe the child’s despair within seconds beginning an unfathomable relationship between two polar opposites – he needs structure…I need a carefree lifestyle.

Do not feel sorry for me because I’ve been dealt some shitty cards in life. Even though I most likely will not live past the age of thirty, I’ve witnessed my sister consumed by the illness, my other sister falling into drugs, and my father becoming a hoarder, it’s not in my nature to tuck in my tail and give up. I’m a fighter. Adrian is a workaholic who seldom relaxes or takes time off for himself… was I the reason he found there was more to life than work? I like to think so. We have chemistry far beyond a romantic one. As our story unfolds, my hope is that you will be able to laugh and cry in the same scene and follow our lead by living each day to the fullest.

Bookers’ input

We all have our “go-to” genres that satisfy our reading experiences, and it is the goal of our selection committee to offer a variety of books for us to read. For this meeting we tested a new format asking each person to rate the novel using the criteria listed below and tell us why they chose the rating. (Thank you MN!)

            5 stars:  Order now. Include in your will

            4 stars:  Borders on your favorite book ever

            3 stars:  Good beach read

            2 stars:  Borrow, don’t buy

            1 star:   Put your money back in the piggy bank.

Our lowest rating was a 2 – the reason was Vanessa’s life philosophy and not knowing if she had ALS, she made some extreme decisions like having her tubes tied and didn’t even consider investigating her hand weakness, assuming it might be a symptom of the disease. Another rated it between 2 and 3 because it was a little too fluffy and there were too many “I’s,” although it was a first-person narrative, and Adrian’s character was a little unrealistic…no one is that perfect. The 3-rating captured 15 votes ranging from a solid 3 to 3.2, 3.4, and 3.5. The 3’s, including me, were entertained, would read again if needed a good laugh-out-loud contemporary romance novel with substance. The humor was infectious, the plot development was well-executed, and the ending, although predictable, was open-ended leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. The 3.2’s liked the humor, learning about vlogging (video blogging), and took to heart Vanessa’s advice to Adrian about his fear of flying – only worry about it on the plane, not before – a good practice for all who endlessly fret about things; and they liked that love won in the end. Our 3.4’s and 3.5’s thought it a bit “Hallmarky” although an enjoyable read – except for the overuse of the word, snorted…Adrian snorted 34 times in the novel…there are synonyms the author could have used! Another 3.5 loved the reference to The Office television show and thought the dialogue was snarky…in a positive funny way. Page 260 was brought to our attention…and for good reason…as Debbie reluctantly read it out loud with only a slight blush creeping across her face – well done! Our highest rating was a 4 as it was an easy read and she related to parts of the storyline. One question was asked…would you hand over a baby in the middle of the night to a complete stranger? Although Vanessa had never met her hunky-lawyer neighbor, she knew he owned the building, so most likely he wasn’t a serial killer stalking the hallways for his next prey. If you enjoyed this novel, you might like the rest of the series: Book 1, The Friend Zone; Book 2, The Happy Ever After Playlist (being developed for a movie.)

Summertime cheers our souls and refreshes our minds. Enjoy our break from meeting, not reading.

JoDee

APRIL 2025 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, The Keeper of Happy Endings, Barbara Davis

APRIL 2025 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS

The Keeper of Happy Endings, Barbara Davis

“The magic is as wide as a smile and as narrow as a wink, loud as laughter and quiet as a tear, tall as a tale and deep as emotion. So strong, it can lift the spirit. So gentle, it can touch the heart. It is the magic that begins the happily ever after.” Walt Disney

17 Bookers met at the home of Debby Stein on April 8^th to discuss this month’s selection. We welcomed two new members, Rita Brei and Ellie Bomar, to the group and hope to see them again next month.

Please note our annual “Wine & Cheese” evening May meeting has been moved to Tuesday, May 20^th, 5:30 p.m. at the home of Jane Shaw, 116 White Cap Lane, Pinnacle Golf Club. Our food and beverage coordinator, Kim Nalls, was not here today but she sent me an email suggesting we ask everyone to bring their favorite “heavy appetizer” and their drink of choice. After the first round of sign-ups, she may ask for other things to complement the selections and/or we can add extras like fruit or desserts at the appropriate time. Kim will be sending an email soon. Any questions should be directed to her @ kimLnalls01@gmail.com.

Business

Bookers has a table for eight (Tonya Guillamun, Jane Shaw, Patty Evans, Kat Mackey, Virginia Gandy, Janet Starkweather, Sherry Wood, and me) reserved for the Books and Bloom event ($62.50 each) on April 25^th, at Athens Country Club. Kat has taken the lead on creating our tablescape for the event and we’ll be meeting soon to coordinate how we want to decorate. Stay tuned.

We received a thank you letter from The Center for the Arts & Sciences for our $50.00 donation which will be added to the Brazosport Fine Arts Council’s Endowment Fund in memory of Marcie Allen.

Sunshine

It was good to see Lee McFarlane today and we are glad her health is improving and hope our hostess today, Debbie Stein, continues to make progress after her recent knee surgery. Patty Evans was also able to attend as hubby, Barry, is now home recuperating from pancreatitis.

Synopsis

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

Decades later, while coping with her own tragic loss, aspiring gallery owner Rory Grant leases Soline’s old property and discovers a box containing letters, a man’s monogrammed shaving kit, and a vintage wedding dress, never worn. When Rory returns the mementos, an unlikely friendship develops, and eerie parallels in Rory’s and Soline’s lives begin to surface. It’s clear that they were destined to meet—and that Rory may hold the key to righting a forty-year wrong and opening the door to shared healing and, perhaps, a little magic.

This is a beautiful story of two heartbroken women whose lives are magically woven together when their worlds meet at a crucial time in each of their lives. Soline and Rory reach out from the pages and touch the hearts of readers in an uplifting novel that explores the importance of hope, the magic of storytelling, and the transformative power of literature.

About the Author

Barbara Davis is a Jersey girl raised in the south, now living and writing in New England and living her dream. After fifteen years of wearing heels and schlepping a briefcase as an executive in the jewelry industry, she traded in her pinstripes for a little peace of mind and decided to follow her dream of becoming a women’s fiction author. Six books later, she’s still pinching herself maybe because she believes in miracles, in happy endings and new beginnings.

She’s blessed to be married to her best friend and soul mate, Tom, who sets the bar pretty high for her on-page heroes. They have a lovely twenty-year-old ginger cat named Simon who she says is “wretchedly spoiled and doesn’t give a fig if she’s on deadline or not.” When not making up stories she can be found reading, cooking, and watching college football. (Go Gators!)

Author Insights into the writing of this novel

She says her source of inspiration for writing this novel initially was to focus on wedding dresses and the role they play in the wearers happily-ever-after. That evolved further into a family of women whose calling it was to make dresses that guaranteed their brides happy endings while continuously being denied their own, and it details how often women are conditioned to repeat their mother’s stories and what it might be like to break that mold.

Paris was a natural setting for exclusive wedding dress salons and including the American Hospital there which remained open throughout the war and played a vital role in the resistance movement was a fitting backdrop for a love affair between Soline and Anson. A little-known heroic story of a real-life Maine born physician – Dr. Sumner Jackson – vowed no German soldier would be cared for on his watch and he kept his word while smuggling downed French and Allied airmen to safety via the underground. The author put Soline and Anson in this hospital to shine a light on his heroic actions.

The American Field Service drivers during WWII were not soldiers and rarely carried weapons. They were required to pay their own way, supply their own uniforms and equipment and at times even buy their own ambulances and perform their own vehicle maintenance. Because of these financial burdens, most volunteers were young men from wealthy families who abandoned their academic careers to volunteer. Anson’s character fits this profile to a tee. Another entity that were often in areas of armed conflict, natural disasters and areas of unrest, Doctors Without Borders, was accurately portrayed with Hux’s character and the inability to locate his whereabouts mirrored the difficulty in communication infrastructure, often relying on trustworthy locals to find and negotiate the release of hostages.

She also knew the exact building in Boston she wanted for Soline’s bridal shop/Rory’s gallery. None of the characters were based on real people. She creates a “base” character profile and discovers who they are as the story unfolds. From personal knowledge, parts of the story that deals with women often falling into the patterns of the women who raised them was based on her experiences. “We’re not always taught to want more, expect more, believe in the idea that we could actually have more…but worse, we’re rarely taught that we deserve more.” In her family, women were subservient…existing only to obey and produce, to marry and raise children, and let the man make the decisions. She was the first woman to break that mold and was met with stiff resistance as she moved further out of her and their comfort zones. Each female character in The Keeper of Happy Endings dealt with similar resistance and each had to make a conscious decision to pursue the life they wanted for themselves.

Discussion

Most read and finished the novel and either liked or loved it with a few on the fence. The character’s names, Soline and Aurora (Rory) complemented each other as both signify new beginnings – Soline meaning sunbeam and Aurora meaning dawn – both conjuring images of warmth, brightness and joy as each evolved to discover their happy endings. We talked about our favorite and least liked characters and how each one developed throughout the story. One of the themes of the novel was hope. Soline lost all hope when Anson was presumed dead; their child dying shortly after she was born; and the fire that robbed her of the ability to pursue dressmaking because of severe burns to her hands. The dance between fate and free will was a prevalent thread as fate threw Soline into the lives of Camilla and Rory to broker peace. Our conversation turned to the relationship between mother and daughter (Camilla and Rory), what caused each to react to the other as they navigated through an emotional roller-coaster, and the happy-ever-after conclusion to their story. As an artist herself Rory dreamed of owning a gallery where she could display the works of unknown artists. She created textile art – a combination of sculpture and painting done with bits of fabric carefully layered to create a sense of movement and depth – a skill our Bookers’ hostess was very familiar with. Was karma involved in selecting this novel and meeting at her home? Ten days before the opening of Rory’s gallery one of the vendors pulled out leaving a blank wall and Rory’s own creations were finally out of the storeroom and in a place they deserved. When time came to open the doors, “Blackbird,” a song written by Paul McCartney played in the background, the lyrics originally symbolizing the struggle of Black women in the South, but the author’s use of this spoke to Camilla, Soline, and Rory, their pasts, their presents, and their futures. “Blackbird singing in the dead of night; take those broken wings and learn to fly; all your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise.” Mother Camilla was a complicated “mess” stating it was her job to shape Rory – to keep her from making the same mistakes she did. We learn the Lowell’s were not known for stellar marriages but looked good on the society pages and that Camilla had known since she was ten she was adopted; her mother gave her up because she was pregnant and unmarried; her father told her that her mother had lost three babies and was ashamed of being childless so he arranged for the adoption and Camilla “was the consolation prize.” No wonder she was a “mess.”

We spoke of what defined a signature Roussel wedding dress and what three things were required for a bride to qualify to wear one as the creators looked for a sign that the betrothed couple’s echoes matched – each one half of a perfect whole seeking the other half. The significance of the contents of Soline’s gray cardboard box that miraculously survived the fire was in essence the foundation for a reunion of family – a family at the time, unknown to any of the characters. Soline and Rory’s stories mirrored each other – their bond, heartache which developed into trust and friendship, their passion for creativity, their lost loves, and their penchant for withdrawing from the world. The love story between Soline and Anson was fairy-tale-like, except for being set amid the Nazi occupation of France – their separation was fraught with despair and loss, but the long-awaiting reunion was emotional filling readers with the satisfaction that even the direst situations can have a happy ending. Anson’s father, Owen, was a complicated character with tinges of humanity and decency but perhaps his addiction to alcohol drove many of his knee-jerk reactions as he sought to control every aspect of everyone’s lives. The shock of seeing a man she thought was dead sent Soline into a tailspin and although Anson had been poisoned against her from reports from the private detective he hired to find her, their love somehow survived with their own happy-ever-after ending, forty years in the making. Rory had Hux back in her life and Camilla finally had the family she longed for.

Happy Reading,

JoDee 

MARCH 2025 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, A Storm of Infinite Beauty, Jlianne Maclean

 

“There are no accidents in nature.” John Muir, Travels in Alaska, 1915

11 Bookers met at the home of Virginia Gandy to discuss this month’s selection, a women’s historical fiction that alternates between Valdez, Alaska around the devastating 1964 earthquake and in Wolfville, Nova Scotia in 2017. With eloquent prose, this story covers the gamut of life’s emotions including loss, family, secrets, desperation, friendship, survival, grief, and marital discord.

Business:

Books in Bloom luncheon, benefiting the Henderson County Clint W. Murchison Memorial Library will be held at Athens Country Club on Friday, April 25^th. Author, Amanda Churchill, will be speaking about her debut historical fiction novel, The Turtle House, inspired by her grandmother who was a Japanese War Bride. Tables of 8 cost $500.00 ($62.50 each) and individual tickets at non-host tables will be $65.00 each. Lunch is included and served at noon. Bookers have contributed to this event many times in the past years, and it is always a fun event. Hosts are responsible for table decorations which can be themed to reflect the book or floral arrangements. Kat Mackey’s husband is part-Japanese, and they have many items that could be used if we follow the theme of the novel.

Tonya Guillamun is the sorority sister of the author. She’s interested as are Jane Shaw, me, Kat Mackey and Virginia Gandy. We need three more for a table of 8. Please let me know as soon as possible so I can reserve the Bookers’ table.

Our next meeting will be April 8^th, 10:00 a.m. at the home of Debby Stein, 102 St. Annes, Pinnacle Golf Club. We will be discussing The Keeper of Happy Endings, a historical literary fiction, by Barbara Davis. From an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, the matriarch of the family is forced to leave her world when her heart and faith in love is shaken, boxing up her memories, determined to forget. The setting switches to Boston in the 1980s where an unlikely friendship develops between her and an aspiring gallery owner.

We’ll be moving our May 13^th evening wine and cheese meeting to May 20^th to be held at the home of Jane Shaw at 5:30 p.m. Kim Nalls will again be coordinating our food. I hope this doesn’t interfere with any other events.

One of our newest members, Penny Callison, asked who was the first resident at Pinnacle and when was the Pinnacle Women’s Club formed? I’m not sure who resided here first (besides the Indians) but the history of the PWC has been documented by Aulsine DeLoach, the first President, in 1998. Briefly the Pinnacle Club manager, thought it was time for a women’s club and Paula Kimball, Susie Johnson, Ann Johnson, Susan Albritton, Jane Schneider, Lois Welch, and Aulsine met with her in April 1998 and the formation of the PWC took flight and here we are twenty-seven years later still going strong.

Sunshine:

Marcie Allen, a cherished member of the PWC and our book club, passed away February 6, 2025, leaving a hole in our hearts as we will all miss her infectious smile, her contagious laugh, and her pure and engaging spirit. She was delighted when one of our reviewers brought the book to life with a skit or costume, her artistic flair on display which most likely reflected on her long tenure with the Brazosport Center for the Arts and Sciences in Clute, Texas. Bookers made a $50.00 donation in her memory to this organization. Ann Ireland announced a stone has been purchased for the memory garden. Details will follow.

Although not a Bookers’ member, Suzan Murray was an active member of the Women’s Club and a fixture within the Pinnacle community. Her passing on February 26^th extinguished a light that shined brightly in all who knew her. Condolences to her family.

Long-time PWC and Bookers’ member, Bonnie Magee, underwent surgery to remove a lipoma earlier today. All went well and the biopsy is off to pathology, but the surgeon is confident the mass is benign.

I received a text message from Jean Alexander thanking everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers for her husband Lee. His surgery to remove the parotid gland was very successful, but they are quite certain that he will be going through six weeks of radiation as extra insurance to make sure all cancer cells are eradicated. The final decision will be made in the next few days.

About the Author

Julianne MacLean is a USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels covering a wide variety of genres from women’s fiction to a collection of series, trilogies, and contemporary and historical romance. She is a four-time RITA finalist which is presented by the Romance Writers of America for prominent English language romance fiction along with Booksellers’ Best Award and Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times. She has a degree in English literature from the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a business administration degree from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She loves to travel and has lived in New Zealand, Canada, and England and currently resides on the east coast of Canada in a lakeside home with her husband and her mom. She wrote four manuscripts that never sold, spending that time learning the craft and business of writing and it took six years to sell her first book to Harlequin. She is the daughter of a jazz musician and nostalgic about 1970 and 1980 music and was a DJ in a dance club during her university days. She’s a lover of research and the importance it plays in creating her books which she writes both by advance plotting and by the seat of her pants. Her reading preferences lean towards the classics, but recently she has been drawn to Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours (Bookers, November 2017) and The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (Bookers, October 2014) which if you haven’t read, you must! Beautiful cover too. Published in 1987, set in England following the story of Penelope Keeling, an independent and resilient woman in her 60s whose life and family history is revealed through a cherished painting.

The idea for A Storm of Infinite Beauty came to the author when she was inspired to write about a natural disaster that occurred in real life, stumbling across a book online about how the biggest earthquake in North America changed America’s understanding of the planet and the story grew from there. Although Wilderness Lodge is a fictional hotel, it was inspired by a few locations she visited for crab feasts and boat cruises. As for the historic Old Town of Valdez, which was condemned and relocated not long after the earthquake, it is still possible to visit the former townsite and it exists as described in the novel.

Synopsis

The novel alternates timelines and is narrated from two different perspectives…Gwen Hollingsworth, a young woman in the midst of a messy marital separation, who is a descendant and curator of a museum dedicated to Scarlette Fontaine, a Hollywood legend, singer, actress, and beloved fashion icon…and Peter Miller, a biographer and photojournalist who arrives at the museum with shocking claims about Scarlett saying she lived a life of exile in Alaska and had a baby born in secret. The duo joined forces traveling to Alaska to unravel the secrets surrounding one year of her late, legendary family member’s life – one of heartache, loss, and tragedy before she headed to Los Angeles to follow her dream of becoming an actress/songwriter. When Gwen and Peter travel to Alaska together, they find themselves on a path toward something far deeper and more meaningful than either of them ever expected.

Discussion

The majority read/finished/liked/loved with one finding it depressing and one other saying it was like a Hallmark movie, just so-so. I asked if anyone had been to Alaska, Valdez, and or Prince William Sound which rekindled a family tragedy from one of us as her dad was filling in for another Captain of an oil tanker when the vessel encountered very high waves. It was December 1973 and the last anyone saw him he was clinging to a barrel. He was just fifty years old. His first mate also lost his life. He was the son of Ernest Gann, an American author famous for aviation novels, The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky, both turned into movies starring John Wayne and his memoir, Fate is the Hunter, is still in print considered as one of the greatest aviation books ever written. It was heartbreaking to hear a story so tragic and personal, but in order to deal with the overwhelming grief and face her fears, many years later she took an Alaskan cruise which in the end proved cathartic and gave her some peace in the face of her unresolved despair.

We discussed the job of a prologue and how it set the stage for the rest of the story when we meet Valerie/Scarlett pushing a baby carriage toward a ship to deliver a letter to the baby’s father just minutes before the earthquake hit Valdez on Good Friday, March 27, 1964. We examined the caustic relationship between Gwen and Eric mourning the loss of their newborn and approaching it differently. A noted Hollywood paparazzi and hunky, Peter Miller, made an entrance writing a biography of Scarlett and the unlikely relationship between the two began…first on a professional level, then advancing through the novel to a satisfying ending…if you were rooting for the couple. All they had to go on initially was an old newspaper article showing a joyful reunion of a young man holding a baby who was returning the child to his distraught mother. There were many characters dotted through the book, all having some connection to either each other or to the earthquake and its aftermath.  The author skillfully navigated through the maze of details from the past to the present introducing a controlling father whose decisions negatively impacted his daughter’s life; a love-struck young man devoted to his childhood friend, Angie, who was pregnant and married to a jealous and vindictive policeman; and how the best laid plans are interrupted by harsh words when a summer relationship ends and the unsuccessful attempts to reveal a pregnancy to the birth father fails until later in the novel when the couple reunite under a cloud of secrecy to protect their privacy. Valerie/Scarlett wrote twenty letters to Drew, all of which were not delivered, but the one that was hand delivered to a crew member of the ship that went down in the earthquake/tsunami somehow was saved. We discussed what happened to those letters, most of us thinking they were never found – mystery solved – our hostess remembered Gwen saying, “the letters” would make a great addition for the museum collection, but although those letters were given to her by Drew, they were from their “summer of love” and not about the baby. Thank you, Virginia, you kept me from researching the issue! Valerie/Scarlett’s story made Gwen realize she didn’t want to die alone, she wanted to be loved and not by her philandering husband, Eric…Peter was right in front of her.

A shocker came when Andrew Thornby, Gwen’s favorite high school music teacher, showed up in her office at the museum loaded with information about Valerie/Scarlett and that he was Drew. He was there because Gwen and Peter had gotten something wrong in the book. She did not die alone. Shortly after her cancer diagnosis, she asked him to join her in Switzerland. They spent six months together before she passed. Her last words, “Don’t be sad. We’ll be together again.” Our happy-ever-after ending surfaced as Eric returns to marry his twenty-one-year-old and Gwen offered Peter her guest room…they decided instead of going to the wedding, they’d do something boring, like watch a documentary about Audrey Hepburn or go dancing. Awwwwwww…do you think they will have a child together? ….that would be another Awwwwwww moment.

 “Life’s journey of life and death were all a storm of infinite beauty – darkness slowly gives way to light.”

Happy Reading,

JoDee