WORDS FOR PATTY JO
by Jill Arlene Culiner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Women’s Fiction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
A passion for books creates a lasting bond between teenage Patty Jo and David, but small-town prejudice and social differences doom their romance.
After a summer of reading and falling in love, David heads for university, foreign adventure, and a dazzling career; Patty Jo marries slick, over-confident Don Ried.
Yet plans can go horribly wrong. The victim of her violent husband, Patty Jo abandons her home and children to live on the streets of Toronto. David, a high-ranking executive in Paris, is dismayed by the superficiality of corporate success.
Forty years later, Patty Jo and David meet again. Both have defied society; both have fulfilled their dreams. And what if first love was the right one after all, and destiny has the last word?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt Three:
Long after he has settled into the narrow bed he has been allocated, he hears the faint tinkle of music. Halfheartedly, he again dresses, pulls on his boots, and goes to explore. Far behind, in the manor’s main house, lights are gleaming. His nose pressed against one high window, he discovers a chandelier-lit room where debonair people waltz to an excellent orchestra. It is a throwback scene, a vision as entrancing—and inaccessible—as any ball centuries before.
In the morning, he wakes with a long-forgotten rush of hope. This is his last day of walking, but he finally has an answer. He knows what is missing in his life. Wonder. And magic. Surely, he’s not too old for such splendid things.
Once upon a time he’d known both, and they’d been woven out of simplicity: limpid summers, wavelets on a shore, pines, cedars, a glimpse of gentle fingers toying with a boat’s scraggy painter, sun on leaves, cowbells on a Swiss mountain, the endless churn of water in an old English watermill. Perhaps, by taking small but certain steps, he can bring both wonder and magic back into his life, realize a dream or two: some people would call this an epiphany.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Writer, artist, and teller of tall tales, Jill (J.) Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived on the Great Hungarian Plain, in a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, and a haunted house on the English moors. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village where she protects spiders, snakes, and weeds. She delights in hearing any nasty, funny, ridiculous, or romantic story, and when she can’t uncover gossip, she makes it up.
She has won the Tanenbaum Prize in Canadian Jewish History, the 2024 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Memoir, was shortlisted for the Foreword Magazine Prize, and twice for the Page Turner Awards.
http://www.j-arleneculiner.com
All Links: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner
Storytelling: https://soundcloud.com/j-arlene-culiner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jculiner
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7158064.J_Arlene_Culiner
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jarlene.culiner/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JArleneCuliner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Jill Arlene Culiner will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
Thank you for featuring WORDS FOR PATTY JO.
ReplyDelete