Introducing THE BERESFORDS!

Hitting Planet Earth on Saturday, May 5, 2012! (God willing. My beloved Gorham Printing is giving my PDF some last-minute tweaks, and then we should be off to the races.)

From the back cover:

Raised with four older stepcousins in a conservative, churchgoing family, Frannie Price teeters on the brink of adolescence in the summer of 1985. Her timidity and awkwardness make her easy to overlook, yet she has one true friend in her cousin Jonathan. Jonathan, her childhood champion and the best person she knows. But when the Grant twins enter her life, Frannie’s world turns upside down. Not only does the sly and charming Eric Grant set her girl cousins against each other, but his flirtatious sister makes off with Jonathan’s heart. 

Only Frannie sees the faults running beneath the family landscape—not that anyone’s asking her opinion. Not her strict Uncle Paul, not her beloved Jonathan, and certainly not the Grants, who, after having their way with the rest of the Beresfords, turn their sights on her. What’s a girl to do? And why does she feel, in this uncharted territory, like God left her at the border?

With sympathy, humor and more than a nod to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, The Beresfords chronicles Frannie’s coming of age, when all around her is coming apart.

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As I've mentioned somewhere in a past post, this book belongs in the Cass & Friends family, although Cass & Friends appear nowhere in the book. Those of you who've had me at book clubs in recent months might remember the connection, but otherwise I'll let you read The Beresfords and ask me afterward. I'll probably draw it out in my next Cass & Friends book, the idea for which hit me as I was driving my son to his swim meet in Federal Way this weekend.

I know I told others of you that I might try historical fiction next, and I still might. My new book idea has to make it past the fatal Chapter Six hump, after all, and I've only written one page at this point. But I digress.

You are all invited to the Beresfords launch party--it'll be a Saturday afternoon Tea & Cupcake gathering, hosted as ever by the beautiful and talented Margo Engberg of Pinkabella Cupcakes fame. Shoot me a message if I don't have your email for the evite. There may be another event here or there, but that's the biggie.

So excited! And I know it's almost like saying "my mother enjoyed the book," but husband Scott did say he really liked it and found it "moving," and the guy does have a PhD in English. (Twice he told me he liked the prayer scene with the pastor, which kinda cracks me up.) 

Hope to see you May 5!

The entire cover, for you physical book fans!