Joy After Noon

by Debra Coleman Jeter

 

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

Joy marries a widowed bank executive caught in an ethical dilemma and misreads his obvious frustration while struggling to integrate into her new family. Inspired in part by Love, Come Softly, this novel explores the challenges of second marriages and dealing with step-children during the crucial years of puberty and teenage angst. A college professor coming up shortly for the huge tenure decision, Joy finds herself falling apart as her career and her home issues deteriorate and collide.

 

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EXCERPT:

Joy opened a cabinet door to gaze at the rows of hand-painted spices, little bottles labeled in delicate, loopy cursive and  decorated with yellow daffodils, each flower unique. What kind of woman would take the time to transfer store-bought spices into hand-crafted containers? The same woman who painted the daffodils? As a teacher of finance, Joy would question whether she could sell the hand-painted jars for enough cash to compensate for the materials and labor.

 

 In this new universe, the question was altogether different. What was the question? Joy felt lost.

 

The jars appeared to be aligned in alphabetical order, and she checked to be sure. Coriander seed, cumin ... tarragon, turmeric. They probably hadn’t been used since Carolyn died. Either that, or Carolyn had trained Ray and the girls to keep them in their proper sequence.

 

The phone rang, startling Joy in the unaccustomed setting. She recognized the voice at once. Her colleague and coauthor Natalie. Yes, the honeymoon was wonderful, Joy told her. She elaborated on the brilliant turquoise of the water, the amazing world she and Ray explored together beneath the sea. She couldn’t tell Natalie the real wonder. To be held, to be nurtured, to feel cherished for the first time in so many years. For the first time ever by a man. She flushed at the thought of confessing as much, at her age.

 

“I haven’t forgotten our paper,” she said instead. “I know I’ve been negligent lately. But I’ll get on it. Right away.”

REVIEW

Joy is married to Ray who is a widower, and also has two teenager daughters. In the story it follows all the struggles of all four of them trying to get along and make a new life as a family.

I thought this story was a very realistic take on some blended family's nowadays and how they handled dealing with everything in their way.

This was a beautifully written story about a blended family, dealing with day to day struggles. A new author for me, but I will definitely be reading more soon.        

                                                                



 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Debra Coleman Jeter has published both fiction and nonfiction in popular magazines, including Working Woman, New Woman, Self, Home Life, Savvy, Christian Woman, and American Baby. Her first novel, The Ticket, was a finalist for a Selah Award, as well as for Jerry Jenkins’ Operation First Novel. Her story, “Recovery,” was awarded first prize in a short story competition sponsored by Christian Woman; and her nonfiction book “Pshaw, It’s Me Grandson”: Tales of a Young Actor was a finalist in the USA Book News Awards. She is a co-writer of the screenplay for Jess + Moss, a feature film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, screened at nearly forty film festivals around the world, and captured several domestic and international awards. 

 

Website and Blog:  www.debracolemanjeter.com

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/njjeter/the-ticket-a-novel/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/debra.c.jeter

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/DebColemanJeter

The Amazon page:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1941103863/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

The Ticket trailer:  https://vimeo.com/50187275

 

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