Vermont mystery writer Sarah Strohmeyer, whose Bubble Yablonsky series (set in Pennsylvania) could be a distaff version of Donald Westlake's caper mysteries, dropped off the mystery scene a couple of years ago. The author of BUBBLES UNBOUND, BUBBLES IN TROUBLE, and eventually BUBBLES BETROTHED found another genre in which to shine: Romance.
And while Kingdom Books isn't a Romance shop (except for the fact that Dave and I started the shop and wound up marrying each other), it's kinda fun to keep track of what Strohmeyer is up to. Now living in the Burlington area, she's come up with her fourth in this sweet genre (the others are CINDERELLA PACT and SLEEPING BEAUTY and the somewhat darker SECRET LIVES), and it sounds like it will join her others in being nominated for the best awards in Romance. Here's her description of SWEET LOVE:
Like other well-meaning mothers, Julie Mueller's believed she did the right thing when she secretly ended her teenage daughter's crush on Michael Slayton, a wild older neighborhood heartthrob with a penchant for Shakespeare and the pedigree of trailer trash.
Twenty years later, Betty Mueller has come to realize that was a big mistake. Her daughter Julie - divorced and raising a teenage daughter alone - is a workaholic obsessed with her career. And Michael, the one man who could make her happy, is the one man to whom she won't speak.
Now dying and determined to make amends, Betty stages her last great feat of motherhood by reuniting the couple in a dessert class where she hopes the sweetness of a chocolate almond Torta Caprese will erase the bitterness of a wretched misunderstanding.
"Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said thy edge should blunter be than appetite," Shakespeare once pleaded - though it will require more than poetry and passion fruit for Julie and Michael to renew their love.
It will, in fact, require the sweetest sacrifice of all.
To read a sample chapter and check out a recipe (!), visit www.sarahstrohmeyer.com.
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