It is very odd to be promoting a book this summer. Everything is so different: COVID-19 has taken 110,000 lives in the U.S. alone and continues to slither through the country. We’ve watched in horror as yet another innocent black person is killed by a police officer. We watch or attend the peaceful protests in solidarity, then look on in horror as looting and rioting starts. We see innocent people being hurt. We struggle with the inability to tell the good cops from the bad, and the fear that arises from that.
My book release feels very insignificant in this moment.
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And yet, in the past few months, I’ve heard from a record number of readers, telling me my books have been their key to sanity. I know exactly what they mean. Farrah Rochon, Kennedy Ryan, Sonali Dev, Kwana Jackson, Robyn Carr, Priscilla Oliveras, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Caro Carson, Vanessa Riley…they’ve all saved me this winter and spring. They’re my heroes. They gave me books of people in trouble, of people scarred with loss and grief and fear, who rose up and took a stand. Whether it was a quiet, personal journey or a confrontation of a bigger issue, their characters walked the walk. They stood by their beliefs and got to a better place, a place where love and safety, and happiness thrive.
These books have been my self-care, a resting place for my heartsick, worried soul, an example of what we can achieve when we believe.
ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW is, as my editor put it, the story of everyone’s family. You’ll see yourself somewhere in Barb, John, Juliet and Sadie, or in Janet, Mickey, Arwen and Noah. They’re all going through heartache, and they’re all going to be okay. Better than okay. They’re going to be better than ever.
I hope you’ll read my book (and the authors I mention above). I hope your souls and your hearts and minds will be soothed by the hours you spend reading. I hope they’ll give you the respite you need to face another day, week, month, year. I hope ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW—and The Boyfriend Project, Queen Move, Real Men Knit, Recipe for Persuasion and all the others— will make you believe, as I do, that better days are ahead.
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If you buy ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW this week, my cut of your purchase goes to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, so a little goodness will come out of your purchase.
You’re in my heart, readers and friends. Take good care of yourselves.
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