MARYANN MCFADDEN
While raising two children, MARYANN MCFADDEN spent ten years working as a freelance writer with articles in a variety of newspapers and magazines. She then left writing for nearly a decade and became one of Northwest New Jersey’s top realtors. Her love of writing, however, never really left her. Maryann went back to school and received a Master’s Degree with a concentration in writing. The Richest Season, which began as her thesis project, was originally self-published, then championed by independent booksellers. It sold at auction to Hyperion Books and an expanded version was released in hardcover in June 2008. It was recognized as an Indie Next Pick and Target Breakout Novel. Maryann’s books have since been translated into German, Italian, and Spanish. She lives in Hackettstown, New Jersey.
SO HAPPY TOGETHER
Hyperion – July 7, 2009
Selected by IndieBound to the July 2009 Indie Next List
Claire Noble gave up on her dreams a long time ago. A single mother and respected history teacher, she has also been caring for her aging parents. But now it’s finally Claire’s turn. She has fallen in love with Rick Saunders, who is offering her both security and the opportunity to travel. Before their fall wedding, she will be leaving for a summer on Cape Cod, where the fabled light has been luring artists for a century; a chance in a lifetime to study with one of the most noted photographers in the country.
But just as Claire is about to step into her new life, her estranged daughter suddenly shows up with a backpack full of problems. Her father reveals a fifty-year-old secret that threatens to unravel their family. Her mother confides that at 78 years-old, she’s still waiting for the love of her life. And a chance encounter with an environmental writer results in an intriguing new relationship, undermining Claire’s certainty that she’s found the man with whom she hopes to spend the rest of her life. In the midst of all this turbulence, Claire begins to question everything she thought she wanted. And surprisingly, so do her moth
Set in the rolling hills of northern New Jersey and the romantic, windswept dunes of Cape Cod, So Happy Together is the story of three generations of women who find their lives, and dreams, suddenly transformed in ways they never could have imagined. But ultimately, it is the heartbreaking and joyful journey of one woman who comes to realize that when you’re a mother, or a daughter, you are never truly free.
Praise for SO HAPPY TOGETHER
“I can think of no writer I’d rather have sing me songs of the sea, even sad ones, than Maryann McFadden. The characters in So Happy Together will speak to you and the best ones…all have the ocean in their voices.“—Anne Rivers Siddons, author of Off Season
“In So Happy Together, Maryann McFadden deftly weaves a story of three generations of women and the men who orbit around them. With a sure touch, she writes about the mother-daughter bond, the simple pleasures to be found in cooking, the pervasive nature of guilt, and the power of forgiveness. Ultimately she explores the ways that growth is possible at every stage in life, if only we remain open—and how unexpected changes can lead us to places we never imagined.“—Christina Baker Kline, author of The Way Life Should Be and Bird in Hand
“McFadden’s richly nuanced novel examines choices and secret yearnings within a rich context of history, tradition, and environmental issues.“—Booklist
“New Jersey author Maryann McFadden pens another unforgettable beach read.“—South Jersey MOM
THE RICHEST SEASON
Hyperion – June 10, 2008
Sometimes you have to leave your life to find yourself again . . .
After more than a dozen moves in twenty-five years of marriage, Joanna Harrison is lonely and tired of being a corporate wife. Her children are grown and gone, her husband is more married to his job than to her, and now they’re about to pack up once more. Panicked at the thought of having to start all over again, Joanna commits the first irresponsible act of her life. She runs away to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a place she’s been to just once.
She finds a job as a live-in companion to Grace Finelli, a widow who has come to the island to fulfill a girlhood dream. Together the two women embark on the most difficult journey of their lives: Joanna struggling for independence, roots, and a future of her own, as her family tugs at her from afar; and Grace, choosing to live the remainder of her life for herself alone, knowing she may never see her children again.
Entwined is Paul Harrison’s story as he loses his wife, his job, and everything that defines him as a man. He takes off on his own journey out west, searching for the answers to all that has gone wrong in his life. One thing remains constant: He wants his wife back.
Joanna, however, is moving farther away from her old life as she joins a group dedicated to rescuing endangered loggerhead turtles, led by a charismatic fisherman unlike anyone she’s ever met.
The Richest Season is a stunning debut about three very different people, each changing their lives when such transformations are usually long over. It will resonate with any woman who’s ever fantasized about leaving home to find herself.
Praise for THE RICHEST SEASON
“In Maryann McFadden’s brave and carefully made novel, The Richest Season, two women set out on open-ended odysseys, one to find her life, one to find meaning in her death. Lonely Joanna gives up all she knows for a single chance at all she needs. When they meet, Grace relinquishes her aloof solitude to embrace life at its end, banking on the borrowed courage of a stranger. McFadden is out of the gate and on her way.“—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Still Summer
“Set in the fabled landscape of South Carolina’s Low Country, The Richest Season takes us on a heartrending journey of discovery. Maryann McFadden is an exciting new author who writes with compassion, wisdom, and astonishing skill.“—Cassandra King, author of Queen of Broken Hearts and The Same Sweet Girls
“The Richest Season is filled with so much honesty and searching and struggle involving three characters whom I grew to love, that I hated to come to the end.“—Paulette Bates Alden, author of Crossing the Moon and Feeding the Eagles
“Beautifully written . . . Lets readers into the characters’ thoughts and feelings as they struggle to understand how the past has led them to their present situations. In the process, a new person emerges, or perhaps it’s the self each forgot was there all along.“—Romantic Times
“Written in a clean, active prose style that enhances the story’s basic tension and suspense, The Richest Season is a page-turner.“—The News & Observer (North Carolina)
“The Richest Season is one of the best books I have ever read. The emotional rollercoaster ride it took me on was exhausting, but the highs were breathtaking. I couldn’t put the book down, and when I did, it called out to me. This is a book that you will not want to miss.“—RomanceJunkies.com
“A compelling debut novel that tells the story of one woman’s courage to leave it all behind…“—Fresh Fiction
“Skillful plotting keeps pages turning…“—Publishers Weekly