Novel Women

Product Description

When middle age hits – it hits hard. Marriages fall apart, children leave for college, and jobs disappear. The six women of Novel Women stand at this crossroad in their lives when their beloved book club goes on hiatus for the summer: • Bri, the book club founder, faces down a beautiful woman who tries to seduce her husband as Bri struggles with her own midlife meltdown. • Staci falls in love on the rebound after her divorce – but is love enough to overcome grief. • Tess, devastated after her husband’s sudden death, house/dog sits for a friend, falling in love with a handyman/ex-Ranger and a 100-pound golden retriever named Mac. • Charlotte after a painful divorce has sworn off romantic attachments of any kind. She basks in sex without intimacy…until romance finds her. • Ava, a successful businesswoman hangs on to her marriage and business, both of which are threatened by her husband’s secrets. • Hanna overwhelmed and neglected by her workaholic husband, she endangers her marriage of 16 years by lusting after her daughter’s handsome soccer coach. Through their summer of confusion and rediscovery, heartache and loss, these Novel Women manage to grow closer by the ever-enduring power of love and friendship. And along the way they have the best sex of their lives.

Review

Touted as one of the best romantic novels ”
actually worth reading,” in 2018 by
Hearst’s BestProducts.com.

What Fran’s Reading: A novel about a book club…written by a book club By Fran Wood – For NJ.com     Whether or not you’re a member of a book club, the genesis of “Novel Women” (Silk Scarf Publishing, 290 pp., $12.99 paperback) should interest you.     It’s written by five northwest New Jersey women who decided to collectively write a book. So Kim Sullivan Harwanko, Patty Vrana, Fran Furtado, Denise Panyik-Dale and Jeanne Ann have published the book under the collective Between Friends Book Club.    What’s more, it’s a novel featuring the members of a book club. That’s right, it’s a novel by real members of a real book club about fictitious members of a fictitious book club.One imagines the opening chapter of “Novel Women” reflects the process:     It is the book club’s final meeting before their summer hiatus. The book commentary finished and the wine bottles nearly drained, the conversation has turned to small talk. Brianna, the club’s founder, suggests they each name their favorite novel before they depart.     When one woman says “Fifty Shades of Gray,” there is much laughter and not a little amused scorn.     These upper-middle-class friends, all but one in her fifties, have close bonds. Used to telling each other pretty much everything, they’re intimately familiar with the details of each other’s lives – infidelities, divorces, in one case the loss of a husband. They can tease each other – even snipe at each other – without hurting feelings.     We meet each of this diverse group in alternating chapters, following them through the summer. Following is a brief primer on the ensemble cast:     Bri (hostess of the aforementioned meeting) is unsettled at the prospect of her almost-empty nest. She finds herself reflecting on her life and marriage. Her husband, Eric, has always been a great dad and attentive husband – but has he developed a wandering eye?      Staci, now divorced after years of marriage to a man who was more closely wed to his job than to her, is eager to dust off her writing skills. Returning to her college town of Burlington to write about the annual jazz festival, she’s hoping to turn out something she can either get published or blog. Her plans do not include meeting (never mind falling for) an attractive widower.     Ava, who has her own successful real estate business, is pressured by her husband Paul to close the sale of their once-joint business. She refuses to sign when she discovers the buyer is the boyfriend who broke her heart 30 years earlier.     Tess still hasn’t recovered from the