Tag: Maine

The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers by Terri-Lynne DeFino

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Alfonse Carducci lived a full life…He partied with the best of his generation, and made love with abandon. The author of many a best-selling novel finally settles himself into the Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers to live out his last years…Or perhaps months…In comfort, surrounded by other literary greats.

In the unlikeliest of friendships, he forms a bond with Cecibel, the orderly who tends to the guests of the retirement home who is a devoted fan of his work, and who suffered terrible burns in a tragic accident which make her reclusive and severely self conscious.

Many of the inhabitants of the retirement home haven’t written or worked on anything for many years due to health issues… But all Alfonse needs is a muse, and his creativity begins to flow, catching like wildfire amid his circle of friends. Soon, the disgruntled inhabitants of the Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers are crawling with intrigue and imagination.

The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers is a unique novel in a class of its very own. If you love writers and writing, you will appreciate this heartwarming read.

Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Posted in Mysteries, Romance, SuspenseTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

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Annie Hewitt is down on her luck. Her mother passed away, leaving her a secluded island house in Maine, and since Annie is broke and jobless she has no choice but to sort through her mother’s things and decide what to do next with her life. Unfortunately, the island has many bad memories for Annie, mostly attached to the house next door, a giant mansion where her mother was briefly the lady of the house.

Is the current man of the house responsible for her near death as a teen? Is he a sadistic murderer, waiting for his next victim? Or is he just a dark, brooding, reclusive writer with serious sex appeal? The line is getting blurry for Annie, especially when she is very limited on social company…with the exception of her 3 larger-than-life puppets, of course.

I didn’t know what to make of this book at first-I truly thought I was stepping into a serious “unreliable narrator” situation, which is great because I have a penchant for that type of literature. But as the story unfolds, there are others on the island who might not have pure intentions, and evil is lurking in the corners. Annie has to use her humor and wits to shake down the community and figure out just what is going on there on Peregrine Island..And where is the legacy her mother claimed to have left her at the cottage? Does someone else want it, too?

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a darker sense of humor and a taste for sarcasm. It is a combination of romance, comedy, suspense and drama, all tied together. I plan to read whatever else Susan Elizabeth Phillips has to offer the world, after reading Heroes Are My Weakness. Highly recommended!