Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Set in the fabled landscape of South Carolina's Low Country, The Richest Season takes us on a heart-rending 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
Review
"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, The Deep End of the Ocean and Still Summer
Review
"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
Synopsis
Sometimes you have to leave your life to find youself again. After more than a dozen moves in 25 years of marriage, Joanna has become a corporate wife-an unofficial breed of parent, whose life is devoted to raising her children in a new town as she follows her husband, Paul, up the corporate ladder. But now that the kids are grown, Paul's latest surprise transfer is too much. When the tiny voice inside her head becomes a shout-Leave -Joanna listens: She packs her bags and heads for a place she'd fallen in love with years before, Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Once there, she manages to find a new home with Grace, an elderly widow who has moved to the island to live out her last days. Entwined is Paul Harrison's story, as he loses his wife, his job, everything that has defined him. Gradually he becomes the neighborhood handyman, befriends the lonely wife of another transferee, and realizes all that he has sacrificed in his quest for success.
Synopsis
Set on beautiful Pawley's Island, South Carolina, this novel is about second chances occurring at the most inopportune times in life. In three parallel journeys, three individuals walk away from lives they always thought they wanted, only to rediscover a part of themselves they'd all but forgotten.
Synopsis
In this novel about second chances occurring at the most inopportune times inlife, three individuals walk away from lives they had always thought they hadwanted, only to rediscover a part of themselves they'd all but forgotten.
Synopsis
"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."
--Romantic Times
"A page-turner that will appeal to every woman who has ever felt lonely and isolated . . ."
--Raleigh News and Observer
"One of the best books I have ever read . . ."
--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
When lonely corporate wife Joanna Harrison runs away to Pawleys Island, she has no idea what happens next. But as a new life takes root, thanks to a passionate fisherman and a commitment to save endangered turtles, demands from her old life may force her to return. The Richest Season is a stunning debut that will resonate with any woman who's ever fantasized about leaving home to find herself.
About the Author
Maryann McFadden runs a successful real estate business but always wanted to write a novel; she did so and self published The Richest Season in 2006, selling 4000 copies. She lives in Hackettstown, NJ.