Someday Belongs to Us

 

By

 

Margie Seaman

 

 

Fiction / Pirate Romance / Late in Life / Sea Stories

Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing Group

Pages: 224 pages

Publication Date: June 22, 2022

 

 

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It’s never too late to find love on the high seas.

 

Kate Caldwell is a 72-year-old romance novelist writing under the nom de plume, Desiree Desire. With more than thirty bestsellers to her credit, Kate is considered an authority on romance. Her personal life, however, has been lacking in the love department for a long time, and she has all but given up hope of finding a true, romantic connection. Her latest series, about a rakish eighteenth-century pirate, has been a struggle. Her struggle with her own creative processes boils over on a stormy night, when Captain Edward Peregrine, a pirate of the Caribbean during the year 1721, begins appearing to her as she sleeps. Convinced that Edward is a figment of her imagination, Kate happily accepts his return visits, and the two collaborate on the first two books of the series. Then, Edward suddenly stops appearing, and Kate is frustrated with her publisher’s demands for the next book.

In desperation, she decides to take a two-week cruise with her granddaughter, Ellie, hoping the chance to relax and watch the waves breaking in the beautiful waters of the Caribbean will reset her creative process. Little did Kate know that troubled waters lay ahead or that she’s in for the adventure of her life, and possibly, true love at long last.

 

 

 

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Praise

 

“A fun and lively read about romance, and the real and imagined adventures of a woman writer cruising through her senior years. Once again, Margie Seaman proves age is no obstacle in this swashbuckling debut novel.” —Lise Olsen, Author of CODE OF SILENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

This debut author sure knows how to weave a tale! There is so much included in this book, from love to a little intrigue, humor, and new friendships.

Kate may be a bit older, but her life isn’t quite over. She has written many successful romance novels, but now her agent wants her to be a bit more explicit during those sex scenes. I can only imagine having to start writing that into a book and the toll it could take when that isn’t what you are used to doing. I chuckled a time or two when she wrote these scenes and the words she used to describe the human anatomy. Of course, her granddaughter, Ellie, had to rib her about it, and Kate takes it all in stride.

Kate’s muse is the pirate, Edward Peregrine, who captains a ship appropriately named The Falcon. He comes to her in her dreams or a semi-conscious state, and they plot out this series of books. Their banter about what should be happening in the books and how he approaches various situations is intriguing and made me wonder how many authors have conversations with their characters. I think it is more than we know! I do think that there is something brewing between these two which may sound odd, and they may not be together in this lifetime, but perhaps in an afterlife situation. I enjoyed their banters about what should happen to him in her books. He definitely has opinions that might differ from Kate’s, but I suppose that is why the books are hits.

In hopes of some creative ideas for the third book, she and Ellie take a cruise out of Galveston through the Panama Canal. This cruise is quite an adventure, and they explore the islands and make new friends at their dinner table. However, not everyone is above board, and I suspected something was up with a certain character, which I won’t name. You will have to read the book and discover that for yourself. I’m just glad that Kate was a little savvier than this other character gave her credit because it could have been a disaster if their plans were executed.

Another creative twist with this book was the book within the book. Kate shares chapters from the book she is writing, and we can see Edward’s adventures unfold in front of our eyes. We learn a lot about his character. While he may be a pirate, he is an honorable one.

While the majority of the book takes place on the cruise ship, it doesn’t end there. The friendships formed from this group of dinner companions are wonderful, and considering all live close by (or relatively anyway), it doesn’t make it a hardship for anyone to continue their relationships.

I really enjoyed this book and hope that this author doesn’t wait too long before sharing another adventure with us.

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARGIE SEAMAN is an eighty-five-year-old, late-blooming author of her debut novel Someday Belongs to Us. After a forty-year career in marketing, she switched to a new venture in website design where she has been the president of Citation Solutions for the past fourteen years. Margie also writes a travel blog for seniors, The Graytripper, that encourages people to get out and explore their world. Margie is the mother of three, grandmother of seven, and great-grandmother of three. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and lives in Houston, Texas, right down the street from her childhood home. She is currently dogless for the first time in her life but does have some totally spoiled cats that ungraciously allow her to share their living environment.

 

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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

 

THREE WINNERS!

 

Autographed, limited edition, hardcover copies of

 

Someday Belongs to Us

 

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 8/26/2022.)

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

Visit the Lone Star Literary Life Tour Page

 

For direct links to each post on this tour, updated daily,

 

Or visit the participating blogs directly:

 

 

8/16/22	StoreyBook Reviews	Review
8/16/22	Hall Ways Blog	BONUS Promo
8/17/22	Shelf Life Blog	Excerpt
8/17/22	LSBBT Blog	BONUS Promo
8/18/22	Forgotten Winds	Author Interview
8/19/22	Reading by Moonlight	Review
8/20/22	All the Ups and Downs	Scrapbook Page
8/21/22	Stories Under Starlight	Guest Post
8/22/22	It’s Not All Gravy	Review
8/23/22	Chapter Break Book Blog	Deleted Scene
8/24/22	Boys’ Mom Reads	Review
8/25/22	Rox Burkey Blog	Review

 

 

 

 

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Synopsis

 

Three women wake up to the consequences of one impulsive pact in an insightful novel about friendship, love, and fulfillment by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jamie Beck.

While at a casino to celebrate her birthday, Jessie Clarke proposes a pact to her reserved sister, Liz, and their childhood friend Chloe: the three women will say yes to any adventure that comes their way. Jessie is mourning her recent divorce, so the other two reluctantly agree. Twelve hours later, they awaken to the shocking consequences of their behavior.

A viral video throws Liz’s career and reputation into question. A major loss at the craps table rocks the foundation of Chloe’s staid marriage. And Jessie’s desperate bid to unblock her artistic creativity results in a life-changing choice. Staring down the crossroads, each woman finds her relationships—with herself, with each other, and with loves both old and new—tested. At every turn, they struggle not to let fear decide their fates. Will they give in, or will their misadventures lead to the greatest fulfillment of all?

 

 

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Review

 

Jamie Beck writes beautiful novels about women and the challenges they face in their lives and this book is no exception. We meet Jessie, Chloe, and Liz, who get together for a birthday celebration at a casino. Events from that night throw their life in directions they never expected.

I became invested in each character and would get angry at Chloe’s husband for not being supportive of her, surprised at how Liz is treated at her job as an online morning show host after a drunk video surfaces, and Jessie’s inability to move on after her divorce. However, this book shows the growth that each lady exhibits after handling the situations at hand and the support that they give each other as they venture out on new paths in their lives. I think that there are characters in this book that anyone could relate to and not just the three women. Jessie & Liz’s parents are workaholics and seem to expect perfection, or at least their father does from them. There is some resolution to thoughts and events from previous years for each of the sisters that helps to close the circle on any bad thoughts or feelings.

This was a fast read for me but there is so much to take in and I enjoyed every page. We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

National bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than two million copies. She’s a Booksellers’ Best Award and National Readers’ Choice Award finalist, and critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing, the author of the Cabot novels, the Sterling Canyon novels, and the St. James series enjoys dancing around the kitchen while cooking and hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family.

Fans can learn more about her on her website, www.jamiebeck.com, which includes a fun “Extras” page with photos, videos, and playlists. She also loves interacting with everyone on Facebook.

 

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Synopsis

 

Among fake Instagram pages, long-buried family secrets, and the horrors of middle school, one suburban mom searches to find herself.

Alice Sullivan feels like she’s finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin.

When it comes to light that the incident is part of a new behavior pattern for her son, one complete with fake social media profiles with a lot of questionable content, Alice’s social standing is quickly eroded to one of “those moms” who can’t control her kids. Soon she’s facing the very judgement she was all too happy to dole out when she thought no one was looking (or when she thought her house wasn’t made of glass).

Then her mother unloads a family secret she’s kept for more than thirty years, and Alice’s entire perception of herself is shattered.

As her son’s new reputation polarizes her friendships and her family buzzes with the ramification of her mother’s choices, Alice realizes that she’s been too focused on measuring her success and happiness by everyone else’s standards. Now, with all her shortcomings laid bare, she’ll have to figure out to whom to turn for help and decide who she really wants to be.

 

 

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Review

 

If you were ever worried about the effect of phones and apps on kids, then look no further than this book. We get a look into the lives of three women that forged a friendship when their children were in kindergarten, but now they have hit junior high and things aren’t quite the same for any of them especially where the children are concerned. This book includes bullying, the influence of social media, hormones in teenage boys and girls, and just life in today’s world.

Outside of the mess the children get into, there is friction between these three women because of their children. Alice is very high-strung and a bit of a perfectionist. This trait does not bode well for her when her mother springs a surprise on her that is hard to digest. I did not like her mother, Evelyn, because while I understood how she felt about this situation, Evelyn was very selfish and only wanted what she wanted and didn’t take Alice’s feelings into consideration. This was actually surprising since Evelyn is a therapist. But Alice does learn something about herself and what she is willing to put up with from her family and even her job.

The kids are out of control in this book – finsta accounts (fake Instagram), bullying, sexting, and so much more. There is a lot that children have to deal with today and this book cuts to the core of those issues. While everything is resolved, it is based on reality and situations are not swept under the rug or “prettied” for the benefit of the reader.

I enjoyed the book and liked how the chapters were from different character’s points of view. I felt like we got the full picture versus just part of the story from one perspective.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Kathleen West is the author of Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes, which was a best book pick by Real Simple, Newsweek, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the New York Post. A teacher for 20 years before she published her first novel, Kathleen is particularly interested in the topics of motherhood, ambition, competitive parenting, and the elusiveness of work-life balance. Her sophomore effort, Are We There Yet?, publishes in March 2021. She is a life-long Minnesotan and lives in Minneapolis with her family.

 

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Synopsis

 

Tess and her best friend, Dee have been inseparable since they were six years old. College days are upon them and Dee has moved away, leaving Tess to figure out how to maneuver through this new experience without her. To make matters worse, Dee has ghosted her. Will being apart make her fall to pieces? Or will it give her the freedom to grow up on her own?

This coming-of-age story touches on very real feelings of what happens when best friends are pulled apart by life’s circumstances. Throw in a little sports, boy drama, and joining sororities and it is quite the interesting first semester of college.

 

 

 

 

Review

 

This is a fairly quick read about Tess (aka Reese aka Sutton) who is a college freshman that plays soccer, decides to join a sorority, and her adventures in her first semester at school.

I felt like the voice of the narrator was that of someone young and inexperienced and set just the right tone for what happens throughout the story. I appreciated the author addressing issues that students might face in college or in greek life – from hazing to waning friendship to navigating the dating world. I felt like I was back in college experiencing many of these situations.

I also like how we watched Tess struggle to improve her soccer skills to become a starter. It just shows if you want something badly enough you will work for it and not become complacent.

Since I am a member of a sorority, I felt like what was portrayed was fairly accurate. Everyone has a different experience in Greek life, but what Tess experienced was similar to my own experience – all good of course. But I appreciated the side story of Reagan because that addressed different issues.

Tess’s best friend Dee is at another college and has “ghosted” Tess. It could be settling in and making new friends or it might be something else as we learn towards the end of the story. But true friendship will win out in the end.

If you are looking for a short story to read over lunch, give this one a try.  We give it 4 paws up.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Charley Dillion is a lover of young adult fiction novels. Her first novel, Free to Grow, was inspired by that love and Charley has plans to continue writing about our beloved Tess as she lives through her college years.

Charley lives in Boise, ID with her husband, son, dog, and cat. She enjoys watching and playing soccer, being involved in her sorority as an alumna (much like Tess!), and being a mom to her three human and fur children.

 

 

Synopsis

 

This is a story about reclaiming your life.

 

“Not that anyone stole mine. I just lost who I’d wanted to be.” — From Virtue

 

Virtue explores the vulnerability and randomness of human existence through the lives of Tom and Hannah Holder, each of whom are grappling with midlife crises.

Scarred by an incident from his youth that broke up his family and left him estranged from his father, Tom has carried self-doubt, buried in a battered soul, his entire life. In the span of a few short months, Tom, now a philosophy professor, watches his adult life unravel as the college president tries to ruin his career, his wife Hannah threatens to leave him, his father is stricken with cancer, and he learns dark secrets about the past. Tom is forced to confront the person he’s become and now loathes, before having any chance to find a path back to his marriage, his academic integrity, and his estranged father.

Hannah feels the walls closing in on her. She is sick of being a stay-at-home mom marooned in a rural college town, her teenage daughter, Madison, is the subject of anti-LBGTQ bullying, and her teenage son, Dillon, is failing at school and having run-ins with the law. Hannah wants out of a life that has grown toxic to her family and to reclaim the person she once was—a confident professional woman. But her husband, seemingly unable to manage his myriad problems, now stands in the way.

As Tom and Hannah struggle to save their marriage, they test the limits of the power of redemption and cause us to question whether we can ever truly know ourselves, much less our loved ones.

 

 

 

Excerpt

 

This is a story about reclaiming your life.

Not that anyone stole mine. I just lost who I’d wanted to be. I became a cloistered, frustrated mom despite having little patience for those women. Do something with your life if you don’t like it, I’d think to myself, when I saw a miserable one.

And then I became that person.

It crept up on me somehow. I went to work right after college at a bank in Boston, in a management training program, and kept at it for five years while Tom was getting his doctorate. I was the breadwinner as he sunk deeper into debt. (His estranged father wouldn’t help with tuition.) We even bought a small condo.

Not bad. I wanted to be a professional—unlike my mother, who stayed at home and drove me crazy, hovering like a helicopter in an age before such a thing existed—but the job was just moving money around. Big deal.

So, when Tom got offered a tenure-track gig in Maine, I was on board with the move. I could take a break, focus on the children, raise them in a small, nurturing community, and he could launch his career.

I didn’t think far enough ahead though. I knew it would be a challenge later on to get back into the workforce, particularly in rural Maine, but the bricks and mortar model of employment was disappearing. It was the new millennium and people worked in their pajamas!

Not everyone though, it turns out. Moms with no current, marketable skills could just stay unemployed in their pajamas.

I began to rot inside. I resented Tom for his success, his network of colleagues, and the self-esteem that came with it. And I repeated history, becoming the helicopter mom I loathed as a kid. My mind was atrophying, and my soul was thinning.

Then Trump got elected. It shouldn’t have taken that to snap me out of my funk, but it did. Women started marching, getting involved, and getting elected. I couldn’t stay on the sidelines anymore, continue to let my mind and talent go to waste. Political activism wasn’t my thing—I’d been a lifelong Northeastern Republican until Trump, when I switched to Independent—but I wanted to do something that meant something.

Don’t laugh but I decided I wanted to take the LSAT. The law has power, and power can help people. Like using my motherly passion to help women keep custody of their kids and fight off abusers. I wasn’t out to save the world, but maybe my work could benefit the lives of a few people.

I nervously approached Tom in early 2017 about going back to school and moving back to Boston. I didn’t want him to think I was unhappy, even though I was, and I worried he’d resist, knowing that my idea would uproot our lives. He was supportive in words, but his distant, reticent eyes told a different story. He was confused, didn’t know what was happening. Probably thought he was losing the person he knew. Little did he know she was already gone.

But then he had an idea of his own—write a book—and we figured out how to meld the two. The book might give him a better chance to find a position back in Boston, and I could start planning the next phase of my life.

That’s where this story starts. I was cramming for the LSAT, which was in mid-September 2017, and was as excited as I was scared. I had no clue whether I had an aptitude for the law, whatever that meant. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.

And then my plan slowly went off the rails.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

John Moot left his career in private law practice on the east coast in 2017 to join his sweetheart, Lara Skidmore, in Portland, Oregon. Tragically, shortly after their marriage, Lara was stricken with cancer and died, but her undying love and inspiration drove him to write Virtue and dedicate it to her. He lives on Lake Oswego with his two dogs and works as a pro bono lawyer handling domestic violence cases.

 

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