Nothing gets Eleanor Samuels's heart racing like a double scoop of mocha fudge chunk. Sure, the magazine writer may have some issues aside from food, but she isn't quite ready to face them. Then her beloved Uncle Benny falls ill, and what at first seems scary and daunting becomes a blessing in disguise. Because while she cooks and cares for him-and enjoys a delicious flirtation with a new chef in town-Eleanor begins to uncover some long-buried secrets about her emotionally frayed family and may finally get the chance to become the woman she's always wanted to be....

“An accomplished and superior novelist” (Statesman Journal) delivers a bittersweet book about a woman’s midlife crisis that asks: How does a good girl know when to finally let herself be bad?

When she learns that her college sweetheart husband has been seeing another woman, Mira Serafino’s perfect world is shattered and she wants no one, least of all her big Italian family, to know. She heads north—with no destination and little money— stopping only when her car breaks down in Seattle. She takes a job at the offbeat Coffee Shop at the Center of the Universe, where she’ll experience a terrifying but invigorating freedom, and meet someone she’ll come to love: the new Mira....

Review "Examining people willing to sidestep the rules in pursuit of a greater good, Shortridge's fourth novel recalls Barbara Kingsolver's Pigs in Heaven..." --Publishers Weekly

Product Description A new novel about family, faith, and finding the courage to do the right thing from the author of Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe.

Police officer Jessica Villareal has always played by the book and tried to do the right thing. But now, she finds herself approaching midlife divorced, estranged from her daughter, alone, and unhappy. And she's wondering if she ever made a right choice in her life.

But then Jess discovers a girl and her Iraq-vet father living off the radar in the Oregon woods, avoiding the comforts-and curses-of modern life. Her colleagues on the force are determined to uproot and separate them, but Jess knows the damage of losing those you love. She recognizes her chance to make a difference by doing something she's never dared. Because even though she's used to playing by the rules, there are times when they need to be broken...

About the Author Seattle author Jennie Shortridge juggles her time between writing novels and working in the community to foster literacy....