historical fiction
It’s 1939. There’s talk of war brewing overseas, but lovestruck Cora Cain and Thomas Watkins find themselves a world away in the small town of Norcross, Georgia—albeit for entirely different reasons. Thomas has followed his family south for a bit of respite after his mother’s death, while Cora is stuck running The Brunswick, her family’s once-grand hotel now serving as the general store.
When Thomas begins working alongside Cora at The Brunswick, he finds the simple life he was looking for. And as their relationship blossoms, Cora begins to imagine a world beyond her crushing responsibilities and her war-hero father’s unpredictable moods.
But then The Brunswick’s largest customers, George & Evelyn Cohen, ask a question that changes everything: could the old hotel house Jewish refugee children from the escalating crisis abroad?
Meanwhile, in Vienna, ten-year-old Charlotte’s father is taken to the concentration camp Dachau. When given the opportunity to join a Kindertransport to safety in America, Charlotte wonders how her mother could possibly send her away. But as Hitler’s plan to create a Jew-free Europe continues to unfold, Charlotte fears what will happen if she does not.
Based on true events, THE BRUNSWICK wrestles with the choices our parents make and the legacies they leave and ultimately asks what we must hold on to—and of what we must let go.
That’s the current draft of the back-of-the-book blurb! I’ve spent the last two years writing this novel, and now my agent and I are preparing to submit to publishers. I have loads of grassroots marketing ideas for this and can’t wait to get it out into the world.
We look to our parents for love and support, but what happens when they are incapable of giving us what we need? I wrote this book with that question top of mind.
As my husband and I were in the process of becoming foster parents, I began to consider the choices my own father made and the way those had shaped me, and I found deep healing and love through our community in the process.
I wanted to move the hearts of others towards that healing (and how that might overflow into supporting vulnerable children through foster care or adoption), and I knew that nothing could move a heart quite like a good book.
So, inspired by true people and events, I wrote THE BRUNSWICK with the character-driven interiority and banter I enjoy about modern-day rom-coms but with the immersive details and timeless themes I love in historical fiction. I hope this is a book that will resonate with book clubs and spread by word-of-mouth for years to come for the emotional journeys taken by both its characters and its readers.