The Anniversary Effect

Heartache blooms in Alice with the passing of each milestone without her husband. Her looming birthday is no different.

Alice is almost fifty years old. And alone. Peter has been gone for ten months. It may not be getting any easier to live without him, but it is becoming normal. So normal, that her friends urge her to look for happiness in a partner. A prospect Alice can’t imagine. She finally agrees to give it a shot on one condition—her friend Marci Jewell does the same.

Marci just learned that her ex-husband of twenty years is going to be married. She wants nothing to do with him, but their two sons keep them tethered. If her ex can find someone else to marry when he has nothing good to offer, why can’t Marci? Maybe she’s looking in all the wrong places. Or not looking at all when the answer could be right in front of her.

Finally, Alice’s lone guest at the North Star Inn is looking for something, too. Lila just ended a relationship that was going nowhere and is taking some time for herself. With a most unusual goal. But that goal is sidelined when she returns to her hometown of Golden Bay, Vermont and her past comes crashing into her, unbidden.

Join Alice, Marci, and Lila as they navigate the rocky waters of the present into the unknown of the future.