A Charmed Place
On the shelves in May
St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN 0-312-96597-4
Read Chapter 1 (17K)
Reviews for Antoinette Stockenberg's A CHARMED PLACE
" One of the season's most refreshing stories. Not too many authors come up with something so exciting and new, but Antoinette Stockenberg has. This wonderful plot gives the reader a love story about two people who had lost each other for 20 years ... and embroiders the tale with a mystery. What fun to read! Totally different ... colorful and extremely visual descriptions make this book come to life. I could see the ocean and smell the salty sea air ... the story flows ... hard to put down ... it's a keeper, readers!"
Laurel Main,
Romance Communications online
awarded Romance Communications Reviewers' award
nominated for their Readers' Award
"A CHARMED PLACE is a captivating mixture of mystery and romance with characters that seem so real they jump off the pages. Stockenberg is adept at capturing family relationships and conveying a real sense of the characters' feelings and motiviations. An intriguing and passionate tale which will have readers longing for the next Stockenberg novel."
Writers Write website
" With each book she writes, [Stockenberg's] style and writing become even more gripping, her characters more complex ... A CHARMED PLACE has easily earned a place on my keeper shelf. Do yourself a favor -- read A CHARMED PLACE!"
One Magical Kiss (Daphne's Dream) website
"A truly charming contemporary romance [with an] uplifting theme that second chances at love are possible ... an absorbing, highly engaging read ... dialogue [that is] clever and realistic ... the Cape Cod setting is vividly evoked ... secondary characters add great color .... Ms. Stockenberg is a gifted prose stylist. She makes us care about the characters. The fairly explicit love scenes are not only passionate, but also tender. I will be on the lookout for other Stockenberg works. "
Lucy Shigemitsu,
Regency World
" Pure Stockenberg. The author captures the flavor of New England life
along with great family dynamics. The love story between Dan and Maddie
gives hope for anyone who dreams of their first love. "
Monica's Muse,
Interludes
"A Charmed Place allows [Stockenberg's] considerable talents to truly shine ... almost perfect ... a well-rounded, believable, entertaining and moving romance [with] an intellectually challenging mystery... a real story about real people whom readers will deeply care about. "
Kristi Lyn Glass, editor
Gothic Journal
"A glorious novel ... Ms. Stockenberg takes her place alongside LaVyrle Spencer as a writer of depth and perception. If you read no other book this year, A CHARMED PLACE is my recommendation."Very Highly Recommended
Kathee S. Card
Under the Covers Book Reviews
(read the full review)
"Every sentence builds the tension as the protagonists try to find their way back to each other and Maddie tries to protect her daughter ... [a] superb story."
Rendezvous
"Buy this book! A truly fantastic summer read!"
Suzanne Barr
Gulf Coast Woman
"A CHARMED PLACE is a great read, filled with extraordinary characters, compelling subplots, long-buried secrets, and a hero who is strong, tender, and irresistible."
B. Dalton's Heart to Heart
"Ms. Stockenberg writes with the wisdom and grace of the ageless to create a beautiful story in this intricately woven suspense. I love everything she creates. Splendid!"
Donita Lawrence
Bell, Book and Candle
"A CHARMED PLACE is a major achievement for Ms. Stockenberg, proving that she is a writer of immense talent."Very Highly Recommended
Wayne Adrian Jordan
Under the Covers Book Reviews
(read the full review)
"Award-winning author Antoinette Stockenberg takes a dramatic turn in her new mainstream release. Passion, love, hatred and deceit all collide with unexpected force in the powerful and expressive
A CHARMED PLACE."
Romantic Times Magazine
"The author has a very witty writing style and wonderfully drawn characters ... [get] to know these characters and the obstacles they overcome."
Margaret Ohmes
Old Book Barn Gazette
Dear Readers,
Okay--anyone who's ever wanted to live in a rose-covered cottage by the sea, raise your hand.
Yep. Me, too. Of course (as readers of the August '96 issue of Romantic Times may remember) I've lived on the sea, in an old wood boat. And I've lived overlooking the sea, in a tiny cottage on a hill. But for as long as I can remember, I've wanted to live by the sea--close enough to hear the waves lapping on a shore not far from my bedroom window. When a dream is that intense and that long-lived, there's only one thing to do about it: write a book. And so was born A CHARMED PLACE, set in a sleepy beachfront town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Maddie Regan and her family share a summer house there that's been passed down for generations. Rosedale cottage is nothing fancy (Hyannis and the Kennedy compound are several towns away) but Maddie grew up with happy memories in the house, and she'd like nothing more than to keep on enjoying them.
However.
She has a teenaged daughter who's straight from the pages of Reviving Ophelia; a brooding ex-husband who's changed his mind and wants back in to the marriage; and a mother who's still grief-stricken over the unsolved murder of Maddie's father. Her plate, in short, is overflowing with touch-and-go emotions. The last thing she needs is for her college sweetheart to rent the local lighthouse for the summer. The fact that her family blames the man for just about everything except the erosion of the beach in front of their cottage is just one more complication in Maddie's life.
There are long-buried secrets here, and lost passion waiting to flare all over again. If you've ever wanted to live in a rose-covered cottage on the shore ... if you've ever been driven up one wall and down another by an impossible teenager ... if you've ever had to deal with the heartache of a shut-down marriage and the friction of a difficult relationship with a parent ... if you've ever wondered about that man from your past who might have been The One--then this book is for you.
P.S. Wendell Minor, the artist who created the artwork for the beautiful wrap-around cover, has caught the mood of the book completely. I was so pleased with the result that I had a slice of the cover made into the full-color bookmark you see at the top of the page.
For a signed bookmark, send a SASE to me at P. O. Box 766, Norfolk, MA 02056.
Antoinette Stockenberg
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