Book trailers: 

The World Against Her Skin:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEXc9VqO99g

The Passionate Sister:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIIndFoe9-o&t=6s

 

The World Against Her Skin  

“A rousing portrait of a brave, imperfect woman”---BookLife

Virginia and Joe Thorndike have been married for twenty-two years, and now she's in love with a surgeon thirteen years her junior. She leaves her husband and flies to Miami to start living with Rich Villamano, but there he tells her he has changed his mind and they must go their own ways. In an instant their four-year affair is over. She takes off in his car, heading north with no luggage, no hope or destination. She buys a bottle of gin and drinks it straight. Afraid that she’ll kill herself or someone else on the road, she abandons the car, flies to New York and takes an airport hotel room. She has no home and nowhere to go.

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The Passionate Sister

“Original, deftly written, emotionally engaging, and a simply riveting read from start to finish”  –Midwest Book Review

 

In real life Virginia Thorndike died of a drug and alcohol overdose at the age of 57. In this novel she recovers and fights to stay clean. Her son Rob drives her home from rehab, pours her wine and gin onto the lawn and clears her house of all drugs. Her older son Jamie also comes to help, with his gay lover Miles. But when Miles is diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease they return to Key West, and Ginny faces her recovery alone through a cold and quiet winter in Sag Harbor.
    Soon the one who needs help will be Jamie, as his partner loses all movement and speech. Then Rob’s schizophrenic wife abandons him, leaving him to care for their one-year-old twins. Ginny moves in to help look after them, a demanding pair who sometimes elate and sometimes crush her.  
    Ginny hopes for a life of her own, but she hasn’t had a lover in years and can’t imagine one now. In her family she was always the passionate sister, but now her desire has vanished. Even after the devoted Lyle appears, his attention sometimes feels threatening, and she hesitates to open up to him. Slowly, she does. Passion returns, and they grow close.