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Can a beautiful young woman’s native wit and uncommon intelligence conquer an overpowering and deep-seated guilt that is destroying her life? That is the central question of Magdalenes, which one reviewer described as “the heart-breaking and courageous story of Sarah Beth LaBranche.”
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When Sarah Beth rents a room from Annedette Cheramie and meets the regal Creole lady’s grandson, Frank, her life is forever changed. Sarah Beth becomes Frank’s nurse, accountant and research assistant. Collecting his bills, helping him with patients using the latest in Victorian medical treatments and seeking a cure for a blinding eye disease, she falls in love with him. Now her terrible secret must be kept from the two people she holds most dear – her mother and Frank. Ever fearful that Frank will discover the awful truth about her, Sarah Beth helps him battle the 1905 Yellow Fever Epidemic, fighting ignorance, corruption and bigotry in a heroic struggle to help Frank banish his own demons. But each victory brings Sarah Beth’s secret closer to being discovered.
Magdalenes is not a typical romance, nor the usual medical thriller. Scrupulously researched, it blends the best elements of these genres into a compelling historical novel of tragedy, betrayal and redemption.
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I have been writing professionally since 1990, with articles in well over a hundred issues of various national, regional and local business publications. Magdalenes, my first published novel, was a finalist in an America’s Best novel competition sponsored by the Writers Foundation, as was another of the my novels, Soul Searching. My short story, Seventeen Minutes Toward the End of Winter, was a finalist in an America’s Best short fiction competition and earned honorable mention in a Writer’s Digest short story contest.
Magdalenes ($21.95; ISBN 0-595-17300-4) is published by Writer’s Choice Press and is available from iUniverse, http://www.iuniverse.com
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