Heather's Review of SHANNON'S HOPE

It might sound strange, but I hadn't read SHANNON'S HOPE by Josi S. Kilpack straight through until it was released last month. The character I was writing at the time (Ruby) has a lot of interaction with Shannon, so Josi and I were continually hammering out scenes together. But I didn't know "the end" of Shannon's journey, or some of the steps along the way.

Before I met Josi, I was a fan of hers. And when she told me she read one of my books and enjoyed it, I was pretty excited since I thought she was a fabulous author. Over the years, I read everything she put out and became an avid Sadie Hoffmiller fan as well, often buying the book the first few days it hit the store, then neglecting other duties for a weekend while I read the latest Sadie adventure.

So, even though I'd read portions of SHANNON'S HOPE (heck, I even wrote a few scenes that Josi then transposed into Shannon's point of view), I went all "fan girl" when the book came out. And... I love it. Josi has a way of endearing the reader to her characters, and her characters are completely flawed, sometimes broken, but always relatable.

I hope you'll love the book as much as I did! Here's my official review:

"SHANNON'S HOPE kicks off the 2nd set in the Newport Ladies Book Club series. You can start with this one, or read the 1st set (Daisy, Olivia, Paige, Athena). Shannon is a pharmacist, married, with a 12 year old son. She's also Ruby Crenshaw's niece and gets roped into attending the book club by her aunt. Just before one of the meetings, her step-daughter comes back into her life after a failed stint in rehab. Determined to help Keisha in anyway she can, Shannon brings her step-daughter to book club.

What follows it a gripping, heart-wrenching story of a woman who only wants to help her step-daughter overcome her addictions and get her life back on track. In the author's introduction to the novel, she says, 'In my years of writing there are few books I've written that have explored things that are a part of my personal experience. SHANNON was one of those books for me . . . I have been a participant in the 'dance' of addiction and codependency and boundaries and letting go and forgiving . . . There is a fine line between hope and hopelessness sometimes; between love and self-preservation; between kindness and enabling . . . If you are a dancer, on any side of the issue, of which there are many sides, I wish you peace and perspective as you figure out your own steps.'

Thank you, Josi. I hope my journey will be stronger from learning about Shannon's hope..."



SHANNON'S HOPE is available on Amazon and Deseret Book and Barnes and Noble in both paperback and e-book!

Excerpt from Shannon's Hope

*Shannon is Ruby's niece, a pharmacist, a wife, a mother, and a step-mom. When her step daughter, Keisha, needs a place to live, Shannon is quick to volunteer their home, certain that with her help, Keisha can overcome her past issues with addiction and meet the potential Shannon has always seen in her.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter Five:

{Shannon arrives home from book group, after choosing next month's book on the fly. She's allowed Keisha to borrow her car to spend the evening with a friend.}

All the anxiety from the book group was finished and the pending discussion about the book I’d suggested was a month away. My two favorite men were in the other room and life was just good and calm and peaceful here. That’s why I’d wanted Keisha to come stay with us. I wanted her to feel the feeling I felt in our home. I wanted her to know what it was like to be a part of a family so that she could see a different, better future for herself. I spent a few minutes cleaning up the kitchen before John came in for a soda.

“I didn’t hear you come in,” he said, leaning down to kiss me as he passed me on his way to the fridge.

“I just got back,” I said, adding soap to the dishwasher.

“I was going to clean up,” he said, taking in the clean counters and sinks. Tonight was his night to do dinner and dishes.

“I really didn’t mind."

He leaned in and kissed me on the neck, making me smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, looking over my shoulder and giving him a flirty smile. “How was Landon’s game?”

“Great. He was two for three with his shots, and made both free throws. He’s come a long way.”

“I’m so glad,” I said as I rummaged in the fridge for a yogurt—Keisha ate two a day and I was having a hard time keeping up the supply. “I wish I’d been there. That’s the second game I’ve missed.” I didn’t say “Since Keisha had come,” but we both knew that’s what I meant.

“Where’s Keish?” John asked.

I paused for half a second, then kept any hesitation out of my voice when I spoke. “I let her borrow my car to meet up with a friend.”

“A friend?” John said, pulling up on the tab of his soda until it made the pop-hiss sound. He sipped the soda from the rim. “What friend?”

“Her name is Jessica, I guess they were in rehab together.”

Distrust pulled his eyebrows together. “She’s never said anything about Jessica.”

“I’m sure it’s fine. Jessica’s going to college; Keisha says she’s a good influence.” I turned my attention to pulling the foil top off the yogurt. “She’ll be back by 11:00.” I said the lie before I even realized I was doing it. I knew why I’d lied, though; because John would be in bed before 11:00 and I didn’t want him to know I’d allowed his daughter to stay out later than that without consulting him. My face went hot with the lie, though. It wasn’t like me to be dishonest.

“Hmmm,” he said before taking another drink. He looked at the clock on the stove. “I’ll wait up for her and make sure everything’s okay when she comes in.”

“Don’t do that,” I said quickly, finding a spoon in the drawer. “You don’t want her to think we’re checking up on her.”

“Why not?” he said as I took my first bite. We were both leaning against opposite counters. “She needs to be accountable, and know we’re paying attention.”

“She is accountable,” I said, waving my spoon through the air. “And this is the first time she’s asked for the car; we knew it would happen sooner or later. It’s okay. She needs to build herself a new life here, and that means we have to let go enough for her to do that. She’s with someone who’s clean and goal-oriented. Let’s not make too big a deal out of this.”

He was contemplative for a few more seconds, but then he gave me a playful smile. He reached across the space between us to grab my belt loop and pull me closer. I offered no resistance even though I almost dropped my spoon as I crossed the floor. “It’s good you’re here,” he said, putting his pop down on the counter behind him and placing both hands at my waist, moving my hips as though we were dancing. It was kinda sexy. “I’m always thinking the worst and you’re always willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.”

It felt good to have his compliments, or at least it would have felt good if I deserved them, but the lie I’d told sat heavy in my stomach. I did like seeing him softening toward this experience, though, and held on hard to that justification for what I’d done. I reached up and tapped him on the nose with my spoon. “If we don’t give her a chance to prove herself, she’ll never feel successful or know how strong she can be.”

John arched one eyebrow. “You don’t think keeping her locked up in a tower will help her prove her strength?”

I laughed. “Probably not.”

He leaned in and kissed me. I put my arms around his neck even though I was still holding my yogurt and spoon and kissed him back. “Thanks for loving my girl,” he whispered against my lips before pulling me into a hug.

His girl? Wasn’t she our girl?

John held me against him for a few seconds until Landon came in and made gagging sounds, then John dipped me and kissed me hard on the mouth, causing Landon to leave the room completely and me to drop my yogurt. He stood me back up, kissed me once more and helped me clean up the mess before returning to the game, leaving me with a smile and a reminder of why I’d married this wonderful man. He had always brought out the best in me and I liked to think I did the same for him. Especially with Keisha. I could tell him over and over again that he’d done the best he could at the time, but her drug issues had really done a number on his confidence as a father.

“It’s different this time,” I said to the cupboards and dishes hanging out with me in the kitchen. That was why I’d fudged on the curfew, because I needed things to be different and I could see how easy it would be for John to lose all hope. I could think of nothing worse than John giving up on her when she was unsteady on these new legs. So I would hold her hand through this, and hold John’s too and one day we’d all raise our hands triumphantly over our heads and know that we made it work. Keisha couldn’t do this without us, and John couldn’t support her without me. I would make this work. I had to.

Title Changes

        With the production for the second set in the Newport series ramping up we have all been trying to gather what we learned from the first set so as to ensure success of the next four books. There was a lot learned in the process of the first books. For instance, while we all loved the beach/reading scenes on the covers for the first set, some readers had expected the books to be light fun-loving romance novels due to the bright colors and 'soft' scenes. Even Athena, which is the only romance of those first four books, wasn't a light fun-loving story as much as it was a woman's journey to make peace with hard changes in her life. That there was an attractive man who pushed some of those issues into the spotlight for her, wasn't the only driving force of her story. While we had great response from our readers to the stories, the cover confusion is something we want to remedy with this second set. We're not yet sure what the covers will be, but we know they will still 'match' the first set, but be more reflective of the depth of story we're telling. It is interesting to note that Victoria (Julie Wright 2013) Ruby (Heather Moore 2014) do deal with fabulous love stories. Ilana (Annette Lyon 2014) and Shannon (July 2013), however, are solid women's fiction.

The other change that was suggested, to better reflect the content was to change the titles a little bit. While the first set were just the names of the character that book was about, the second set will be two word titles that include the main character's name, but also have a descriptive word. For Shannon, the title has been changed to Shannon's Hope. I will admit that I'm not in love with the change--I really like the idea of all eight books in the series matching through the single name title thing. But, I also realize that while I like to think I know how everything should be done, my part of this process is writing a really great story. The publisher studies trends and marketing aspects and reader feedback and all the other details that go in to choosing a title. So, Shannon's Hope it is and though I don't personally love it, I do see that it might better explain the story contained inside the pages and I am hopeful that it will help the readers as they dive into the pages.

Shannon's Hope will be published in July of this year. I'll post a cover and a pre-order link as soon as they are available.

Who Will Publish Shannon?

     Back in 2010, after Annette, Heather, Julie, and I had developed this idea and written the first 50 pages of the first set of Newport Ladies Bookclub books, we had a meeting with our publishers. I was under contract with Deseret Book and the three of them were under contract with Covenant so we brought them together to notify them of this project which was unlike anything any of us (including the publishers) had ever done.
     We pitched the idea of the series to them and brainstormed how this would work with two publishers interests to consider. We all then went our separate ways and for almost a year we had no idea how it would all work out. We expected that one publisher would end up doing all the books--of which we only had four planned at the time--but that's not how it came together. Instead, Deseret Book and Covenant agreed to work together on the books. They would coordinate covers and typesetting and release dates and marketing but, in the end, focus on the book(s) they were producing by the author(s) they had under contract. And it worked great. I was very pleased with the way they worked together and, from my perspective, things went quite smoothly.
     When all four books were done, Covenant purchased some copies of Daisy in order to make a 'set' of the books, and then we began exploring an e-book bundle. That's where things started to struggle. Would Covenant 'buy' some e-books of Daisy and bundle them with their titles? How would that work with copyrights and listings and permissions? Would they pay Deseret Book for every digital copy of Daisy, and if so, how much? If Deseret Book then sold the bundle, would they subtract the portion of profit from Daisy and pay Covenant for the other three? How would they track this? How would it work with combining ISBNs assigned to different entities? This was uncharted territory and many a brain was working on how to do this fairly, smoothly, and in the best way possible.
     Meanwhile, I had turned in Shannon and Lisa Mangum, my editor, was polishing it up for publication in May of 2013. Some weeks ago I got a call from Deseret Book exploring the idea of letting Covenant publish Shannon. Because of the issues that had arisen in regard to Daisy not being produced by the same company as the other three, they were wondering if it wouldn't make everything simpler to have Covenant do all four. While Daisy had "worked" it had created some time consuming considerations none of us had anticipated. I wanted whatever would work best for the book and the series and all the people involved and the more we had talked, the more it sounded like my working with Covenant would be the best solution.
     It was a few more weeks before the shift was made but as of now, Shannon is in the hands of the talented Samantha Millburn. It had already been edited by Lisa Mangum, so Sam is focusing mostly on typesetting and overall production. Because of the change, Shannon was pushed back to July of 2013 for release. Tori (by Julie Wright) is slated for October 2013, with Ilana (by Annette Lyon) and Ruby (by Heather Moore) to be released in 2014. I'm positive about the change and very much appreciate Deseret Book's willingness to forgo their position (which meant giving up significant revenue) and Covenant's willingness to take on the project (which meant shifting their production schedules.) I'm grateful to both companies for doing such a great job with the first set of books and I'm eager to have the second set come out as well.
     The whole thing has also been a reminder of how much goes into a published work. So many people, so much investment, so much ability and time and passion and thought--all so that words can go out into the world and, hopefully, do some good.
     Onward and upward, I hope you'll mark your calendars to get to know Shannon come July. :-)