Billie Starr's Book of Sorries by Deborah E. Kennedy

Funny yet bitingly realistic look at small-town lifea€¦A grim literary
mystery and a hopeful family story, this genre-blending novel manages
to be both charming and heartbreaking.a€ - Kirkus
"An enthralling suspense thrillera€¦Exquisite prose matches deep
characterization. Kennedy deserves to win an Edgar.a€ - Publishers
Weekly, starred review
Sometimes, a woman has to rescue herself.
Jenny Newberg, Queen of Bad Decisions, is about to make another one. In a
small town where everyone knows everyonea's business, down-on-her-luck
single mother Jenny is on a first-name basis with the debt collector at the
bank, who is moving toward foreclosure. She is constantly apologizing to her
precocious young daughter, Billie Starr, who is filling a book with her
mothera's sorries, and it seems to Jenny that no apology will ever be enough.
Then a pair of strangers in black suits offers her a hefty check to seduce
someone known as the Candidate. Finally, something will go her way.
But nothing ever goes as Jenny plans, and she is swept into the Candidatea's
orbit. Surrounded by a wide universe of new ideas, she realizes how
constrained her life has been by the expectations of everyone around her, and
she starts to see how much more she might be capable of. And when her
world is (...)

Deborah E. Kennedy is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a recent
graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Kennedy has worked as both a
reporter and editor, and also holds a Master's in Fiction Writing and English
Literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Tornado Weatheris her
debut novel.

Flatiron Books
On Sale: Oct 3/23
5.38 x 8.25 • 320 pages
9781250138453 • $23.99 • pb
Fiction / Family Life