Kaya McLaren – författare

A woman finds her home—and herself—in the place and community she rejected, in this novel of complicated family and friendships.

As a young girl, Willow watched her mother leave their home in Washington State in a literal blaze of glory: she set the mattress of her cheating husband on fire in her driveway, roasting marshmallow peeps and hot dogs before the fire department arrived.

And with that, she and Willow set off to New Mexico, to a new life, to a world of arroyos and canyons bordering an Apache reservation. Willow was devastated. Her eccentric mother believed in this new life and set about starting a winery and goat ranch. But for Willow, it meant initially being bullied and feeling like an outsider. Today, as a grown woman, Willow much prefers Los Angeles and her job as a studio musician. But things tend to happen in threes: her mother dies, her boyfriend dumps her, and Willow discovers she is pregnant.

The DeVine Winery and Goat Ranch is all she has left, even if it is in financial straits and unmanageable back taxes. There is something, though, about the call of “home.” She''s surprised to find that her Apache best friend Darrel along with the rest of the community seems to think she belongs far more than she ever thought she did. Can Willow redefine what home means for her, and can she make a go of the legacy her mother left behind?

Told with Kaya McLaren’s humor and heart, The Road to Enchantment is a story about discovering that the last thing you want is sometimes the one thing you need.

Jill Anthony spent her youth in the ski town of Sparkle, Colorado, but more than a decade has passed since she left. Then a devastating tragedy, coupled with the worst kind of betrayal, makes her want to run away, but the only place she knows to go is home: Sparkle.

Lisa Carlucci looks in the mirror one morning and realizes that she no longer wants to treat her body like a Holiday Inn. She’s going to hold out for love. The only problem is, love might come in the form of her ski-bum best friend, who lives next door with his ski-bum friends in a trailer known as “The Kennel.”

Cassie Jones, at age ten, has lost her mother and no longer believes in anything. Her only solace comes from the messages she believes her deceased mother is sending her through the heart-shaped rocks they once collected in the streams and hills of Sparkle.

Three people at the crossroads of heartbreak and healing. Three lives that will be changed one winter in Sparkle, Colorado. One tender, funny, tear-jerking novel that you won’t soon forget.

The past and present collide as five women work to save the summer camp of their youth in this heartwarming novel

The Firelight Girls is a story of three generations of women and men whose lives are pieced back together when they return to the place that made them who they are, a summer camp on Lake Wenatchee in Washington State. Seventy year old Ethel is directionless after losing Haddie, the love of her life, to a heart-attack. Camp was where they met way back in the fifties, and they made their home down the shore from camp. Once a vibrant, capable camp counselor, Shannon has just had her heart shattered by the loss of her job. Ruby, estranged from Ethel for fifty years, has been living with a secret for almost as long. Finally, there is Amber, a homeless teen who has been hiding out in one of the cabins, hoping that no one at school will catch on to her plight. When they learn that the camp’s future is in jeopardy, Ethel and Ruby send out the alarm, reuniting campers and staff to save the place that was so instrumental in all of their lives. A story of enduring friendship and romance, The Firelight Girls is about what has been lost and what can still be created.