Suzanne Strempek Shea – författare

Lily Wilk always knew she was destined to be an artist, ever since she pulled a drawing kit from a grab bag on her tenth birthday. Now Lily's work is always in demand around her small Massachusetts town, where she makes her living painting everything from fire hydrants to 'Gulls' and 'Buoys' signs on the bathroom doors at the local seafood restaurant. But when supermarket heiress Mary Ziemba commissions her to paint a family portrait, Lily senses that her lifelong dream of creating a memorable masterpiece is finally within her grasp. What she discovers however, is that dreams often take unexpected twists...and with each small and gentle brush stroke she applies to Mary Ziemba's painting, Lily learns more than she ever imagined about the meaning of friendship, family and love.

Growing up in a small New England town, 14 year-old Donna Milewski had all she needed: a grandmother, Babci, whose fragrant cooking filled their home...her mother, Helen, who lovingly stitched outfits...and Adam, the most wonderful father a daughter could imagine, who dreamed she could one day lead an all-girl polka band. Then came Betty, a tiny and adorable five-year-old, sent from Poland by Adam's destitute brother. Bringing with her only a rubber doll's leg and her old-world charm, Betty became the little sister Donna never had -- and a threat to her father's love. During a long and painful rift, a dance of betrayal and hurt, Donna must look to her beloved polka music for the key to healing.

Advertising to sell her engagement ring after being left at the altar by a man who decided to enter the clergy instead, a young woman meets Randy, a recently engaged prospective buyer who keeps coming back to see her.

'Word of a good deed travels far. Word of a bad deed travels even farther.' When Robyn Panek is summoned by her ailing Uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for one final season, her initial reaction is resistance. After all, it has been a long twenty-two years since she's returned to the beloved Massachusetts farm, the idyllic spot where she spent the vacations of her youth. Pulled back by forces even stronger than her memories, Robyn must now try to piece together the events of that final, fateful childhood summer, when a dark mystery and chilling rumours swirled about her former friend Lucy Dragon. Seeking to finally uncover the truth abouth Lucy's strange and sudden vanishing, Robyn's own future begins to seem every bit as uncertain as Uncle Pal's beloved ponies as she braces herself to confront a past from which she ran so long ago, and to come to terms with the life she has since made for herself.

Sophie didn't expect to fall in love with the quaint Irish village of Booley. Before she visited, she couldn't even find it on a map! She's there for a vacation, but finds she doesn't want to leave lush, green Ireland - not to mention Liam, the handsome shopkeeper whose store she has been helping to run. Sophie extends her stay and finds herself welcomed into this quirky community with open arms. The villagers bend her ear with gossip and history about themselves. But the story she is most interested in is that of Finola O'Flynn - the namesake of the shop she works in, former tenant of the cottage where she lives, and Liam's ex-girlfriend. She left over a year before, but tales of her time there still flourish throughout town. The elusive Finola is clearly well-loved by everyone and begins to take on an almost-mythical status. Sophie's new mantra becomes WWFD or What would Finola do? She even starts to wear the clothes that Finola left in her closet and speaking in an Irish brogue at the store. With this new philosophy, Sophie's life magically begins to change for the better. She is more centred and more open to other people's affections. And her relationship with Liam is growing serious. But trouble begins when the object of Sophie's adulation makes her appearance--is there enough room in Booley for two Finolas?

Advertising to sell her engagement ring after being left at the altar by a man who decided to enter the clergy instead, a young woman meets Randy, a recently engaged prospective buyer who keeps coming back to see her.

In the latest novel from the award-winning author of Around Again, an American takes an unexpected trip to Ireland and finds the woman she was meant to become.Newly unemployed, Sophie White has nothing better to do when her recently widowed best friend, Gina, invites her along on a much-needed, postcrisis getaway. When, after only one day in Ireland, Gina decides she should do her grieving back at home, she urges Sophie to remain and make the most of the summer in Booley, the tiny seaside village that was their destination.A job offer accepted on a whim lands her in the village''s craft shop, and in the position once held by Finola O''Flynn, a woman who''d swiftly left town a few years before. Sophie takes on Finola''s job of creating beaded bracelets, but also takes over Finola''s abandoned home, then Finola''s left-behind wardrobe, and finally, after her own episode of lost love, Finola''s discarded man, charismatic shop owner Liam. But could Sophie -- or anyone -- ever take over the legendary place that her predecessor still holds in the hearts of Booley?Friend, confidante, and guru to all -- literally a lifesaver to some -- even in her absence Finola continues to captivate. Her myth manages to reenergize Sophie, who passes along the gift through bracelets she infuses with invented "powers" that make the wearers believe they have what it takes to face life''s challenges. But is Sophie powerful enough to face a whopper of her own when Finola returns to Booley and to the life she deserted? Does Sophie have the magic to make room in one tiny village for two women who want the very same life?

Lily Wilk always knew she was destined to be an artist -- ever since she pulled a drawing kit from a grab bag on her tenth birthday. Now Lily''s work is always in demand around her small Massachusetts town, where she makes her living painting fire hydrants, lettering diplomas, and applying "Gulls" and "Buoys" to restaurant bathroom doors. But when supermarket heiress Mary Ziemba commissions her to paint a family portrait, Lily senses her lifelong dream of creating a memorable masterpiece is finally within her grasp. What she discovers, however, is that dreams often take their own unexpected twists...and with each small and gentle brush stroke she applies to Mary Ziemba''s painting, Lily learns more than she ever imagined about the meaning of friendship, family, and love.With a gift for creating fiction that is "rich with an unusual sweetness" (USA Today) and filled with wry humor, bestselling author Suzanne Strempek Shea delivers a poignant and unforgettable work of art in Lily of the Valley.

When Robyn Panek is summoned by her ailing uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for one final season on his Massachusetts farm, her years away form the vacation spot of her youth seem an unbridgeable gap. But she is pulled by forces stronger than memory to piece together the events of that last childhood summer -- when a dark mystery swirled about her friend Lucy Dragon. They called her crazy, and Robyn must at last uncover the truth about Lucy''s sudden disappearance -- and make peace with her own first love, Frankie. Now the future of Pal''s six ponies, who circle the ring five times for a dollar a ride, is as uncertain as Robyn''s own, as she confronts the past she ran from so long ago.

Growing up in a small New England town, 14 year-old Donna Milewski had all she needed: a grandmother, Babci, whose fragrant cooking filled their home...her mother, Helen, who lovingly stitched outfits...and Adam, the most wonderful father a daughter could imagine, who dreamed she could one day lead an all-girl polka band.Then came Betty, a tiny and adorable five-year-old, sent from Poland by Adam''s destitute brother. Bringing with her only a rubber doll''s leg and her old-world charm, Betty became the little sister Donna never had -- and a threat to her father''s love. During a long and painful rift, a dance of betrayal and hurt, Donna must look to her beloved polka music for the key to healing.

Soap operas have captured loyal, often lifelong viewers since the first American daytime serial debuted in 1949. In this collection of 29 new and five classic essays and recollections, authors and soap opera insiders delve into the passion for television melodrama that compels viewers to "tune in tomorrow." The contributors include iconic soap star Thorsten Kaye, journalist Leigh Montville, authors Elinor Lipman and Ann Hood, and editors of Soaps in Depth magazine. They explore the soap phenomenon from a range of perspectives and consider the appeal of a venerable genre in which, as novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard observes, "everyone's life was more depressing than mine."