"The House on Primrose Pond"

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of novels such as A Wedding in Great Neck and You Were Meant for Me as well as dozens of books for children. She is the editor of and a contributor to The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty, as well as All the Available Light: A Marilyn Monroe Reader.

McDonough applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The House on Primrose Pond, and reported the following:

On page 69 of The House on Primrose Pond, Susannah Gilmore makes an important discovery. Ever since she moved into the New Hampshire house her parents left her and discovered a love letter to her mother that was clearly not written by her father, she’s been on quest. Talking to friends and neighbors of her parents, and combing the house for clues, Susannah is determined to learn the identity of her mother’s secret lover. And on page 69, she goes out to the woodshed, a place she has not yet explored. There, nearly buried by a stack of logs, is a small, flowered cosmetic bag which contains a tube of Revlon’s Fire and Ice lipstick—her mother’s signature shade—and a bottle of nail polish whose “contents had solidified to a dark, mottled mass.” And she also finds a bunch of yellowed clippings—poems from a now-folded local newspaper. One is a love poem entitled "Say Yes." Though it is signed with a nom de plume, this poem turns out to be instrumental in Susannah’s search, and the person to whom it leads her is the last person on Earth she would have suspected.

Learn more about the author and her work at Yona Zeldis McDonough's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Willa and Holden.

The Page 69 Test: You Were Meant For Me.

My Book, The Movie: You Were Meant for Me.

Writers Read: Yona Zeldis McDonough.

--Marshal Zeringue