Tuesday, May 31, 2016

"The Fairest of Them All"

Cathy Maxwell spends hours in front of her computer pondering the question, "Why do people fall in love?" It remains for her the great mystery of life and the secret to happiness. She lives in beautiful Virginia with children, horses, dogs, and cats.

Maxwell applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Fairest of Them All, and reported the following:
The Fairest of Them All is about missed chances and making amends. As in every Romance novel, there are many types of love to be explored. Page 69 features the most poignant and the most complicated—familial love.

Over seventeen years ago, Lord Jack Whitridge disappeared from his bed at school. His family searched for him but could find no evidence to what had happened. They didn’t know if he’d runaway, had been kidnapped, or fallen to childish pranks or bad company.

Now Jack has returned home without any warning or obvious regrets about leaving, until he faces his mother. Marcella has mourned her son. He stands before her, whole and alive. What is a mother to do?

Siblings may hold grudges, outsiders may judge, but a mother has only one response:
“I had to see him again, to feel him. I needed to be certain I wasn’t dreaming.” She leaned close and Jack felt his arms go around her in the same manner that she had once hugged him when he was half his size.

His mother seemed impossibly small in his arms.

She drew a deep breath. “Yes, you are my Jack. You have the scent I always remembered about you.”

“What? Flowers and roses?” Gavin suggested.

“Dirty potatoes,” their mother answered, straightening and smiling up at Jack. “Welcome home, my son.”
Visit Cathy Maxwell's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Groom Says Yes.

--Marshal Zeringue