"The Rules of Love & Grammar"

Mary Simses grew up in Darien, Connecticut and began writing stories at the age of seven. In college, she majored in journalism because she didn’t believe she could ever make a living as a fiction writer. After working in magazine publishing for a few years, she went back to school to become a lawyer. While working as a corporate attorney, she enrolled in an evening fiction writing class at a university in Connecticut and began writing short stories “on the side.” Several of her stories were published in literary magazines. Simses finally took the advice of a friend and decided to try writing a novel. That manuscript ultimately became The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Café, a number one best-seller in Germany.

Simses applied the Page 69 Test to The Rules of Love & Grammar, her second novel, and reported the following:

On page 69 of The Rules of Love & Grammar, writer and wordsmith Grace Hammond, now 33, is at the Sugar Bowl, a luncheonette where she used to hang out as a teenager. Grace is back in her home town of Dorset, Connecticut, staying with her parents after encountering the trifecta of bad luck – she lost her job, her boyfriend dumped her, and part of the ceiling in her New York City apartment caved in because of a water leak. But coming home has always been a tumultuous experience for Grace, who has still not come to terms with the death of her older sister seventeen years earlier.

Grace, who has a penchant for taking out her Sharpie and correcting any grammatical mistakes she encounters, is sitting in one of the Sugar Bowl’s booths with her childhood friend, Cluny. Grace and Cluny discover that Grace’s high school boyfriend, Peter, is also there. Grace and Peter shared their first dance and kiss during their sophomore year of high school at an event called the Cinderella Ball. Peter, now a successful Hollywood director, is in town filming scenes from his new movie. As Grace and Peter speak to one another for the first time since high school, Grace realizes she’s still very attracted to Peter and makes it her goal to win him over again.

The Rules of Love & Grammar is a story about family relationships, love, and the need to accept the past – both the good and the bad. It’s also about the futility of striving for an error-free life.

Learn more about the book and author at Mary Simses's website and follow her on Facebook.

My Book, The Movie: The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe.

--Marshal Zeringue