Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match" where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It's our great pleasure to present Valerie Fraser Luesse!
Writes:
Hello, there! I’m excited for the opportunity to introduce myself. I love tapping into my years as a travel writer for Southern Living magazine to really take readers deep into a Southern setting, whether that’s rural Alabama, a remote Louisiana bayou town, or a long, rambling coastal highway to Key West. I want you to forget where you are and travel with me into the fictional worlds of my characters, which are always rooted in the real South, a place I know and love and find endlessly fascinating.
My latest novel, Letters from My Sister (Revell, August 2023) turns back the clock to the early 20th century. Sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee, granddaughter of the Bullocks’ trusted housekeeper. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly - and innocently - draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets Midwestern transplant Solomon Beckett, who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self. When Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something she was never meant to see - or did she? Her memory is a haze. Only when she and Emmy are separated does the truth slowly come to light through their letters to each other - including a revelation that will shape the rest of Callie’s life.
About:
I enjoy characters with a sense of humor; realistic dialogue that sounds the way Southerners actually talk; intriguing landscapes with sweeping fields and woodlands, rivers, creeks, and bayous; tiny towns where everybody knows everybody; the sound of cicadas and thunder and wind in the trees. I love romance and mystery and characters who are willing to venture into treacherous emotional territory.
What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match:
- Must appreciate that “opposites attract” thing because I’m a big fan, as you’ll see
- Should keep an open mind about the hard questions
- Should enjoy a little sleuthing
- Must promise not to skim over the food. Southerners love a great spread, and I take care with those food descriptions, so come back for seconds.
What to expect if we're compatible:
- A transportive experience that makes you feel like you’re watching the story unfold, not just reading it
- Memorable characters you’ll want to spend time with
- A questioning eye on social norms
- Laughter
- Emotional connection
Two Sisters. One Single Event. A Family Changed Forever.
At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly--and innocently--draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.
After Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something she was never meant to see--or did she? Her memory is a haze, just an image in her mind of Emmy standing on a darkened riverbank and cradling Lily's missing baby girl. Only when the sisters are separated does the truth slowly come to light through their letters--including a revelation that will shape the rest of Callie's life.
Bestselling author Valerie Fraser Luesse weaves a complex and suspenseful tale dripping with intrigue, romance, and Southern charm.
Women's Fiction Southern | Women's Fiction Historical | Suspense Historical [Revell, On Sale: August 15, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780800741600 / ]
Valerie Fraser Luesse is the author of five novels set in the South: Christy Award winner Missing Isaac (2018), Almost Home (2019), The Key to Everything (2020), Under the Bayou Moon (August 2021), and Letters from My Sister (coming in 2023), all published by Revell Books. An award-winning magazine writer, Luesse is perhaps best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she wrote major pieces on the Mississippi Delta, Acadian Louisiana, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on the recovering Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, photographed by Mark Sandlin, won the 2009 Travel Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. Luesse earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Auburn University and Baylor University, respectively. She is a native of Harpersville, Alabama, and lives in Birmingham, where she creates Southern fiction from a tiny writing studio she calls the Story Shack.
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