Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the "Reader Match"
where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It's our great pleasure
to present
Mary Ellen Taylor.
Writes:
Mary Ellen Taylor novels, including my latest,
WINTER COTTAGE, are contemporary โwomenโs fictionโ
stories entwined with history that informs their present day plots and, to varying extent, the
mysteries at their center. Regardless of the direction the story takes, at heart the books all
explore life, love, friends and family and delve into the need we all have to belong and to find
our way.
About:
A native of Virginia, my love for my home state is evident in my contemporary womenโs fiction
novels. My first four, beginning with
THE UNION STREET BAKERY, are set in Alexandria and the town is,
in some way, a silent character in each. In my latest,
WINTER COTTAGE
, Virginiaโs Eastern Shore topography and weather are essential to the scenes and actions
of that story. I still live in Virginia where Iโve raised my family, built my career and now enjoy an
empty nest along with my husband and three miniature dachshunds. I continue to get great
pleasure writing stories exploring issues of family, home and belonging as Mary Ellen Taylor
and suspense novels as Mary Burton.
What Iโm looking for in my ideal reader match:
Enjoys pondering the dynamics of family, friends, love, and life.
Relishes a bit of history mixed in with the drama of a novel.
Relates to protagonists who are flawed but honest.
Savors a story of relationships their challenges.
Embraces a touch of romance in fiction.
Willing to cry alongside characters as they sort out their lives.
Delighted to come across new historical details and facts.
Finds it perfectly normal to be wide awake reading into the night.
Loves to share favorite books and authors with other readers.
Walks carefully around the TBR pile so as not to trip over it.
What to expect if weโre compatible:
Numerous chances to laugh and cry along with me and my characters.
The satisfaction that comes with a slice of chocolate cake or a great wine.
My appreciation for your support of my writing and a standing invite to join me at my site and
on social media.
A gripping novel about family secretsโฆand coming home for the first
time.
Still grieving the loss of her wandering, free-spirited mother, Lucy
Kincaid leaves Nashville for the faded town of Cape Hudson, Virginia.
She goes to see the house sheโs inheritedโone she never knew
existed, bequeathed to her by a woman sheโs never even met. At the
heart of this mystery is the hope that maybeโjust maybeโthis โWinter
Cottageโ will answer the endless questions about her motherโs pastโฆ
including the identity of her birth father.
Rather than the quaint Virginian bungalow Lucy expected, Winter
Cottage is a grand old estate of many shadowsโbig enough to hold a
century of secrets, passions, and betrayals. It also comes with a
handsome and enigmatic stranger, a man next in line to claim Lucyโs
inheritance.
Now, as Lucy sifts through the past, uncovering the legacy of secrets
that Winter Cottage holds, sheโll come to discover as much about her
family history as she does about herself. In searching, she could finally
find the one thing sheโs never really had: a home.
Women's Fiction | Women's
Fiction Contemporary [Montlake, On Sale: October 16,
2018, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 978150390388 / ]
Novelist Mary Ellen Taylor writes about relationships, family and tackling adversity in her
contemporary womenโs fiction. Sheโs spent most of her life in her birthplace, Richmond,
Virginia, but during her brief time in Alexandria, she fell in love with that city, its history and its
famed โOld Townโ section. Unbeknownst to her, they would later inspire her books, The View
from Prince Street, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Spring 2015 Okra Pick At
the Corner of King Street, Sweet Expectations and The Union Street Bakery. It surprises no
one aware of her love of history that each of these Alexandria set stories includes โwhispers
from the pastโ--- threads tying the present to what has come before, including people and
events from the cityโs founding through Civil War heroism.
Mary Ellen, also known for her New York Times bestselling romantic suspense written as Mary
Burton, grew up in a southern family that embraced stories of all kinds, from a well-told
anecdote to a good yarn or a tall tale. โI realized early on the tremendous power stories have
to inspire laughter, love, sorrow and even fear. It didnโt matter if they were found in the pages
of a book, spoken in hushed tones around a campfire, or shared at an old-fashioned family
reunion. Stories create connections and I knew thatโs what I wanted to do,โ says Mary Ellen.
In addition to writing, cooking and baking are important creative outlets for Mary Ellen and
sheโs been known to name recipes in honor of her characters. She earned her Baking and
Pastry Arts Certificate at the University of Richmondโs Culinary Arts Program. Her two
passions---writing and baking---merged for the first time in The Union Street Bakery and,
though her Alexandria set stories arenโt set in imaginary Old Townโs Union Street Bakery, the
culinarian in Mary Ellen canโt resist slipping in food references and favorite recipes.
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