Little Black Dress with Bonus Material (30 page)
Read Little Black Dress with Bonus Material Online
Authors: Susan McBride
“Do you figure he can see me?” Abby would frequently ask, and her mother had replied with an ebullient nod. “I have a feeling he's watching you always and that he's much nearer than you think. If he could find his way back, he would, I'm sure of it.”
Just as Abby needed to find her way back now.
Perhaps the baby was a sign that she'd gotten off track, that she'd lived her life according to Nate for so long that she'd pushed aside what was most important. Her mom and her aunts. The farm. The family. Her dad.
“We're going home,” she said and put a hand on her belly. Exhaling softly, she picked up her cell phone, hesitating but a second before she dialed Walnut Ridge. Her mother's phone rang and rang and rang without an answer, which worried her a little. Someone was always around the house, if not Gretchen then Aunt Bennie or Aunt Trudy.
She hung up and tried again, only to get a rapid busy signal.
Maybe they were having trouble with the lines. Could be a squirrel had chewed through them again. That had happened on more than one occasion, and it took the devil to get the service truck out to the old farm for repairs.
Well, no matter,
she told herself, ending the call. She'd call the office and tell Alan she was taking some sick days. Then she'd pack a bag and catch a cab to the train station. Her mom had told her over and over again, “If ever you need me, I'm here for you, any day, rain or shine.”
And, at the moment, Abby needed her something fierce.
Susan McBride is the author of
Little Black Dress
(William Morrow), which spent five weeks on the St. Louis bestsellers list and was a Target Recommended Read, a Literary Guild bestseller, and Doubleday Book Club bestseller. She also wrote
The Cougar Club
(02/10), selected by Target Stores as a Bookmarked Breakout Title and named a Midwest Connections Pick by the Midwest Booksellers Association.
Cougar
was hailed by
More Magazine
as one of their “Books We're Buzzing About.” Foreign editions of
The Cougar Club
have been published in Croatia and France with a Turkish edition in the works. Currently, Susan is conjuring up
The Truth About Love and Lightning
, another women's fiction book for HarperCollins/Morrow, and she has a young adult thriller,
Dead Address
, in the pipeline at Random House/Delacorte.
On the personal front, Susan calls herself an “accidental Cougar” after meeting a man nine years younger in 2005 when she was a
St. Louis Magazine
Top Single. They were married in February 2008 and live happily ever after in a suburb of St. Louis. Susan is a five-year breast cancer survivor and often speaks to women's groups about her experience. She was the cover girl for the February 2009 issue of
St. Louis Woman Magazine
, where she was featured in the article, “Paperback Princess.” For the past several years, Susan has appeared frequently on “Great Day St. Louis” (KMOV Channel 4, CBS affiliate) to recommend book picks. She was recently named one of St. Louis's “Most Dynamic People of the Year” by the
Ladue News
.
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“I'm madly in love with this full-of-surprises story about secrets, family ties, and one magical little black dress. One of my favorite novels of the year.”
âMelissa Senate, author of
The Secret of Joy
and
The Love Goddess' Cooking School
“I'll read anything by Susan McBride.”
âCharlaine Harris, #1
New York Times
bestselling author
“With a deft hand and a sensitive heart, Susan McBride spins a magical tale. A bittersweet, Gothic past melds perfectly with a tender and revelatory present. Part mystery, part love story. Emotionally satisfying,
Little Black Dress
is an enchanting escape into a magical and wonderful world. A delight to read.”
âM. J. Rose, internationally bestselling authorÂ
“
Little Black Dress
is a luminous story filled with magic and hope. I loved this tender, touching, and enchanting saga about the unique bond of mothers, daughters, and sisters.”
âEllen Meister, author of
The Other Life
“
Little Black Dress
is big on heart, secrets, and magic. This enchanting novel is a bookshelf essential.”
âKarin Gillespie, author of the Bottom Dollar Girl series and coauthor of
The Sweet Potato Queens' 1st Big-Ass Novel
“
Little Black Dress
is a delightful, emotional, and thoroughly engaging exploration of the connections that bind women together and the magic that's created when mothers, daughters, and sisters learn to open their eyes and hearts to their truest desires.”
âMarilyn Brant, author of
According to Jane
“Susan McBride's
Little Black Dress
sparkles with magic! It's part love story, part mystery, part family saga, all wrapped together in the wonder of an amazing little dress that will leave you crying and cheering. I loved this book!”
âJudy Merrill Larsen, author of
All the Numbers
Little Black Dress
The Cougar Club
Too Pretty to Die
Night of the Living Deb
The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club
The Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Blue Blood
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph © Burazin / Getty Images
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LITTLE BLACK DRESS.
Copyright © 2011 by Susan McBride. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 9780062027337
12Â Â Â 13Â Â Â 14Â Â Â 15Â Â Â 16Â Â Â Â OV/RRDÂ Â Â Â Â 10Â Â Â 9Â Â Â 8Â Â Â 7Â Â Â 6Â Â Â 5Â Â Â 4Â Â Â 3Â Â Â 2Â Â Â 1
An excerpt from
The Truth About Love and Lighting
Copyright © 2013 by Susan McBride
Little Black Dress with Bonus Material Epub 9780062268167 December 2012
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