Coming Soon: The Bennetts Bloom!

When Fern Mattingly moves in next door to twenty-something widower Dave Bennett and his toddler daughter, Grace, the three of them form an instant bond. At first Fern is just a neighbor, but over time she becomes Dave's cheerleader, mentor, dining partner, babysitter, best friend, and eventually, after nearly sixteen years, something more. This collection of flash fiction stories is a mosaic of moments from the lives of Fern, Dave, and Grace, that celebrate the healing power of friendship and remind us that the best relationships sometimes take a long time to bloom, but they flourish beautifully in the end.

The Bennetts Bloom is a novel in flash. 

It tells a long-form story in short scenes of 1000 words or less. Most chapters stand alone, but they also stand together to tell a story spanning two decades. At 300+ pages, it is a novel-length book.

There are 85 flash fiction stories in the book.
Many of the stories started out as Flash Fiction Magic posts, but some of those have been changed or omitted from the book as the plot required. There are also dozens of stories that never appeared on Instagram.

This book is a slow burn.
Fern and Dave take sixteen years to get together, but because the stories jump fairly quickly through time, hopefully it won’t feel that long to you. (Dave’s daughter Grace and her boyfriend take a lot less time - only the last quarter of the book.)

The Bennetts Bloom includes kissing-only romance.
There is quite a bit of kissing, and there are some side characters who try to push the envelope, but nothing more than kissing happens on the page. I would allow a teenager to read this book (though I don’t think a teen would be especially interested.)

This book has several fun ‘90s references.
Dave was born in 1979 and Fern in 1980, so they were teens in the ‘90s. I threw in some pop culture references for my fellow Xennials. My favorite is the scene that references Full House.

There will be a paperback and an e-book.
Unlike Library Lovebirds, my mini-collection of library-themed short romances, The Bennetts Bloom will be available in paperback as well as e-book. The e-book will also be in Kindle Unlimited.

A related short story will be in an anthology.
Missing from this book is the story of how Dave’s best friend and former brother-in law Isaac becomes Dave’s best man at his wedding to Fern. It’s called “The Best Man Blowup” and it will be published in I Love You Unconventionally from Dragon Bone Publishing.

E-book pre-orders are open!
If you’re a Kindle reader, you can pre-order your e-book copy on Amazon now! The paperback will be for sale on January 14th.