Almost Paradise
By (Author) Corabel Shofner
St Martin's Press
St Martin's Press
1st June 2018
United States
Children
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Law, police and crime
813.6
304
Width 130mm, Height 192mm, Spine 20mm
225g
Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson's life changes the day her mother's boyfriend holds up a convenience store, and her mother is wrongly jailed for assisting with the crime. Ruby and her pet pig, Bunny, find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor's home. Aunt Eleanor is an ornery nun who lives in the midst of a peach orchard on Paradise Ranch. With a little patience, she and Ruby begin to get along, but Eleanor has secrets of her own - secrets that might mean more hard times for Ruby. It's not going to be easy for Ruby Clyde and Eleanor to heal old wounds, face the past, and learn to trust each other. But with enough little pieces of love, they might be able to bring their family together again, and learn that paradise isn't a place - it's the feeling of being home.
"One undersized but indomitable tomboy tackles tough issues with wry humor as she attempts to create the home and family for which she yearns. Ruby's folksy precociousness and determination are as endearing as her realization that the world is not perfect and that love comes in pieces. . . . Rich in Southern flavor, loaded with biblical references and even a scattering of Dickens quotes: a rollicking read." --Kirkus Reviews
Corabel Shofner is a wife, mother, attorney, and author. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English literature and was on Law Review at Vanderbilt University School of Law. Her shorter work has appeared or is forthcoming in Willow Review, Word Riot, Habersham Review, Hawai'i Review, Sou'wester, South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review, and Xavier Review. Almost Paradise is her first novel. corabelshofner.com