The last thing that Cassandra Higgins expects out of her Sunday is to be mesmerized at a collectors’ convention by a snowglobe. She’s enjoying some mommy time, with husband, Ken, at home tending their brood of four young boys, when she’s utterly charmed by the one-of-a kind globe containing figures of three dogs and a little girl with hair the color of her own. She can’
t resist taking the unique globe home-even if means wrestling another shopper for it!
The beautiful snowglobe sparks long-dormant memories for Cassandra, of her beloved Grandpa Wonky, the stray she rescued as a child, and the painful roots of her combative relationship with her mother, “Bad Betty”
Kamrowski. Life in Wanonishaw, Minnesota is never dull, though, and Cassandra keeps the recollections at bay, busy balancing her boys, her home daycare operation, and being a good friend to best pal, Margret. But after a strange-flurrious, as Cassandra deems it-moment happens with the remarkable snowglobe, Cassandra and the people she loves are swirled into a tumultuous, yet grace-filled, and lifechanging journey.
With the quirky, close-knit Midwestern small-town feel that made Charlene Ann Baumbich’
s acclaimed Dearest Dorothy novels so popular, Stray Affections invites readers to experience the joy and the healing of second chances.
“Inspirational novelist Baumbich (Dearest Dorothy series) presents readers with a lovely story of forgiveness, restoration and a dash of hopeful whimsy thrown in for pure pleasure. Baumbich, whose nonfiction is frequently self-deprecating and thoroughly comedic, offers her fiction fans a tale that is “flurrious” with the unexpected and unimagined as Cassandra Higgins, mom to four young boys and day-care provider, sets upon a course of self-discovery after purchasing a snow globe. Cassandra, whose father committed suicide and whose mother barely, and bitterly so, continues to face life one day at a time, revisits her childhood pain as she gazes into this glass globe containing three dogs and a girl resembling herself. This young mother realizes that even with a loving husband, children and a life absent of any major catastrophe, the past continues to wield a mighty force that shapes present-day attitudes and lingering emotional afflictions. Baumbich reaches deep into the heart’s recesses, but does so with the precision of the most skilled emotional physician. For that, her readers will feel nothing but gratitude.”
-Publisher’
s Weekly
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charlene Ann Baumbich is a popular author and speaker and an award-winning journalist. Her stories, essays, and columns have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Today’s Christian Woman. In addition to her Dearest Dorothy series of novels, she has written six nonfiction books of humor and inspiration. She lives in Glen Ellyn, Illinois with retired hubby, George, and Kornflake, her big red dog. Kornflake was adopted from the Winona Area Humane Society in Winona, Minnesota. He helped her write much of this book by cheering her on, taking her for muse-inducing walks, and keeping her toes warm while she typed. For more information about Charlene’
s upcoming books, visit her website http://www.charleneannbaumbich.com
Thanks for the lovely coverage for my latest novel! I just came through Northfield a couple weeks ago and in fact interviewed one of your residents during research for the series.
Although I live in the Chicagoland area, I do all my writing in Winona MN and would love to come do a reading in your store, should you feel so inclined–especially since Stray Affections is set in the fictional town of Wanonishaw MN, which is not too far from Northfield ;>). Please visit my website and fire me an e-mail, if you’re interested.
Again, thanks for the coverage.
Peace and grins,
Charlene Ann Baumbich
Author, STRAY AFFECTIONS
The first book in the Snowglobe Connections series