About
Lori Ann Stephens’s debut novel, Song of the Orange Moons,will be released in October 2010 by Blooming Tree Press. When she's not writingor teaching writing, she reads, dances, and eats the best gourmet, home-cookedmeals. She is not the cook. She lives in Plano, Texas with her family.
Vital Temptations: A Heart's Betrayal
Description
<p>Dr. Bethany McNeal is living her dream as a pediatric resident in one of the most sought-after medical centers in Seattle. Beautiful and intelligent, she’s missing only one thing—love, which she put on hold to focus on her career after ending a tumultuous relationship. Everything changes when she meets Dr. Brent Anderson, a charming and handsome fellow resident. Despite her reservations, Bethany falls for Brent—hard. When she learns Brent is married several months into their relationship, she immediately breaks it off. After graduating residency and going their separate ways, Bethany tries to move on with another man—real estate broker and personal trainer Charles Blakely. But just when things get serious with Charles, she realizes she’s still in love with Brent, and she finds herself caught between the two men, facing a series of difficult decisions and harrowing events that will change her life forever. Will she be able to recover from the vital temptations that turned her perfect life upside down?</p>
Story Behind The Book
SONG OF THE ORANGE MOONS is a mosaic of stories that follow the intertwined lives of three girls coming of age. Two young girls and an elderly widow try to find happiness in a seemingly cruel world. In spite of their different cultural and economic backgrounds, Rebecka, Helen, and Adelle all share the delicate, self-conscious journey to womanhood. All three search for love and meaning in a variety of places-- a charismatic church, a Depression-era orphanage, a moonlit Savannah park, an orthodox Jewish boarding school-- and end up finding lasting strength in the power of their friendships.
Reviews
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span><span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman';"></span></span></span></em><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Nuanced
and lovely, written in three pitch-perfect voices of narrators aching for a
self, <em>Song of the Orange Moons</em> is an enchanting debut novel from an
exciting new writer. ~ Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <em>A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain</em></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span style="color:#000000;">In this premiere novel, Lori Ann
Stephens offers a poignant allegory of our time. Each of her characters seeks the
true nature of the woman within; each must recognize and accept both the
bitterness and the sweetness of life’s deeper truths.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#000000;"> Clay
Reynolds, award-winning author of <em>Monuments</em> and <em>Franklin’s
Crossing</em>. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The characters and, just as importantly,
the words in Lori Ann Stephens’s debut novel will stay with you long after you
close the cover. Full of heart and startling images, <em>Song of the Orange Moons</em> is a haunting book about love and loss.
The interwoven stories of a widow and her two young neighbors are humorous and
horrific, and crafted with bittersweet honesty. I highly recommend it.<span> </span><span> </span>~Robert
Nelsen, president of the University of Texas-Pan American</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a book about love, loss, reclamation. Stephens reconstructs the
brutal, vivid experience of childhood with startling clarity. A fine,
exquisite novel full of feeling and careful observation.<span class="il"></span><br />
~Claudia Smith, Pushcart Prize nominee and author of <em>The Sky is a Well</em>, and <em>Put
Your Head in My Lap</em></span></p>