Barbara Delinsky

BARBARA DELINSKY

What will bestselling author Barbara Delinsky do to celebrate the release of her new book? She'll hide. Seriously. From past experience, Delinsky knows that it's best to maintain distance from the fray. She resists the urge to browse in bookstores to check out the new releases competing with her latest novel. She tries not to sneak a quick look at bestseller lists or search through magazines for reviews. The perfect place to hide is her lake house at the end of a dirt road in New England, which lacks newspaper delivery and reliable Internet access.

With the release of her latest, Flirting With Pete, Delinsky is only hiding from critical and commercial success. Intricately weaving together two stories, Delinsky, explores the emotional complexities of fractured modern families in this gripping new release. Flirting with Pete introduces a new heroine, Casey Ellis, who gets to know her estranged father only after he's died and left her his estate--and an intriguing mystery to solve, about an abused young woman named Jenny. As Casey falls in love with the estate's gardener, Jordan, more than one shocking discovery awaits her. As Booklist praises, "seamlessly and compassionately weaving Jenny's unsettling past with Casey's uncertain future, Delinsky delivers a scintillating study of each woman's search for answers and absolution."

Born Ruth Greenberg in Boston, Delinksy's literary aspirations took decades to bloom. She acquired a Psychology B.A. at Tufts University and a Sociology M.A. at Boston College, which she parlayed in early jobs as a researcher in children's services and as a newspaper photographer/reporter. Finally, in the late 1970s, Delinsky, by then a wife and mother, read an article about women who wrote genre novels as they raised families. Energized, she wrote and completed her first book within three weeks, scribbling furiously on a pad of paper on her lap as she minded her young children. These days, she's upgraded to a desktop computer, but still occasionally dictates story ideas to her husband from the shower.

With her 1994 novel For My Daughters, Delinsky, who had written paperback romances under such pseudonyms as Billie Douglass and Bonnie Drake, made the leap to hardcover originals. The well-received book marked a transition in her career to writing longer, more complex stories noted for their vivid characters and multilayered plotting. A string of acclaimed, blockbuster novels, including Three Wishes and Lake News, solidified her mainstream reputation.

Having lived in New England all of her life, Delinsky writes what she knows. Though all of her stories are based in the Northeast, her books have made it to places that she has never dreamed of visiting. Delinsky titles have been published in more than thirty countries, in over two dozen languages, selling over 20 million copies. Literary Guild is thrilled to offer members a chance to delve into a world so universal that readers as far apart as Bar Harbor and Brisbane can find pleasure there.