The characters of author David Burnett’s novels are real, believable, and the detailed descriptions of the locales allow the reader to get inside the story and go along with the characters on their journeys of loss, love, failures and eventual triumphs. Enjoy!
The Reunion
David Burnett
Genre: Family Life | Romance
It is the fear of separation from everything she loves that brings Allison Bannister to the beach. She stops on the steps that lead down to the ocean. She is alone. The sun is setting behind her; the tide is rushing in, and dark water is licking at the bottom step. Off to the north, the lights of Charleston shine into the evening sky. To the south, a star twinkles as darkness descends on the barrier islands. Light and dark; good and evil. Reconciliation is not in the cards.
Allison shivers. How easy it would be to walk out into the ocean. Her winter clothes would take on water and weigh her down. When she went under, her body would turn cold, her lungs would fill with water, and all of her troubles would end.
It all started with an invitation to Michael’s high school reunion.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” he asks as the reunion winds down, “if you could crawl through a worm hole and find yourself in high school, again?”
Over the next few weeks, Allison attempts to cope with the strange things that happen as Michael “crawls though the worm hole,” and morphs back into the person he was thirty years earlier, setting in motion events which disrupt their lives and tear the couple apart.
As Michael spends long hours in his new art studio, Allison feels rejected and begins to build a life of her own. Before long, Michael and Allison, a couple who seldom spent time apart, rarely spend time together. They both feel neglected, and each blames the other. A long separation, the unexpected appearance of Michael’s college girlfriend, an unplanned rendezvous, and a charge of adultery threaten to end their marriage forever – and Allison finds herself alone on the beach.
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The Handfasting
David Burnett
Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Women’s Fiction | Teen & Young Adult
Handfasting: A Celtic ceremony of engagement or betrothal.
Katherine had joined hands with Steven in the ruins of the old abbey church. Standing before the high altar, they were handfasted in the Celtic custom, engaged to be married. Katherine was going to college, going to med school. Steven was studying art in Italy for the next year. She could not marry Steven, then. A rose bush had bloomed beside the ruined altar. Steven had reached out to caress one of the flowers.
“I’ll find you,” he had said. “In ten years, when we have finished school, when we are able to marry, I’ll find you. Until then, whenever you see a yellow rose, remember me. Remember I love you.”
Ten years after the handfasting, Steven fulfils his promise to find Katie, they fall in love again, and plan to marry.
Steven, though, is not Katherine’s only suitor. Bill Wilson -arrogant, selfish, sexist, abusive- has known Katherine since they were in high school, and he has long planned to wed her. When Steven appears, he realizes that he must finally stake his claim. The conflict that follows takes an unexpected, violent twist.
Will Steven fight for their love?
Will Katie see Bill’s abuse for what it is, or is she doomed to a tortured life as his wife?
The Handfasting is a story of love renewed, a suitor spurned, a vicious attack, and a struggle for healing.
It is a story of love that survives.
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To Fall in Love Again
David Burnett
Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Women’s Fiction | Romance
Drew Nelson did not plan to fall in love that morning!
He did not plan to talk with anyone. He did not plan to make a new friend.
He resisted all of Amy’s attempts to draw him out− at the hotel, at the airport, on the airplane− giving hurried responses and burying his face in a pile of papers.
But when the flight attendant offered coffee, and a muscle in Amy’s back twitched as she reached for it, and the cup tipped, and the hot liquid puddled in Drew’s lap, then they began to talk!
Earlier in the year, each had lost a spouse of over thirty years. Drew’s wife had died of a brain tumor, Amy’s husband when his small airplane nose-dived to earth, the engine at full throttle − an accident, it was ruled.
They live in the same city. Both have grandchildren. They are about the same age. Consciously, or not, they both are looking to love again.
But relationships do not exist in vacuums. Drew is wealthy, and Amy is middle class. Amy is “new” in town – she and her husband moved to Charleston twenty-five years ago – while Drew’s family has lived there for three centuries. Drew lives below Broad, a code word for high society, old families, power, and money. Amy’s home is across the river.
Class warfare may be less violent than it was in the past, but when Drew invites Amy to the St Cecelia Ball, battle lines are drawn.
In a city in which ancestry is important, the ball’s membership is passed from father to son, and only those from the oldest families are members.
Family, friends, co-workers all weigh in on their relationship and choose sides. Allies are found in unexpected places. Opposition comes from among those who were thought to be friends. Though they are gone, even their spouses − through things they have done and things they have said − wield influence in the conflict that follows.
Is Drew is one of them, the rich snobs who despise Amy? Does he truly love her?
Does Amy care for Drew? Can she trust him, or is he simply using her?
As each questions the other’s motives, their feelings for each other are tested.
Do Drew and Amy truly want to fall in love again?
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