One More Foxtrot: a tale of second chances

by Joyce Hicks

Overview

Finalist Indie Book Awards 2019
FIRST PLACE FICTION: National Federation of Press Woman Communication Contest 2018
Sequel to Escape from Assisted Living

What does it take to forgive, or move on, or rekindle romance? And do second chances offer just deserts? The Miles and D'Angelo's rewritten family history offers answers.

The year after octogenarian Betty Miles' exit from senior living (Escape from Assisted Living), she's staying in Chicago. Her daughter Sharon D'Angelo is busy with her new dessert shop in Elkhart, Indiana, funded by a legacy from her father. This equanimity between Betty and Sharon may be short-lived after a stranger makes an astonishing claim. Will mother and daughter work through this mystery together? Of course not. They have protected each other from upsetting truths their entire lives.

Sharon has her hands full--clients making moves on her husband, her mother-in-law meddling in the desserts, and a visitor sleeping over--she encourages her mother to stay away. Time isn't right for revelations of the goings-on in Elkhart that have propelled Sharon's Desserts from the red to the black.

Betty's happy in her city life with friend Eleanor. She's speed dating, making new friends, and reconnecting with an old one. She's also sleuthing family history, but she keeps her suspicions from Sharon because a good wife and mother should not tarnish a reputation. When all the women meet by accident in Chicago, results of past transgressions come to light. How will the family react?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780692935194
Publisher:	Encore Books
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Joyce Hicks' stories spring from her interest in the minutiae of family life, particularly at gateways to new stages. She's an observer in public space of the serious, mundane, or hilarious interchanges of others. She has appeared at story-telling events in Chicago. Quilting, knitting, and gardening are other pursuits. Her stories have appeared in Literary Mama, Passager, Kudzu House, Great Lakes Review, and others. Go to joycebhicks.com for links to her stories.

Editorial Reviews

2017-11-28
In Hicks' (Escape from Assisted Living, 2014) sequel, a senior widow acquaints herself with the pleasures of city life as she grapples with a damning family secret.Betty Miles, an octogenarian woman who recently ran away from her assisted living apartment in Elkhart, Indiana, moves to Chicago to reignite her joie de vivre. She moves in with her eccentric, metropolitan friend Eleanor Goldman, who makes it her job to brighten Betty's tastes in clothing, food, culture, and even sex. While the two women gallivant around the city—taking French lessons, speed dating, whiling away hours in posh cafes—Betty's daughter, Sharon D'Angelo, hunkers down in her newly opened bakery back in Elkhart. Betty's move to the city strains the mother-daughter relationship. Sharon, though relieved that she no longer needs to worry about her mother keeping busy, is also troubled by Betty's newfound lust for unconventional senior living. Betty, though enlivened by the energy of urban life, worries that she's shirking her motherly duty by being so far away from her daughter as she starts a new business. But these discomforts turn out to be the least of the women's concerns when a pink-haired young lady shows up at Sharon's door one night to reveal a shocking family secret. Throughout the rest of the novel, Betty—who became privy to the secret in the previous installment—and Sharon attempt to protect each other from the truth. Hicks shows how this endeavor becomes increasingly fraught and difficult as both women encounter more coincidences that encourage a final revelation. Overall, the plot twists are skillfully placed and effectively threaten the tenderness that the author cultivates between Sharon and Betty. The writing is clean and breezy throughout; Hicks tackles weighty themes, including death, deceit, jealousy, and regret, but she does so with a sense of reserve and a cheerful sense of humor—an approach that makes for an indulgent reading experience.A gentle family drama that's as pleasant as watching an episode of Gilmore Girls or knitting in bed.

Kirkus Review