From the author of The Meryl Streep Movie Club, a “heart-warming, spirit-lifting read just in time for beach season” (Kirkus Reviews), comes a new novel about three women, connected in secret and surprising ways, who are in for a life-changing summer when rumor has it that actor Colin Firth is coming to their Maine town to film a movie.
After losing her job and leaving her beloved husband, journalist Gemma Hendricks is sure that scoring an interview with Colin Firth will save her career and marriage. Yet a heart-tugging local story about women, family ties, love, and loss captures her heart— and changes everything. The story concerns Bea Crane, a floundering twenty-two-year-old who learns in a deathbed confession letter that she was adopted at birth. Bea is in Boothbay Harbor to surreptitiously observe her biological mother, Veronica Russo—something of a legend in town—who Bea might not be ready to meet after all. Veronica, a thirty-eight-year-old diner waitress famous for her “healing” pies, has come home to Maine to face her past. But when she’s hired as an extra on the bustling movie set, she wonders if she is hiding from the truth . . . and perhaps the opportunity of a real-life Mr. Darcy.
These three women will discover more than they ever imagined in this coastal Maine town, buzzing with hopes of Colin Firth. Even the conjecture of his arrival inspires daydreams, amplifies complicated lives, and gives incentive to find their own romantic endings.
PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Publishsed by: Gallery Books
Pages: 366
Genre: Fiction
Author: Mia March
Website: http://miamarch.com
How to get your copy:
How to order FINDING COLIN FIRTH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR :
A little bit about me: I'm the single mother of a wonderful kiddo in elementary school. We live in a small town on the coast of Maine, about an hour and a half south of Boothbay Harbor, the setting of FINDING COLIN FIRTH and THE MERYL STREEP MOVIE CLUB (June 2012, Simon & Schuster). Walking distance from our house is a wonderful little independent bookstore, a smoothie shop, a good restaurant, our town library, the weekly farmer's market, and a great coffee place where I like to write and read. In other words, everything I need.
My next novel, FINDING COLIN FIRTH, will be published by Simon & Schuster July 9, 2013. It's about three women, connected in secret and surprising ways, who are in for a life changing summer when rumor has it that Colin Firth is coming to their small coastal Maine town to film his new movie. It's not a movie club book like TMSMC, but it is a spin-off, featuring the main characters from TMSMC as secondary characters and the same inn setting. I wrote this novel with a picture of Colin Firth in a tuxedo next to my computer. That's nice research. My favorite Colin Firth movie? That's a hard one. I first discovered him in the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice, so that's a first love, but I love him in Love Actually and Then She Found Me too.
About THE MERYL STREEP MOVIE CLUB (published in over 18 languages): What inspired THE MERYL STREEP MOVIE CLUB was not only my love of films and Meryl Streep in particular, but a rocky Thanksgiving many years ago. That Thanksgiving, my mother and grandmother weren’t getting along—they were arguing over whether to put garlic in the mashed potatoes, bringing up what was or wasn’t said twenty years ago—until the three of us sat down to watch The Bridges of Madison County. The discussion we had after the film, about Meryl Streep’s character’s choices, changed everything. Suddenly, we were talking, really talking, opening up, revealing pieces of ourselves. My mother and grandmother went from angry at each other to hugging each other. A Thanksgiving saved! Fast forward some years later, when I had a Meryl Streep movie marathon during a rocky time of my own, and an idea for a novel was born.
My favorite Meryl Streep movie? I love so many, but my favorite is Out of Africa. What I love about Meryl Streep (so much that I devoted my novel to ten of her oustanding films) is how exceptional she is at range--from breathtakingly serious to hilariously funny. And to be honest, I just love her face. I think she's exquisite!I'm not only a movie fan--I'm a huge reader. My favorite books range from childhood favorites such as Anne of Green Gables and Little Women (I've always liked to think those March sisters were my own :) and current favorite authors include Anne Tyler, Elin Hilderbrand, Elinor Lipman, Marisa de los Santos, Fay Weldon, Beth Hoffman, Jennifer Weiner, Sarah Addison Allen, Jane Green, Anne Lamott, Richard Russo, Stephen King, Maeve Binchy, Claire Cook, Jennifer Crusie, Pam Houston, Elizabeth Berg, and many more. I love big-hearted, emotional novels about life and love. I also love memoirs and all kinds of non-fiction.
I'd love to hear from you with any comments (and I'd love to know your favorite Colin Firth and Meryl Streep movies). Email me any time: AuthorMiaMarch at gmail.com.
THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :
Getting right to the point about this novel, let me tell you it's fun, sassy and; yet, it digs at the heart in ways unexpected for a "chick lit" sort of book. Taking us to the coast of Maine in such a visual and sensual way, this book will have you smelling the best of salt air, but more than that, it will have you craving pies! One of the central characters, Veronica, is a pie-maker with spiritual gifts for making the townspeople perk up! I loved the whole book and found it a real surprise.
Ms March's women characters represent a broad spectrum of mothers, daughters and close friends who are caught up in troubles of circumstance not always of their own making, but who need a place to sort things out. They to come together in a coastal town soon to feature Colin Firth in a new movie. Where their individual issues may be slightly different...all having to do in some way with mothering...their infatuation with Colin Firth gives them a common meeting point over movie nights and popcorn.
What I found so particularly heart-wrenching about "Finding Colin Firth" was how Mia March is able to dig deep into the psyches of her characters and give us the real depth of their feelings. For instance, I could feel the loneliness and vulnerability of Veronica as she sought to bring happiness and contentment to the townspeople who had rejected her as an unwed mother many years before, with her pies: Amore Pie, Happiness Pie, Spirit Pie...
Bea's search for her "real" mother/background shook me up, as she was shaken by the facts. And Gemma made me alternately dislike her and feel for her as she wavered on whether she wanted to be a mother or not. All the perspectives of motherhood and even single fatherhood are looked at in the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as "light" reading as I thought it might be. Drawing me back to it on many occasions this week, I found it a refreshing read compared to some I've been taking on lately.
This is one I can't imagine any of you wouldn't love. Deeply abiding story including what it means to think finding someone like "Colin Firth" is really the whole answer...when its not...it's just a distraction to what really matters!
5 stars Deborah/TheBookishDame
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