About My Year of Casual Acquaintances:
When Mar Meyer’s husband divorces her for another woman, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it’s not easy to start over, Mar is young-looking, fit, and ready for new adventures – as long as she can keep things casual.
With each passing month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next. Among them: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical consultant, a kindly older gentleman . . . and Charlie, a handsome best-selling novelist who wants more from Mar than she’s able to give. She learns something new from each encounter. But can she change enough to open herself up to happiness and true connection?
Surrounded by an ensemble of quirky, endearing characters, Mar follows a tortuous and unpredictable path as she navigates the first year of her reinvented life. My Year of Casual Acquaintances is packed with laugh-out-loud moments mingled with scenes of loneliness and self-doubt that will put a lump in your throat.
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Author Bio:
Ruth F. Stevens likes to create stories that will make you laugh and cry. She says: “I find myself motivated to write about the topics that worry me the most. Since I worry about a great many things, there is never a shortage of material. I’m also a big believer in the power of laughter to ease our pain and anxiety. Humor is a component in anything I write, no matter how serious the subject matter.”
A former public relations professional, Ruth has been writing for her entire career—including hundreds of articles for magazines, newspapers, and journals—but creative writing is her passion. She took up this endeavor full-time after quitting her day job in 2017 and has produced two stage plays and three novels. The latest efforts are her award-winning South Bay Series of contemporary/women’s/book club fiction novels from Black Rose Writing, which launched in 2024.
Ruth lives in Torrance, California, with her husband. In her spare time, she enjoys travel, hiking, hip-hop and fitness classes, yoga, Broadway musicals, wine tasting, leading a book club, and visiting her grandsons in NYC. Visit Ruth at www.ruthfstevens.com.
Awards
2024 CIBA Somerset Awards: Semi-finalist – Literary & Contemporary Fiction
2024 Firebird Book Award Winner – Women’s Fiction
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner
BookLife/Publishers Weekly Editor’s Pick