Happy New Year!
Let’s kick of 2022 with a guest post. I have the awesome Olivia Newport here to share with you about her new release and talk about “Looking for What’s Missing”. Grab a cup of tea (or coffee) and chat with her!
Looking for What’s Missing
Have you taken the plunge and spit in a tube to send off your DNA? I have. And my character Jillian Parisi-Duffy did. What Jillian and I have in common is knowing quite a bit about one side of our families and not much at all about the other.
The circumstances are different. In my case, my dad was the only one from his family who immigrated to the US, and I just never knew that much about my Brazilian family. I only ever went to Brazil once, though some of my siblings visited more than once. The age of Facebook has made it wonderfully possible to connect with several of my cousins. Some have much better English than my feeble Portuguese. But even they say they don’t know much about our family’s history in Brazil before our grandparents.
In Jillian’s case, it was her mom’s side that ran dry pretty fast, and she realized the same thing I did. We weren’t curious enough and didn’t ask enough questions when the parents we lost were alive to hear all the stories we wish we knew now. I guess we were both too busy creating and living the story of the life right around us. But all our stories are larger than what is right in front of us.
At least I always knew I had a pile of cousins in Brazil and met them once when I was a teenager. In this age of Facebook and Zoom, I’ve been learning more about some of them.
Jillian has no cousins on her mother’s side. So she wasn’t sure what to expect when she sent off her DNA. But she’s a genealogist, so she knew there had to be something out there somewhere, and she was ready to find it.
Enter Cate Butler, the distant cousin Jillian was so certain she wanted to find—and the only connection she has to her deceased mother’s Parisi family tree. So why does she wish Cate would stop pestering her? And why can’t Jillian find a paper trail proving Cate is who she says she is?
Cate wants something for her own career that Jillian can’t give, but she also holds the key to family history Jillian can’t bring herself to walk away from. Nolan, Jillian’s father, steps in when Cate’s chronic career chaos requires legal rescue. Drew, the man who holds Jillian’s heart, has a surprising past with Cate. The truths Jillian, Cate, and Drew find while untangling these knotted threads tie them back together in remarkable ways none of them ever would have imagined.
Now That I Know You is Book 5 in the Tree of Life series, exploring and celebrating unforgettable family stories in Canyon Mines, the mountain town that invites you back again and again.
About the Author
Olivia Newport’s novels blend the truth of how our pasts carry us into where we find ourselves now. Curiosity about history seems to creep into everything she does. Her books include Amish, historical, and contemporary stories that span the centuries from before the Revolutionary War right up to the present moment. She chases joy in stunning Colorado at the foot of Pikes Peak. Visit www.olivianewport.com.
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About the Book
Cate Butler is the distant cousin genealogist Jillian was so certain she wanted to find—and the only connection she has to her deceased mother’s Parisi family tree. So why does she wish Cate would stop pestering her? And why can’t Jillian find a paper trail proving Cate is who she says she is?
Cate wants something for her own career that Jillian can’t give, but she also holds the key to family history Jillian can’t bring herself to walk away from. Nolan, Jillian’s father, steps in when Cate’s chronic career chaos requires legal rescue. Drew, the man who holds Jillian’s heart, has a surprising past with Cate. The truths Jillian, Cate, and Drew find while untangling these knotted threads tie them back together in remarkable ways none of them ever would have imagined.
Now That I Know You is Book 5 in the Tree of Life series, exploring and celebrating unforgettable family stories in Canyon Mines, the mountain town that invites you back again and again.
Toni Shiloh 