Left To Chance
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by Amy Sue Nathan
Publication Date: November 21, 2017
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publisher Description
“No one knows why Teddi Lerner left her hometown, but everyone knows why she’s back.
Twelve-year-old Shayna— talented, persistent, and adorable—persuaded “Aunt Tee” to return to Chance, Ohio, to photograph her father’s wedding. Even though it’s been six years since Shay’s mother, Celia, died, Teddi can hardly bear the thought of her best friend’s husband marrying someone else. But Teddi’s bond with Shay is stronger than the hurt.
Teddi knows it’s time to face the consequences of her hasty retreat from family, friends, and, her old flame, but when she looks through her viewfinder, nothing in her small town looks the same. That’s when she truly sees the hurt she’s caused and—maybe—how to fix it.
After the man she once loved accuses Teddi of forgetting Celia, Teddi finally admits why she ran away, and the guilt she’s carried with her. As Teddi relinquishes the distance that kept her safe, she’ll discover surprising truths about the people she left behind, and herself. And she’ll finally see what she overlooked all along.”
About the author
Amy Sue Nathan has been blogging since 2006 and launched the Women’s Fiction Writers blog in March 2011. She teaches workshops for Writers Digest University and freelance as a fiction editor and writing coach. She’s also a book coach with Author Accelerator and trained in the Story Genius method. Her stories and essays have appeared in print and online in over two dozen publications such as The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Parent, Writer’s Digest, Huffington Post, and online in New York Times and Washington Post blogs.
For more about Amy, check her website HERE!
Praise
“Left to Chance is a heartfelt novel about loss and love, and what it really means to come home. Readers will quickly empathize with the heartbreak of Teddi Lerner as she returns to her hometown and revisits what made her run away so many years ago. The interpersonal dynamics and inner monologues of Teddi are realistic, allowing readers to fully understand what she is going through. Beautifully written and true to self, Left to Chance is a lovely novel for readers to embrace.
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“When Teddi Lerner returns to her hometown six years after her best friend’s death, she does so begrudgingly. If not for her best friend’s daughter begging her to come home to take pictures at her father’s wedding, Teddi would have never returned. Now, she is stuck there and cannot avoid the heartbreak it brings. When Teddi comes face to face with her old boyfriend, she must confront what she has been running from for all these years.” –RT Book Reviews
“ In LEFT TO CHANCE, Teddi Lerner returns to Chance, Ohio after bolting during her best friend’s funeral six years ago. She faces her old friends, a former flame, and an adorably spunky “niece ” only to discover that the definition of family is both acutely intimate and ever evolving. Amy Sue Nathan, with her signature humor, deep insight, and elegant prose, shows us that the price of admission for a life full of love and friendship is a beautiful kind of chaos.”–Kate Moretti, New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year
“An emotionally authentic story of love, loss, and nostalgia. Amy Sue Nathan’s sharply drawn plot and characters will have you turning pages well past bedtime.”–Emily Liebert, author of Some Women
“Chance, Ohio, was no place for wimps.” And there we start on our journey through Amy Sue Nathan’s wonderful book, Left To Chance. Sometimes you have to leave home, come back, and leave again, to find yourself.” –Cathy Lamb, author of The Language of Sisters
“In Left to Chance, Amy Sue Nathan shows us through her lovably flawed protagonist, Teddi Lerner, that you can go home again—but not without scaling a mountain of grief and unanswered questions, being schooled by the feisty adolescent daughter of your late best friend, and navigating a bona fide love triangle. In short, you can go home again, but what you’ll find there is anyone’s guess. Watching how Nathan navigates Teddi, and the reader, through it all is like pulling up a chair at a table of old friends at your favorite small town coffee shop—it’s delicious, engaging, and unexpectedly comforting even in the midst of life’s uncertainties.” –Susan Gloss, USA Today bestselling author of the novel VINTAGE
“As beautiful as Teddi Lerner’s photography, Amy Nathan’s writing will draw you into the secrets, charm, and hope of Chance, Ohio. The past is revealed, a future is found, and nothing is LEFT TO CHANCE!” – Amy E. Reichert, author of THE COINCIDENCE OF COCONUT CAKE and THE SIMPLICITY OF CIDER
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