Leaving Freedom - by Sharon L Dean (Paperback)

About the Book

In a nine-year journey that will take her from Freedom, Massachusetts, to Florida, and finally, to Oregon, Connie Lewis discovers how to make peace with what she's learned and to decide what place she should call home.

Book Synopsis

Freedom, Massachusetts: by 1973, thirty-year-old Connie Lewis sees only irony in the name. She's ready to leave her hometown and move with her recently widowed mother to Florida, freed of financial worry to write the novel that's been languishing in her imagination. The novel's title--Secrets--turns out to be as ironic as the name of her hometown. Her mother, her sister, and the man she befriends in Florida all keep secrets. In a nine-year journey that will take her from Massachusetts to Florida to Oregon, Connie discovers ways to make peace with what she has learned and to decide what place she should call home.

Review Quotes

"...a painfully honest depiction of family relationships, particularly between sisters and also between aging parents and their adult children. Many readers will recognize parts of themselves in this thoughtful novel's characters and, in doing so, may well find that they have discovered their own unexpected freedom."

-Judith Stanford, editor, Responding to Literature

"...pulls the reader along and engages us in an engrossing and always interesting panorama of character and setting. As is true of all her novels, author Dean excels at creating rich plots with echoes of the past that intrude upon the present."

-Clive Rosengren, author of the Eddie Collins PI series

"[Leaving Freedom] not only throws a spotlight on America in rapidly changing times, but also on the eternal quest to understand family, self and 'home.' Intimations of the style of Joyce Carol Oates."

-Carol Beers, author of the Pepper Kane mystery series

"While her sister Sarah travels to Europe using the insurance settlement of her dead husband, Connie moves with her mother from Freedom, MA, to Florida.... When an old family mystery pops up, Connie decides to find out what happened. In the process, she learns a lot about herself and finds her inner freedom... Connie's journey makes for a compelling read, which is only augmented by the wonderful complement of supporting characters."

-Michael Niemann, author of the Valentine Vermeulen Thrillers

"...a very fascinating and emotional read."

-InD'tale Magazine

"Sharon Dean's fourth novel is really about family. Links between parent and (grown) child, siblings, even ghosts and their descendants, mixed with bittersweet memories of Connie's New England childhood, infuse every line of the book."

-Alan Thompson, author of The Peninsula