STRANDED - See “Fair Isle”
TINK - To carefully undo your knitting stitch by stitch. Basically to unknit your way back to a mistake-free area
YARN CRAWL - The knitter’s equivalent of a pub crawl. Substitute yarn shops for bars and you’ll get the picture
Who’s Who in Sugar Maple
THE RESIDENTS
CHLOE HOBBS - The half-human, half-sorceress de facto mayor of Sugar Maple and owner of Sticks & Strings, a wildly successful knit shop. As the descendant of sorceress Aerynn, the town’s founder, Chloe holds the fate of the magickal town in her hands.
LUKE MACKENZIE - The 100 percent human chief of police. He came to Sugar Maple to investigate the death of Suzanne Marsden, an old high school friend, but stayed because he fell in love with Chloe.
PYEWACKET, BLOT, DINAH, LUCY - Chloe’s house cats.
PENELOPE - Chloe’s store cat. Penny is actually much more than that. She has been a familiar of the Hobbs women for over three centuries and has often served as a conduit between dimensions.
ELSPETH - A three-hundred-something-year-old troll from Salem who kept house for Samuel Bramford. She has been sent to Sugar Maple to watch over Chloe until the baby is born.
JANICE MEANY - Chloe’s closest friend and owner of Cut & Curl, the salon across the street from Sticks & Strings. Janice is a Harvard-educated witch, descended from a long line of witches. She and her husband, Lorcan, have five children.
LORCAN MEANY - Janice’s husband. Lorcan is a selkie and one of Luke’s friends.
LYNETTE PENDRAGON - A shifter and owner, with her husband, Cyrus, of Sugar Maple Arts Players. They have five children: Vonnie, Iphigenia, Troy (originally named Gilbert), Adonis (originally named Sullivan), and Will.
LILITH - A Norwegian troll who is Sugar Maple’s town librarian and historian. She is married to Archie. Her mother was Sorcha the Healer, who cared for Chloe after her parents died.
MIDGE STALLWORTH - A rosy-cheeked vampire who runs the funeral home with her husband, George.
RENATE WEAVER - Member of the Fae and owner of the Sugar Maple Inn. Renate and her husband, Colm, have four grown children: Bettina, Daisy, Penelope, and Calliope.
BETTINA WEAVER LEONIDES - Harpist, member of the Fae, occasional part-time worker at Sticks & Strings. Married to Alexander. Mother of three children: Memphis, Athens, Ithaca.
PAUL GRIGGS - Werewolf and owner of Griggs Hardware. He is Luke’s closest friend in town. He is married to Verna and has two sons: Jeremy and Adam. His nephew Johnny is a frequent visitor.
FRANK - One of the more garrulous vampire retirees at Sugar Maple Assisted Living.
MANNY - Another vampire retiree who pals around with Frank.
ROSE - Frank’s and Manny’s love interest. She is also a retired vampire who resides at Sugar Maple Assisted Living.
SAMUEL - A four-hundred-plus-year-old wizard who pierced the veil at the end of Spun by Sorcery. He was Aerynn’s lover and the father of the Hobbs clan.
SORCHA - The healer who stayed behind in the mortal world to raise Chloe to adulthood after her parents died in a car crash. Sorcha is Lilith’s birth mother.
AERYNN - A powerful sorceress from Salem who led the magickal creatures from Salem to freedom during the infamous Witch Trials. A gifted spinner, she founded Sinzibukwud in northern Vermont (later renamed Sugar Maple) and passed her magick and her spinning and knitting skills down to generations of Hobbs women. Aerynn is responsible for the magick charm that enables Sugar Maple to hide in plain sight.
GUINEVERE - Chloe’s sorceress mother. Guinevere chose to pierce the veil after the auto accident that took her beloved husband’s life.
TED AUBRY - Chloe’s human father and Guinevere’s husband. He was a carpenter by trade. Ted was in medical school when he met Guinevere but gave it up to be with her. A very romantic story until Chloe learned her mother had cast a spell on him to bind him to her.
ISADORA - The most powerful member of the Fae. She is also the most dangerous. Currently Isadora is banished from this realm until the end of time but who knows what the future might bring.
GUNNAR - The good twin, he sacrificed himself so Chloe and Luke could be together.
DANE - The ultimate evil twin.
THE HARRIS FAMILY - They were carpenters in life (c. 1860) but now inhabit the spirit world.
THE SOUDERBUSH BOYS - Father Benjamin, mother Amelia, and sons David, William, and John are all ghosts who spend a lot of time on the Spirit Trail, which passes through the Sugar Maple Inn.
SIMONE - A seductive spirit who specializes in breaking up happy marriages. She usually manifests herself in a wisteria-scented lilac cloud.
FORBES THE MOUNTAIN GIANT - His name pretty much says it all.
THE NEW NEIGHBORS
ROHESIA OF OLWYN – Leader of a clan of Others who have lived for centuries in a dimension beyond the mist that has reached the end of its natural life.
GAVAN OF ERES – Rohesia’s grandson. He is a warrior who was betrothed to Chloe when they were children. He was sent to Sugar Maple to stop her marriage to Luke.
CHLOE’S COUSIN
WENDY AUBRY LATTIMER – A second cousin (a few times removed) via Chloe’s human father Ted Aubry. She is young, divorced, and a great knitter.
THE MACKENZIE CLAN
BUNNY - Matriarch, knitter, retired nurse. Born and raised in the Boston suburbs near Salem.
JACK - Patriarch, sport fisherman, retired welder. Also born and raised in the Boston suburbs near Salem.
RONNIE - A successful Realtor, father of four. Married to Denise. He still lives in the town where he was born and raised.
KIMBERLY - Luke’s oldest sister. Kim is a financial analyst, married, mother of one with husband Travis Davenport. They have been married nine years. She and Chloe formed an easy bond right from the start.
JENNIFER - Another of Luke’s older sisters. She’s married to Paul and mother of Diandra, Sean, and Colin.
KEVIN - Luke’s younger brother. He has been married to Tiffany for nine years. They have four children: Ami, Honor, Scott, and Michael.
PATRICK - Another younger brother. He’s newly divorced from Siobhan. They have two daughters: Caitlin and Sarah.
MEGHAN - The wild card of the bunch. Meghan is the youngest of Bunny and Jack’s children and the least predictable. (Her two-minutes younger twin died at birth.) She has the habit of taking up with the wrong guys and paying for it with a broken heart.
FRAN KELLY - Retired administrative assistant to Boston’s police chief. Close friend of the MacKenzie family.
STEFFIE - Luke’s daughter, who was six years old when she died in a bicycle accident.
KAREN - Luke’s ex-wife, who sacrificed herself to save their daughter’s soul.
JOE RANDAZZO - County Board of Supervisors; a politician who is an occasional thorn in Chloe’s side.
Also by Barbara Bretton
Collections - Anthologies
Now and Forever: The Complete Crosse Harbor Trilogy
Happily Ever After: Three Complete Romances
Happily Ever After 2: Five Complete Romances
Home Front: Three novels of love, war, and family
The Rocky Hill Holiday Collection: Two novels and two novellas
Untamed Hearts: Three complete historical romances
Second Time Around: Two wedding novellas
The PAX Collection – 4 novels of romance and adventure
The Sugar Maple Chronicles – 4 Book Collection
The Jersey Strong Romance Collection – 6 Novels
The Wilde Sisters
Operation: Husband
Operation: Baby
Operation: Family (not yet released)
Bachelor Fathers
Daddy’s Girl
The Bride Came C.O.D.
The Crosse Harbor Time Travel Trilogy
Somewhere in Time
Tomorrow & Always
Destiny’s Child
Now and Forever: The Complete C
rosse Harbor Trilogy
Pax Romantic Adventure Series
Playing for Time
Honeymoon Hotel
A Fine Madness
All We Know of Heaven
Sugar Maple Chronicles
Casting Spells
Laced with Magic
Spun by Sorcery
Charmed: A Sugar Maple Short Story
Spells & Stitches
Enchanted – The Wedding Story
Entangled – The Homecoming
Enraptured – The Holiday Story (coming soon)
Paradise Point
Shore Lights
Chances Are
Rocky Hill Romances
Mrs. Scrooge
Bundle of Joy
The Year the Cat Saved Christmas
Just in Time
Annie’s Gift
The Rocky Hill Holiday Collection: Two novels and two novellas
Idle Point
At Last
Someone Like You
Shelter Rock Cove
A Soft Place to Fall
Girls of Summer
Home Front
Where or When
Sentimental Journey
Stranger in Paradise
Historical Romances
Midnight Lover
Fire’s Lady
Reluctant Bride
Novellas
I Do, I Do... Again
The Marrying Man
Jersey Strong Novels
The Day We Met
Once Around
Sleeping Alone
Maybe This Time
Just Like Heaven
Just Desserts
Classic Romances
Shooting Star
Promises in the Night
Sail Away
The Edge of Forever
Second Harmony
Love Changes
The Sweetest of Debts
No Safe Place
The Billionaires
Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover
The Princess and the Billionaire
About the Author
Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 50 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries and she has received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Many of her titles are also available in audio.
Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette, among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.
Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; a RITA nomination from RWA, Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.
When she’s not writing, Barbara can be found knitting, cooking, or reading.
She lives in New Jersey with her husband and a houseful of pets.
To subscribe to Barbara’s infrequent newsletter, click here.
Excerpt from Casting Spells
In case you’re new to Sugar Maple and would like to catch up with all that went before, here’s a look at the first of the first book in the series, Casting Spells.
CHLOE
Sugar Maple, Vermont
Do you ever wonder why things happen the way they do? All of those seemingly random decisions we make throughout our lives that turn out to be not so random after all. Maybe if I had closed the shop twenty minutes earlier that night or gone for a quick walk around Snow Lake, she might still be alive today.
But I didn’t and that choice changed our lives forever.
At the moment when it all began, I was down on my knees, muttering ancient curses under my breath as I tugged, pulled, and tried to convince five feet of knitted lace that it would be much happier stretched out to six plus.
If there were any magic spells out there to help a girl block a shawl I hadn’t found them, and believe me, I’d looked. Blocking, like life, was equal parts intuition, brute strength, and dumb luck.
(Just in case you were wondering, I usually don’t mention the dumb luck part when I give a workshop.)
That Monday night I was two hours into Blocking 101, teaching my favorite techniques to three yarn-crawling sisters from Pennsylvania, a teacher from New Jersey, and a retired rocket scientist from Florida. We had been expecting a busload of fiber fanatics from northern Maine, but a wicked early winter blizzard had stopped them somewhere west of Bangor. Two of my best friends from town, admitted knit shop groupies and world-class gossips, rounded out the class.
By the way, I’m Chloe Hobbs, owner of Sticks & Strings, voted the number one knit shop in New England two years running. I don’t know exactly who did the voting, but I owe each of those wonderful knitters some quiviut and a margarita. Blog posts about the magical store in northern Vermont where your yarn never tangles, your sleeves always come out the same length, and you always, always get gauge were popping up on a daily basis, raising both my profile and my bottom line.
Sometimes I worried that this sudden, unexpected burst of fame and fortune had extended the tourist season beyond the town’s comfort zone. Hiding in plain sight was harder than it sounded, but for now our secret was still safe.
A blocking board was spread open on the floor. A dark blue Spatterware bowl of T-pins rested next to it. My trusty spray bottle of warm water had been refilled twice. I probably looked like a train wreck as I crawled my way around the perimeter, pinning each scallop and point into position, but those were the breaks.
Since blocking lace was pretty much my only cardio these days, when the wolf whistle sailed overhead, I didn’t bother to look up.
“Wow!” Janice Meany, owner of Cut & Curl across the street, murmured. “Those can’t be real.”
If I’d had any doubt about the wolf whistles, Janice’s statement erased it. Last I heard, not too many women were ordering 34As from their neighborhood cosmetic surgeon.
“Implants,” Lynette Pendragon declared in a voice that could be heard in the upper balcony of her family’s Sugar Maple Arts Playhouse. “Or a really good wizard.”
It was times like this when I wished I had inherited a tiny bit of magick from my mother. Just enough to render my indiscreet friend speechless for a second or two. Everyone in Sugar Maple knows we don’t talk about wizards in front of civilians unless the conversation includes Munchkins and Oz.
Fortunately our guests had other things on their minds. “I’m glad my Howie isn’t here,” one of the Pennsylvania sisters breathed. “She looks like Sharon Stone. Howie has a thing for Sharon Stone.”
“Sharon Stone fifteen years ago on a good day,” the New Jersey schoolteacher added. “A very good day.”
What can I say? I’m only a human. (And a nosy one at that.) I dumped the lace and glanced toward the front window.
Winter comes early to our part of Vermont. By the time the last of the leaf-peepers have headed down to the lesser glories of New York and Connecticut, we’re digging out our snowshoes and making sure our woodpiles are well stocked. In mid-December it’s dark and seriously cold by four thirty, and only the most intrepid window-shopping tourist would
ever consider strolling down Main Street without at least five layers of clothing.
The woman peering in at us was blond, tall, and around my age, but that was where the resemblance ended. I’m the kind of woman who could disappear into a crowd even if her hair was on fire. Our window shopper couldn’t disappear if she tried. Her movie-star-perfect face was pressed up against the frosty glass and we had a full-frontal glimpse of bare arms, bare shoulders, and cleavage that would send Pamela Anderson running back to her surgeon.
“I think she’s strapless,” Janice said, but she didn’t sound convinced.
“It can’t be more than ten degrees out there,” one of the Pennsylvanians said, exchanging looks with her sisters. “She must be crazy.”
“Or drunk,” Lynette offered.
“I’ll bet she was mugged,” the rocket scientist volunteered. “I saw a weird-looking guy lurking down the block when I parked my car.”
I was tempted to tell her that the weird-looking guy was a half-asleep vampire named Buster on an ice cream run for his pregnant wife, but I figured that might not be good for business.
The possibly naked woman at the window tapped twice, mimed a shiver, then pointed toward the locked door, where the CLOSED sign was prominently displayed.
“Are you going to make her stand out there all night?” Janice asked. “Maybe she needs help.”
She definitely isn’t here for a new set of double points, I thought as I flipped the lock. Not that I profile my customers or anything, but I’d bet my favorite rosewoods that she had never cast on a stitch in her life and intended to keep it that way.
My second thought as she swirled past me into the shop was, Wow, she really is naked. It took a full second for me to realize that was an illusion created by a truly gifted dressmaker with access to spectacular yard goods.
My third thought--well, I didn’t actually have a third thought. I was still working on the second one when she smiled at me and somewhere out there a dentist counted his T-bills.
“I’m Chloe,” I said as I looked into her sea green eyes. Eyes like that usually came with magical powers (and more than a little bit of family history), but she had the vibe of the pure human about her. “I own the shop.”
Entangled- The Homecoming Page 14
