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Where else can you find my books? The Bookery (Manchester), Morgan Hill Book Store (New London), The Toadstool Bookshop (Keene)
S.M. Stevens
Lifelong New Englander S.M. Stevens has lived in New Hampshire since 2020. She began writing fiction during back-to-back health crises: a shattered pelvis and ovarian cancer. Her adult contemporary novels address social issues, and include the 8-time award-winning book Beautiful and Terrible Things: A Novel, and Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. Her next novel, Unraveling Caro Dunn, is due in early 2027 from Blydyn Square Books. She also dabbles in Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction and scripts for the stage, when time allows. Her short stories have appeared in Smoky Quartz and Monadnock Underground. Her essays have appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe, HerStry, and Guitar and Bass magazine among others. Get a free copy of her award-winning novelette The Wallace House of Pain when you subscribe to her newsletter at www.AuthorSMStevens.com.
Books
Beautiful and Terrible Things
Charley Byrne isn’t really living. At age 29, she hunkers down in her apartment above the bookstore she manages, afraid of a 7-year curse. Then quirky activist Xander Wallace lures her out of social exile with the prospect of friendship and romance. Charley joins Xander’s circle of friends diverse in their heritage, race, gender and sexual orientation. She thrives, even leaving her comfort zone to join protests in a city struggling with social justice ills.
But the new friendships bring back-to-back betrayals that threaten the bookstore-Charley’s haven-and propel her into a dangerous depression. Can her friends save the store? And Charley?
Beautiful and Terrible Things offers a compelling portrait of modern American life in a major city with its vibrant culture and rampant social issues. At once enlightening and entertaining, it reminds us that friendship has the power to validate, destroy, transform, and save lives.
2024 Indies Today Best Literary Book of the Year Winner
2024 Gold Winner, Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards – LGBTQIA+
2024 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Finalist
2024 Sarton Award Finalist
2024 American Fiction Awards Finalist – General Fiction
2024 American Writing Awards Finalist – LGBTQ
2024 Readers’ Favorite Awards Honorable Mention – Fiction-Social Issues
The Wallace House of Pain
Activist Xander Wallace and his straitlaced father do not have an easy relationship. Jim’s views on race, immigration, gender, sexuality and even Millennials alienate his son no matter how hard Xander tries to find common ground. Toss in Jim’s second marriage ten months after Xander’s mother died and it’s a volatile cocktail. How, against this backdrop, will Xander ever dare to bare his soul and reveal his greatest secret?
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
All practical Shelby Stewart wants is to build her PR career at the Boston zoo, and maybe find some nice guys to date. But long-buried memories of a childhood incident keep interrupting her plans, affecting her health one way after another. And when will she actually date someone her friends think is good enough for her?
Ambitious Astrid Ericcson thinks she wrote the book on How to Get Ahead by Flirting. But she is forced to re-visit her career advancement strategy when her PR agency boss takes the innuendos to a whole new level, threatening her job and her safety.
The two frenemies-turned-real-friends reach new highs and lows in life, work and romance, while struggling to make sense of the relationships that torment them. In the end, they realize “almost” counts in much more than horseshoes and hand grenades.
Shannon's Odyssey
Shannon Simpson has a kind soul, sometimes questionable judgment, and courage to spare. And she has no idea she can communicate with animals when she sets off on a 100-mile trek through the forest seeking her long-lost grandmother.
Finding Gran means winding her way safely through the woods with only a compass, her wits and a mysterious, possibly magical, marra mamba stone to guide her. During her journey, Shannon faces bad weather, injuries, hunger, thirst, and wild animals—some nice and some not so nice. And along the way, she uncovers secrets about her family and herself.