Serendipity House by Joyce DeBacco

Sylvie Gardner was a pleaser. She did as her mother pleased, and she did as her fiancé pleased. Then she did as she pleased. Raised by a domineering mother, Sylvie doesn’t like the submissive woman she’s become. Determined to take back her life, she heads to the hills instead of to the altar on her wedding day. Coming across a quaint, country inn with an intriguing name, she impulsively checks into SERENDIPITY HOUSE. Peopled with an odd assortment of characters, the inn has clearly seen better days. Even the regulars have a bit of wear on them. Thus, when debonair Alex Clemenceau arrives and is strangely comfortable vacationing among the geriatric set, Sylvie is suspicious and does her best to ignore him. But Alex will not be ignored, pushing her buttons until she admits, if only to herself that she’s falling in love with him. Not until she’s hired to manage the inn does she learn he’s not the pedigreed gentleman he purports to be, but a streetwise PI hired by her ex to find her. Adding insult to injury, he’s bought the inn and asks for her help in restoring it to its former glory. Forced to work together, both learn about relationships, expectations, and acceptance—among family members as well as strangers who become like family.

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Meet Joyce DeBacco
Everyone needs some kind of creative outlet, and I think I've tried them all. I took up the piano a few years ago, having abandoned it as a child. But after two years of lessons, I realized that piano is much easier to learn when you're young. Now, whenever I want to hear soul-stirring piano music, I put on Yanni or some of the classical pieces I love.

My other interests are sewing, which I've enjoyed ever since my grandmother showed me how to sew two pieces of cloth together without any stitches showing. Grandma is gone now, but I always think of her when I make that stitch. Because my need for clothes is minimal—think shorts and tank tops—I turned my skill to curtains, washable slipcovers, and mending. Then I discovered machine quilting. Love it. But, alas, I've run out of beds and wall space in my house.

But throughout all my creative endeavors I've always returned to my first love, writing. Although SERENDIPITY HOUSE is my first published novel, like most writers, I have others taking up space in a drawer. Every so often I take one out, dust it off, and polish it up.

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