Carole Bellacera

FIRST RUNNER UP IN 2019 THE ERIC HOFFER BOOK AWARD LEGACY FICTION CATEGORY On a snowy February day in 2011, 62-year-old Cindy Sweet receives a Facebook message from a dead man-Warrant Officer Ryan Quinlan who supposedly died in Vietnam forty years earlier. He'd been Cindy's fianc before an RPG took out his "dust-off" chopper, killing all aboard. Cindy, a young combat nurse at the 24th Evacuation Hospital at Long Binh, had been devastated by her loss, but with no other choice, had served out her year in Vietnam-and even found love again.INCENSE & PEPPERMINTS is a novel about patriotism, loyalty, enduring love, unimaginable courage and devastating loss. It's the story of one woman's year in a war zone during the most unpopular war in U.S. history. "With intelligent and absorbing writing, Carole Bellacera places a courageous and inspiring young woman at the intense and dangerous center of the Vietnam War. Bellacera's account of the seventies is heartfelt and real, yet her moving story of love, loss and healing is timeless." --Diane Chamberlain, best-selling author of Necessary Lies"Carole Bellacera's Incense and Peppermints skillfully transports the readers back to the turbulent seventies, and the heartbreak and passions of war, as seen through the eyes of a nurse serving in Vietnam. I couldn't put down Incense and Peppermints." -- Cindy Myers, Author of The View From Here.

Kathy O'Faolain is an Americna woman who seems to have it all--a loving husband, a satisfying job helping troubled teens, and an adorable son. She lives happily with her Irish husband, Pearse, in Dublin--but her life is forever changed when Pearse's brother is murdered by Protestant terrorists in Northern Ireland. When Pearse feels obligated to return home to the north and take over his brother's role as Republican activist, Kathy's life is turned upside down. Struggling to understand the hate that plagues this troubled land, she watches the violence creep closer and closer to the people she loves--and soon she must make a heartbreaking choice between her husband and her son's future.

Robin Mulcahey always dreamed of being a big-time actress. In college, she took countless drama classes and finally snagged the coveted lead of Maggie in Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Now, six years later, she's one of the country's hottest soap-opera stars. She's just won a Day-time Emmy for her portrayal of "South Riding's" bad girl, and now, when it seemed life couldn't be any more perfect, she's wed Declan Blair, the hottest up-and-coming Irish film actor. So, what's the problem? Robin Mulcahey is dead.

Can you ever justify cheating on your husband? This is the question that Leigh Fallon is faced with when she learns that her marriage to Congressman Bob Fallon is not as honest as she's always assumed. It feels like Bob has been all but ignoring her, except to criticize, and Leigh finds herself helplessly drawn to Erik, the twenty-something Norwegian exchange student who's staying in their home. When she finds proof that Bob has been spending his free time in the arms of his beautiful, young Capitol Hill secretary, Leigh decides that "enough is enough" and allows herself to begin a relationship with Erik. Little does she know that her affair with the young Norwegian will change her life forever, setting in motion a series of events that bring tragedy, anguish, and ultimately a discovery of hidden strength and courage.

An elderly Appalachian couple, who've fallen in love in Memphis, take to the road in a red Corvette because their wacky children decide to send them to separate retirement homes. Soon the police are in hot pursuit as they try to reach their goal of California so Velma can get her first glimpse of the ocean.

Devin: A rock star with a political conscience. At the height of his career, he appears to have everything--money, fame, respect from his peers. Yet, the people closest to him know Devin O'Keefe is a man haunted by a painful past growing up in Northern Ireland. Everyone he has loved, he has lost, either by a bullet, betrayal or the sheer drudgery of life in Derry's Bogside ghetto. Devin's life is his career. There is no room for love...until he meets Fonda. Fonda: An American photo-journalist commissioned to do a pictorial on Devin's U.S. tour. Although a child of America's heartland, Fonda is no stranger to violence. A sniper's bullet has taken the life of her twin brother just weeks after Fonda's two-year romance with a Swedish editor crumbles. Devastated by her loss and hardened by life's cold reality, Fonda has thrown herself into her career at Spotlight Magazine with a single-minded intensity. But when Devin enters her life and slowly allows her glimpses of the real Devin beneath the rock-star hype, she discovers that idealism is not dead...that there is hope in a world full of cynicism. Two worlds collide when Devin and Fonda meet, setting off an explosion filled with passion, intrigue and danger as forces from Devin's Republican past converge to thwart his new-found happiness. Will he be forced to give up his career to protect the woman he loves from the evils of his past? Or will the violence of Northern Ireland's troubles destroy their love for each other--and perhaps their very lives? "Last year, Carole Bellacera proved that she was a talent to watch. Now she is back in a big way, with another timely, emotional and thought provoking story. Ireland's troubled history plays a key role in this totally gripping drama."--Jill Smith, Romantic Times Top Pick, 4 1/2 stars.

The 50's...Drive-in Movies, Doo-wop Music...and Love in the Back Seat of a '51 Plymouth In 1952 Kentucky, 18-year-old Lily Foster, the daughter of strict Southern Baptist parents, becomes pregnant by the town "bad boy"-and just like that, she finds herself married to a man who doesn't want to be a husband. Jake has no intention of letting the inconvenience of marriage stop him from what he believes is his due. In actuality, Lily is the one who is trapped. She loves Jake-always has, since they were children playing in the woods on adjoining properties--and she's convinced she can eventually make him love her. All it will take is desire and patience. Once the baby arrives, they will be the perfect little family. From Lily's home on Opal Springs Ridge to a four-year stint at an army base in New Boston, Texas, and finally, to life on their own in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Lily struggles to maintain a rocky marriage with a moody, immature husband while raising two daughters. Set during the "American Dream" period of the '50s and into the turbulent '60's, LILY OF THE SPRINGS is a story of a woman's indomitable spirit and her fight for independence and identity in an "Ozzie & Harriet" society. "LILY OF THE SPRINGS is like a slow dance to a Patsy Cline song in the arms of your one true love. From the very first page, it draws you back to another time and place and makes you want to stay there forever. Carole Bellacera is a master storyteller."...Teresa Medeiros, New York Times bestselling author of GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART "LILY OF THE SPRINGS is an epic story about Lily Ray Foster's poor choice in the man she marries that takes a generation to right. Clashes between Lily and her husband Jake and Lily and her mother-in-law sizzle with excitement. A poignant and epic romance novel that's hard to put down. Erotic, explosive, shattering, realistic--Carole Bellacera's new romance novel has them all and a whole lot more."--Rose Campion, author of NO TIME TO CRY and the forthcoming SINNERS CAN'T BE CHOOSERS .