A Sleep of Years

ABOUT Maria Rachel Hooley

maria Rachel Hooley
I've written over twenty novels, including When Angels Cry, New Life Incorporated, and the Sojourner series.  My poetry has been published in over 80 literary journals across the United States and United Kingdom.  I live in Oklahoma with my husband and three children.

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Description

At sixteen, Jennifer Landry thinks the worst thing that can happen is getting pregnant, but when Waylan Thompson, her boyfriend of two years, suddenly dies in a car wreck and Jennifer miscarries, she thinks her life is over. Still, Sean, Waylan’s older brother, manages to pull her through.

Although the two lose contact for years, Jennifer runs into Sean as she is raising her two teenage sons alone.  He, too, is divorced.  The years have allowed them both to heal into adults who share a mutual scar, and what was once simply a foundation of shared grief becomes more, especially as Jennifer faces another possible loss—her oldest son, who wrecks on an icy road.  It’s going to take everything Sean has to save her again, and he has to; he can’t imagine his world without her in it.

Part of this story is true--the part where a boy I once loved took a joyride with two friends and died on a country road. I tend to think moments like that stay with a person and help shape who they are eventually going to become. I think about that boy often and wonder about the man he would have grown into.