Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce moderates a conversation with our featured author, New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe.

About the Author: Mary Alice Monroe is based in Charleston, South Carolina, is the New York Times best-selling author of thirty books–and counting. Richly layered and rooted to place her Lowcountry-set novels defy literary labels. More than feel-good escapism or traditional beach reads, her engrossing stories deftly explore the intersections and parallels between Mother Nature and human nature, hooking readers emotionally and introducing them to characters and causes that live in their hearts and minds. Her robust library of work–from the popular Beach House series to her compelling fiction, to her newer middle grade series, The Islanders–engages readers across generational lines, inspiring them to take a harder look at the environment–and our impact on it. To ask the important questions. To seek answers. To create connections–both with nature and in our personal lives.

About Where the Rivers Merge: The Rivers End, Monroe brings the compelling family saga to an emotional conclusion that will resonate with readers. The novels’ timely topics of friendship, feminism, parent/child relationships, and the environment make each book of the duology perfect for book clubs.

1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. Free spirited, she refuses to be confined by societal norms. Instead, Eliza revels in exploring the golden fields and sparkling ponds of Mayfield, observing wildlife, and riding horses.

But her halcyon days are cut short by the Great War, coastal storms, and unexpected challenges to Mayfield. As Eliza battles personal pains and the ravages of family turmoil over the years, her love and devotion for the natural world puts her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era.

1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart.

Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century American South, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyielding love, lessons learned, profound sacrifices, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to persevere in the face of change to protect her family legacy and the land she loves.

For more information about Mary Alice Monroe, visit maryalicemonroe.com. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce moderates a conversation with our featured author, Jim Pierce.

About the Author: Jim Pierce is a retired insurance executive. His political roots include family ties to three American Presidents.

“Treachery” is historical fiction about the first eighteen months of America’s “War between the States”. The Northern troops were hapless and results amazingly lopsided in the early days of the conflagration. The story develops a theory as to why that may have been the case.

"The Beginning" places the reader next to Prime Minister Winston Churchill as he steers England through its darkest hours in 1940 and 1941. This is a story you will not want to miss!

Historical fiction serves two purposes; the reader can learn about a past time, place, and people, while simultaneously enjoying the story being told.

About The Beginning: "The Beginning" takes readers on a journey into Winston Churchill's world, set in the tumultuous years of 1940 and 1941. From the very first day he became prime minister, Churchill faced relentless challenges. Through historical fiction, the author skillfully transports readers back to these pivotal events, personalizing the experience and bringing history to life.

For more information about Jim Pierce, visit www.amazon.com/Beginning-Jim-Pierce. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce moderates a conversation with our featured author, New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis.

About the Author: Fiona Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of eight historical fiction novels set in iconic New York City buildings, including The Stolen Queen, The Magnolia Palace, The Address, and The Lions of Fifth Avenue, which was a Good Morning America book club pick. Her articles have appeared in publications like The Wall Street Journal and Oprah magazine.

She first came to New York as an actress, but fell in love with writing after getting a master's degree at Columbia Journalism School. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages, and she's based in New York City.

About The Stolen Queen: Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.

New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

For more information about Fiona Davis, visit fionadavisbooks.com. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com