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 Victoria Christopher Murray.

About the Author: Victoria Christopher Murray is the best-selling author of more than 30 novels, including the New York Times Instant Best Sellers, The Personal Librarian, and The First Ladies. In both novels, Victoria co-wrote with Marie Benedict. A native New Yorker, Victoria Christopher Murray attended Hampton University, where she majored in Communication Disorders. After graduating, Victoria attended New York University’s Stern Business School, where she received her MBA in Marketing. Victoria spent ten years in Corporate America before she tested her entrepreneurial spirit. She opened a Financial Services Agency for Aegon, USA, where she managed the number one division for nine consecutive years. However, Victoria always dreamed of writing, and in 1997, she pursued her dream.

About The Book: She found the literary voices that would inspire the world…. The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian.

In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all.

W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor, finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives…every African American writer in the country wants their work published there.

When her first novel is released to great acclaim, it’s clear that Jessie is at the heart of a renaissance in Black music, theater, and the arts. She has shaped a generation of literary legends, but as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.

Find out more about Victoria Christopher Murray and her books at victoriachristophermurray.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, 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

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 Lisa Unger.

About the Author: Lisa Unger is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author. Her books are published in 32 languages, with millions of copies sold worldwide. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few writers, including Agatha Christie. Her work has been named on “Best Book” lists from TODAY, People, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, Amazon, IndieBound, and many others. She has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Travel + Leisure. She lives in Florida with her family.

About Close Your Eyes and Count to 10: When the real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10? Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be. Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.

For more information about Lisa Unger, visit lisaunger.com. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

Join Ocean House owner and author Deborah Goodrich Royce as she moderates a conversation with featured authors. New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White will discuss their new novel, An Author's Guide To Murder.

About An Author’s Guide to Murder:

Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.

There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead–under bizarre circumstances–in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour.

Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists. The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together, but the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious. Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death? A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance–this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it!

About Beatriz Williams: Beatriz Williams is the bestselling author of over a dozen novels, including Husbands and Lovers, The Summer Wives, and The Secret Life of Violet Grant, as well as four other novels cowritten with Lauren Willig and Karen White. A native of Seattle, she graduated from Stanford University and earned an MBA in finance from Columbia University. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry.

About Lauren Willig: Lauren Willig is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including Band of Sisters and the RITA Award winning Pink Carnation series. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, two young children, and vast quantities of coffee.

About Karen White: Karen White is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thirty-four novels, including The Last Night in London and The House on Prytania, as well as the Tradd Street mystery series. She currently writes what she refers to as “grit lit”—Southern women’s fiction. She is a graduate of the American School in London and has a BS in management from Tulane University. When not writing, she spends her time reading, singing, and avoiding cooking. She has two grown children and currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and a spoiled Havanese dog.

For more information about the authors on this panel, visit oceanhouseevents.com/events. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

Join Deborah Goodrich Royce and a panel of fantastic thriller fiction novelists for a talk about their books, their writing process, and the thriller genre.

About the Authors:

Sara DiVello is a mystery writer and the creator/host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author series. Sara loves connecting with fellow mystery-lovers on her social media platforms. She also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers association. Sara’s first book, “Where in the OM Am I?” was the NIEA-winner, selected by SHAPE Magazine as a best book, and named a must-read for anyone considering a career change by Working Mother. Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman’s Day, among others. In her spare time, she loves to teach yoga, cook (and eat!), garden, and go for leisurely walks with her husband and their beloved rescue mutt, Pelu.

Jean Kwok is the international bestselling author of Girl in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, and Searching for Sylvie Lee, which was a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick and an instant New York Times bestseller. Her work has been published in twenty countries and is taught in schools across the world. She has been selected for numerous honors, including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. She immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and earned an MFA from Columbia University. She currently lives in the Netherlands.

Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Lynne and Valerie are national and international bestselling authors with over one and a half million copies sold worldwide. Their books have been translated into 29 languages, are available in 34 countries, and are in development for both television and film. Their novels have been praised by The Washington Post, USA Today, The Sunday Times, People Magazine, and Good Morning America, among many others. Their debut novel, THE LAST MRS. PARRISH, is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection.

Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of 35 novels including Last Day, Dream Country, Beach Girls, Pretend She’s Here and others, Rice often writes about love, family, nature, and the sea. She received the 2014 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award for excellence and lifetime achievement in the Literary Arts category. Several of Rice’s novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love for TNT, Blue Moon for CBS, Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, and Beach Girls for Lifetime.

Juliet Grames was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history from Columbia College. For the last twenty years she has worked in book publishing and is currently Editorial Director at Soho Press in New York. She is the recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Ellery Queen Award and Italy’s Premio Cetraro for contributions to Southern Italian literature. She is the author of two novels, THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA and THE LOST BOY OF SANTA CHIONIA.

Elise Hart Kipness is a television sports reporter turned crime fiction writer. The KATE GREEN series is based on Elise’s experience in the high-pressure, adrenaline-pumping world of live TV. Like her main character, Elise chased marquee athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and stood before glaring lights reporting to national audiences. She is currently Co-President of Sisters in Crime Connecticut.

For more information about the authors on this panel, visit oceanhouseevents.com/events. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

Join us as Ocean House owner and author Deborah Goodrich Royce moderates a conversation with New York Times bestselling authors Meghan Riordan Jarvis and Catherine Newman as they discuss their novels End of the Hour and Sandwich.

About Meghan Riordan Jarvis is a podcast host (Grief Is My Side Hustle), two-time TEDx Speaker, and psychotherapist specializing in trauma and grief and loss. After experiencing PTSD following the deaths of both of her parents, Jarvis founded Talking Point Partners to help employers address complex emotions such as grief in the workplace. Jarvis is currently at work on Can Anyone Tell Me Why: 25 Essential Questions About Grief and Loss, which publishes with Sounds True Media in 2024. Originally from New England, Jarvis currently lives in Maryland with her husband and their three children, where competing piles of LEGO bricks and books cover most surfaces of their house.

About End of the Hour “A frank chronicle of healing.”—Kirkus Reviews Esteemed trauma therapist Meghan Riordan Jarvis knew how to help her patients process grief. For nearly twenty years, Meghan expected that this clinical training would inoculate her against the effects of personal trauma. But when her father died after a year-long battle with cancer, followed by her mother’s unexpected passing while on their family vacation, she came undone. Thrown into a maelstrom of grief, with long-buried childhood tragedy rising to the surface, Meghan knew what she had to do―check herself into the same trauma facility to which she often sent her clients. In treatment, trading the therapist’s chair for the patient’s couch, Meghan took her first steps toward healing. A brave story of confronting life’s hardest moments with emotional honesty, End of the Hour is for anyone who has experienced the unpredictable, lasting power of grief―and wondered how they’d ever get through it.

About Catherine Newman has written numerous columns, articles, and canned-bean recipes for magazines and newspapers, and her essays have been widely anthologized. She is the author of the novel We All Want Impossible Things; the memoirs Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness; the middle-grade novel One Mixed-Up Night; and the bestselling kids’ life-skills books How to Be a Person and What Can I Say? She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

About Sandwich “Sandwich is joy in book form. I laughed continuously, except for the parts that made me cry. Catherine Newman does a miraculous job reminding us of all the wonder there is to be found in life.”–Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake. “A total delight.”–Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man and Welcome Home, Stranger. From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go.

For more information about author Meghan Riordan Jarvis, visit meghanriordanjarvis.com, and for Catherine Newman, visit www.catherinenewmanwriter.com. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com