Marriage is hard work, but no one ever told Maggie that it would be this hard…
How did life end up so completely turned so upside down? When Maggie Trembley took her vows more than six years ago, she didn’t anticipate becoming just a wife, just a mother, and no longer…Maggie.
It’s impossible to cling to the bit of self-identity you have left when you’re someone’s everything…
Meeting and falling in love with Michael Trembley, a young and handsome attorney, was the easy part. Moving away from her family, raising their six-year-old daughter almost singlehandedly, and learning she is now pregnant again is an entirely different story. All she wants to do is retreat back home to Birch Valley and her loud and loving family, the O’Briens.
So when Maggie hits her breaking point, she takes their daughter and reluctantly leaves Michael to his endless hours at the office.
To be on top, you have to make sacrifices…
Michael Trembley wants to be the best - the best corporate defense attorney, the best son, dad, and husband - but he falls short in the last two on his list of priorities. Now his perfect world is anything but. The distance from his family is a major wakeup call, but what is he willing to sacrifice to make it right?
The journey of life is full of twists and turns. Will Maggie and Michael survive this bump in the road, or will their perfect idea of a family fall completely apart.
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When Maggie Trembley left Birch Valley to the bright and exciting lights of Seattle she didn’t really know what she was leaving behind. Growing up in the rural, quiet community of Birch Valley, nestled in the warmth of the loving O’Brien family, Maggie wanted to see what else was out there in the world. She found a job as a receptionist at a prestigious law firm in downtown Seattle, there she met the man who would completely make her weak at the knees and the butterflies go wild inside. This man would become her husband and the father of their child. As Maggie learns that being with a successful, driven man, who is desperately trying to make partner, sometimes you end on the bottom of the priority list.
Maggie feels that she is losing her identity as a person, she is now only known as Michael’s wife or Melanie’s mother, there is no Maggie. As pressures mount and an unexpected pregnancy occurs, she has hit her limit. Fleeing back home seems like the only answer, to find herself back in her childhood home, surrounded by the love and support of her family, she starts to rediscover who she is. Only one problem, Michael. She loves this man and wants her marriage to work, but feels that he needs to figure out what is really important, their family.
As spring blooms in Birch Valley, lives change. Maggie is blossoming, she now works with her brothers’ at the family construction business. She now has a sense of purpose, even in this simple life in the small tight-knit community. But just when everything seems like it is on the mend, Michael’s father passes away, the death rocks his world, and Maggie rushes to be with him. The love and support she gives him, isn’t enough for him to see what really matters, and again she finds herself running away back to Birch Valley, this time for good. Sometimes you just can’t go back.
The O’Brien’s start experiencing their own set of unexpected challenges as we learn that her brother Liam and Rachel, are expecting. The shock of this news hits Maggie’s oldest brother, Patrick terribly hard. Widowed with twin boys, the O’Brien’s haven’t had a pregnancy in the family since Patrick’s wife and high school sweetheart Beth died. Everyone treads lightly around him as they search for ways to help him move on, it has been almost four years, and Maggie just wants to see him happy and in love again. She conjures up a plan that goes drastically wrong, creating an awful rift between her and Patrick. Everything is turned upside down now with the O’Brien family, a marriage on the verge of collapse, an unwed and unexpected pregnancy, and grieving the loss of a spouse are some of the challenges this family faces. These are real issues that real people have to deal with, but what matters is that the O’Briens’ are together and are a true family. This shows the workings of support and a network of unconditional love.
There is a silver lining in the dark cloud that hovers over them, a light at the end of the tunnel, at least for Maggie.
Maggie’s marriage undergoes many trials, but what saves her is the honest love that she and Michael share. Compromise is never easy and giving up sometimes seems to be the only answer. Michael learns that the only thing he ever really needed was Maggie.
Once Maggie’s life becomes more stable and secure, she turns her attention to helping the other siblings that need her. Things are left uncertain with Patrick, but Liam and Rachel are now happily planning their wedding and preparing for an incredible surprise.
The Tales from Birch Valley continue in The Cloverleaf Series as we learn more about the endearing O’Brien family.
Loving Liam (Book One: The Cloverleaf Series)
I was born and raised in southern California and relocated to beautiful eastern Washington state in 2002. The rural small towns that speckle this vast area have inspired my ideal setting for most of the stories I write. The pine and tamarack trees covering the towering mountains, the shimmering lakes and rivers, the abundant wildlife, and the feeling of a time forgotten, all stir so many of my creative juices. I can't thank my parents enough for dragging this city kid on long roadtrips up to this rugged foreign area, because now it is my home and I truly love my life here.
Reading was something that spurred me to begin writing at a young age. I enjoyed creating characters, different settings, and describing anything and everything. Storytelling, I have found is something I have inherited from both of my parents. I love attention to detail, using words to fully bring the picture alive, that is something I got from my dad. Creating characters and figuring out their story and how to achieve their happy ending comes from my mom. Then there is the smell of a book, new or old, the weight of it in your hands as you balance it open, seeing all those beautifully typed words spun and woven into sentences, this was created by a writer. I knew that was what I wanted to be when I grew up and here I am today, a real author.
Romance, I simply love it, that's why I write it. I remember my mom giving me my very first paperback romance novel. It was a pretty exciting one filled with suspense and an overall excellent storyline, she had just read it and she felt it was suitable for my teenage eyes. That was it, I was hooked. I began to devour these romance stories that varied over the years from sweet to sultry, I consumed thousands of books and stories over the years. Each time I finished reading a novel, the desire to write my own grew stronger. As ideas for books swirled in my mind, it always had a romantic element to it, and I suppose it always will. What is there not to love about falling in love and finding that special person to share your life with? Who doesn't wish for passion, butterflies in your stomach, and that happily ever after?
As a reader, I can't even begin to thank all of the writers that have created so many emotions for me, falling in love with characters, mourning their loss, sighing as I close the final chapter or smiling when everyone lives happily ever after. As a writer, I just want to do the same.
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