Fiction / LGBTQ / Romance
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
Publisher: Bywater Books
Novelist and filmmaker Mari SanGiovanni introduces readers to the
irrepressible Liddy-Jean Carpenter, a matchmaker with special talents who
will charm readers with her wit, wisdom, and sensibilities in this warm,
enchanting love-is-love office romance.
Liddy-Jean Carpenter has learning disabilities. But she also has a
surprisingly genius plan.
While she spends her days doing minor office tasks with nobody paying
attention, she sees how badly the wand-waving big boss treats the Marketing
Department worker bees. So, she takes lots of notes for a business book to
teach bosses to be better.
While compiling pages of bad behavior notes, she finds she likes
office-mate Rose and Rose’s new friend Jenny. But she doesn’t
like Rose’s creepy boyfriend. So how can she save Rose?
Liddy-Jean knows with certainty that love is love, and she concludes that
Rose should be with Jenny, bosses should do better, and everybody needs the
services of Liddy-Jean, Marketing Queen.
– Liddy-Jean is aware of her disabilities and that she thinks differently than others. She also knows people have called her cruel names, and misjudged her. But Liddy-Jean is not without her flaws. She doesn’t want to share her new friends when she learns another young lady similar to herself will be coming to work in the same department, she says: “One slow person for each department is plenty. Can we send her to work in the shipping department….slow people can move boxes, I have seen them.”
-At work when someone asks to have a private talk, Liddy-Jean says: “No privates talk at work, vagina talk only happens at home.”
-Fun fact:
When Liddy-Jean has to get her courage up to do something scary at work, she channels her hero, Xena Warrior Princess.
The uniqueness of Liddy-Jean‘s perspective on life comes across in the chapter titles where she narrators:
-Disco balls and the dress named Jesus
-Why I hate white chairs (…turns out you can’t eat chocolate anywhere near them.)
-Wearing roller-skates does not mean you will move fast.
-Why I Love Cardboard Boxes
-Throwing Up From Boobs
-Tomato Tit Freckles (her description of her aunt after she cooks Meatballs and spaghetti dinner)
-The Goodfella and the Lightning Bugs
-People with Antennas Know Things
About the Author
MARI SANGIOVANNI is a novelist, filmmaker, screenplay writer, and owner of
Love Is Love Productions. She is the author of the award-winning novels,
Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer, Camptown Ladies, and 80% Done
With Straight Girls, and she wrote and directed the award-winning short
film, The Sibling Rule. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she
splits her time between Boston, MA, and Coventry, RI.
Contact Links
Instagram: @SanGiovanniMari
Purchase Link
