At the Corner of King Street by Mary Ellen Taylor
AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET Mary Ellen Taylor
A Berkley Books Trade Paperback Original/Fiction
On Sale 5-5-15/$16.00 ($18.00)
978-0425278253 · 0425278255
MARY ELLEN TAYLOR, AUTHOR OF THE UNION STREET BAKERY, BRINGS TOGETHER ALEXANDRIA’S PAST AND PRESENT WHEN HISTORY, LEGEND AND MAGIC HOLD THE KEY TO A FAMILY’S FUTURE IN
AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET, ON SALE MAY 5TH
Burton’s New Trade Paperback Original Shares the Story of a Woman in Search of a
New Life Forced to Confront Her Past
Praise for THE UNION STREET BAKERY
“Highly recommended for anyone who loves family stories with intelligence and heart.”
Blogcritics
“Taylor serves up a great mix of vivid setting, history, drama and everyday life . . . here’s hoping she writes more like it.”
Herald-Sun, Durham, NC
“Superbly written . . . emotional issues handled in a sensitive and delicate manner, and a finish with a
feel-good ending.”
The Courier, Montgomery County, Texas
Praise for SWEET EXPECTATIONS
“[A] charming and very engaging story about the nature of family and the meaning of love, all set in the most delightful bakery one could ever imagine.”
Seattle PI
“The story unfurls at a slow yet steady pace, nicely layering characters, subplots, and backstory.”
Booklist
“Sweet and totally satisfying . . . absorbing characters, a hint of mystery and touching
self-discovery.” RT Book Reviews
Mary Ellen Taylor moves down the street from her Union Street Bakery and stops AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET in her new novel, the Old Town Alexandria-set story of a woman trying to leave her past and family behind to embrace the new life and love she’s found at a Virginia vineyard. AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET is a Berkley trade paperback original on sale May 5th.
Addie Morgan grew up in the shadow of her family’s curse, the mental illness that haunts the women of each generation and has claimed both her mother and sister. Settled in her new, stable and happy life with a man she loves, Addie wants nothing more than to be free of the pain and loss of the past. Reality, harsh and swift, intrudes when her Aunt Grace, who provided a safe a haven for the girls during part of their childhoods, shows up determined to bring Addie back to Alexandria to solve the latest family crisis. Janet, Addie’s sister, who’s already abandoned her seven-year-old son, has just given birth to a baby girl and is hospitalized, unable to care for herself let alone her baby.
Determined to make quick work of the problem and return to her own life, Addie’s arrival in Alexandria is greeted by more complications. Janet needs weeks of treatment; Grace’s health is failing and so is her salvage business; social services is having trouble placing “Baby Morgan” in a foster home; Janet’s ex, Zeb, accuses Addie of trying to cut and run just like her sister; and her nephew wants to see his mother and hold his half-sister. They’re all looking to Addie, who, woefully unprepared to deal with an infant, now has one to care for 24/7 while trying to keep her job and hold on to her fiancé, who knows nothing about her family’s checkered past.
Interspersed with journal entries from Alexandria’s earliest days, the story gives readers insight into events in the past that paved the way to the story’s troubled present. Meanwhile, the plot unfolds to reveal the discovery of centuries old “witch bottles,” hints to bonds that may tie Addie and her family to a heritage they never expected.
In AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET, Mary Ellen Taylor presents a tale of family and self-discovery interwoven with voices from the past in a contemporary novel of adversity, hard choices and the power of truth.
ABOUT MARY ELLEN TAYLOR
Mary Ellen Taylor grew up in a southern family that embraced stories of all kinds, from a well-told anecdote to a good yarn or a tall tale. It may have been inevitable that she would take her storytelling heritage to new heights, moving beyond the oral tradition to become a published author. An accomplished baker, Mary Ellen shares some of the challenges and comforts of those pursuits in her Union Street Bakery novels, The Union Street Bakery and Sweet Expectations, and even manages to insert baking tips into At the Corner of King Street. On a more intimate level, she also explores adoption and family in all three books, an interest which stems from her own family. Her grandmother was adopted as was her daughter, and Mary Ellen has been active in bringing attention to issues regarding adoption, including the concerns faced by adoptees through adulthood.
Mary Ellen was born and has spent most of her life in Richmond, but also lived in Alexandria for four years. She received her degree in English from Virginia’s Hollins University, and worked in marketing and sales before she committed to writing full time. Today, she is well known for her suspense novels written as Mary Burton. Those twenty-three books and five novellas have brought praise from readers and reviewers and her work has appeared on The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. The Union Street Bakery was her first novel as Mary Ellen Taylor.
When not digging for mysteries in Alexandria’s history or arranging murders, Mary is involved with Coordinators2inc, a lifetime adoption resource organization, and Sisters-in-Crime’s Virginia chapter. She and her husband spend time alternately enjoying and lamenting their newly empty nest and spoiling their miniature dachshunds, Buddy, Bella and Tiki.
www.maryellentaylor.com • facebook.com/maryellentaylorfanpage • @METBooks
