There’s something special about getting lost in a good book, and even more special about supporting the small businesses that bring those stories to our island community!
Whether you’re searching for your next great read, a thoughtful gift, or simply love browsing books, be sure to check out Annette’s Book Nook!
Annette is a wonderful supporter of local authors, including writers who live in or visit Southwest Florida.
And here’s a special connection close to our hearts at Leani’s! One of those talented authors happens to be the daughter of one of our very own Leani’s ladies!
Here’s her story:
I grew up in a small town in Illinois, the kind of place where the bakery knows your order, the hardware store knows your husband, and every grandma in town is just “Grandma,” whether she’s yours or not. I’ve lived in bigger places since. And like a lot of the people reading this, I spend part of every winter here in southwest Florida. My mom relocated to Fort Myers full-time eight years ago, and my winters have followed her: mornings walking the beach, afternoons trying not to think about what the driveway looks like back home. But when I sit down to write, that little Illinois town is where I go. There is something about looking at the Gulf that makes a Midwest summer easier to see.
I write women’s fiction set in Criss Creek, Illinois, a town that exists only in my books but that readers tell me they can walk around in their heads. The first two novels stand alone, so you can start with either one, and each follows a woman at a turning point: a marriage ending, a business failing, a sister who’s suddenly out of reach. There are hard things in the middle, because there are hard things in life. But I promise you good food, real friendships, the turn of a season, and an ending that leaves you with hope. The next two books are connected, a short prequel novella out this February and the full novel it leads into, coming later in 2027.
My readers tend to be women who would rather have a slow evening on the porch than a plot twist, who like a little romance but read for the friendships, and who know that starting over doesn’t only happen at twenty-five. If you love Debbie Macomber or Viola Shipman, you’ll feel at home in Criss Creek.
On Saturday, January 16, I’ll be at the Beach Book Nook, right behind Leani’s, for the third annual Books on the Beach. Annette brings together over twenty Florida authors for the day, so you can meet a whole group of us in one stop, from 11 to 2. I’ll have my books with me, and I’d love to meet you.
Blooming Into Life is my first Criss Creek novel, about Colleen, a Chicago country-club wife who has the life she’s supposed to want and has never felt more out of place. The same spring a photo turns up online of her husband standing a little too close to a woman she’s never seen, her mother back in Criss Creek is getting the family farm ready for a Fourth of July television feature, with her late son’s bedroom still untouched upstairs. One phone call sends Colleen racing home to face the mother she stopped confiding in and the grief she never let herself feel. It’s a mother-daughter story with more heart than heat, and readers tell me it’s the one that made them call their mom.
Summer in the Moon Garden is an Amazon bestseller about Kat, whose twenty-year marriage unravels the same summer her twin sons leave for Alaska. She goes home to Criss Creek, where her best friend Jess is keeping a secret of her own, the two of them make a summer bucket list, and Kat’s first love turns up at the worst possible moment. It’s a second-chance story with more pining than spice.
The Secret Ingredient is brand new, out February 9, 2027, and it’s the reason I’m especially glad to be spending this winter here. It’s the story of two sisters: Mel, who runs their late grandmother’s bakery in Criss Creek, and Janie, who left years ago for southwest Florida. The winter after a hurricane takes Janie’s home, she tells Mel not to come. So Mel does the only thing she knows how to do. Every month she mails a jar of jam, a letter she never quite finishes, and something from the life they shared. It’s a short book about the ways we show up for the people we love when we can’t be there in person, and about a small-town bakery you’ll want to walk into. I wrote a good part of it looking at the Gulf.
The books have recipes in them, and I’m always happy to talk about which ones are real (most of them). Come find me on the 16th. I’d love to hear which book you start with.
If you’d like a taste before then, my website has the first three chapters of both novels free at https://kristiebooker.com/kristie-booker-books/, and that’s also where you can join my newsletter, a monthly note about what I’m reading, writing, cooking, and savoring.
Short bio
Kristie Booker writes heartwarming women’s fiction set in the small Illinois town of Criss Creek, where the food is good, the neighbors know your name, and every book ends with hope. Her novels include Blooming Into Life and the Amazon bestseller Summer in the Moon Garden; the novella The Secret Ingredient arrives in February 2027, with the novel Sweet Mama Jane’s to follow. She splits her time between Illinois and southwest Florida, and believes most problems look smaller after a long walk on the beach. Find her at https://kristiebooker.com/.
