Author Spotlight & Review ~ Waltz In Swing Time by Jill Caugherty

Waltz In Swing Time

by

Jill Caugherty

WALTZ IN SWING TIME:

Growing up in a strict Utah farm family during the Depression, Irene Larsen copes with her family’s hardship by playing piano. Even when an unthinkable tragedy strikes, Irene clings to her dream of becoming a musician. When a neighbor's farm is foreclosed, Irene's brother marries the neighbor's daughter, who moves in with the Larsens and coaches Irene into winning leading roles in musicals. Clashing with her mother, who dismisses her ambition as a waste of time, Irene leaves home.

During a summer job at Zion National Park, she meets professional dancer Spike, a maverick who might be her ticket to a musical career. But does pursuing her dream justify its steep price?

Alternating between Irene’s ninetieth year in 2006 and her coming-of-age in the thirties, Waltz in Swing Time is a poignant tale of mother-daughter relationships, finding hope amidst loss, and forging an independent path, against all odds.  Publication on April 23, 2020 by Black Rose Writing.

Bio: 

Jill Caugherty is the author of the debut novel WALTZ IN SWING TIME (Black Rose Writing, April 2020). Her short stories have been published in 805Lit and Oyster River Pages, and her debut short story, “Real People,” was nominated for the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. 

An award-winning marketing manager with over twenty-five years of experience in the high tech industry, she lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and daughter. 

Follow her on Twitter @JillCaugherty
Learn more on her website https://www.jillcaugherty.com

Why Romantic Conflicts in Novels Captivate Us

By Jill Caugherty

Readers who enjoy romance novels love the thrill when a couple first meet, and hold our breath when the protagonist and her new paramour stumble into a problem that threatens their relationship.  Even in non-romance novels, a romantic bond often factors into the plot to some degree and may influence the characters’ actions and the story’s conclusion.

Why do these stories captivate us and compel us to stay up all night, flipping pages?  After all, the tale of boy meets girl is tried and true and often clichéd.  

As in any good book, it’s not a formulaic plot that captures our attention. Rather, it’s the rising tension, conflicts, and moral dilemmas the characters face that keep us in suspense, desperate to learn the outcome. This is especially true when the characters are involved in a romantic relationship, because the stakes for their happiness are ratcheted up that much higher.

M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans  is a beautifully written tearjerker about a couple in Western Australia who find a baby and dead man aboard a boat that washes to shore at their remote lighthouse. Driven by the wife’s deep desire for a baby, they decide to take in the infant as their own and bury the man instead of reporting their discovery. The couple’s marriage suffers when the wife insists on keeping the baby’s rescue a secret, while the husband’s conscience drives him to tell the truth about how they found her. The stakes are high: The wife has lost countless babies to miscarriages and has entered early menopause, so this child is her only hope at being a parent. Furthermore, the wife’s parents are devastated by the loss of their sons in World War I and won’t have any other grandchildren. Meanwhile, the baby’s mother is alive, and years later, still grieves for her lost child and husband. On the line is the couple’s love and the question of its survival, despite the couple’s opposing views and the child who is unfortunately caught in the middle.  The reader races to learn what the pair ultimately decide.

In the novel San Miguel by T.C. Boyle, Maranatha Waters, suffering from consumption, arrives with her husband on San Miguel Island in the late nineteenth century. Overcome by the isolation of the place, her failing health, and an illicit relationship she suspects her husband is conducting with their live-in housekeeper, Maranatha begins to strike out at her husband.  As a result, the reader compulsively turns pages to learn whether Maranatha’s adversities will ever enable her to reach peace with herself and her husband.

Nancy Horan fictionalizes Frank Lloyd Wright’s real-life relationship with a married woman in Loving Frank. In Oak Park, Illinois in the early twentieth century, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, bored with her privileged life, falls in love with the famous architect and leaves her husband and children to live with him “in sin,” despite society’s extreme disapproval.  Her choice – giving up her family and friends for this man and taking a chance at an artistic career – has extreme consequences because of the high stakes. The reader can’t wait to learn what happens.

In my own debut novel, Waltz in Swing Time, the protagonist, Irene Larsen, meets and falls in love with professional dancer Spike at Zion National Park during the nineteen-thirties.  Spike, who breaks rules and flaunts authority, is radically different from everyone Irene knows. As Irene becomes more entangled in their relationship, her moral code is tested, especially when she sees a chance to pursue her dream of a musical career.

Regardless of the genre, readers gravitate to books in which characters face conflicts.  Often at the heart of romance novels is the question of whether the couple’s love will survive, which holds our interest to the very last page. So the next time you cuddle up with a book and cheer on the heroine’s newfound love, realize it wouldn’t be as entertaining without the challenges that threaten the protagonist’s relationship and values.

I give Waltz in Swing Time a huge full 5 Teacups, you are just going to fall in love with these amazing characters and most of all the strength and courage of our Heroine, Irene. It seems life just keeps throwing her one hardship after another but she never gives up, she keeps pursuing her dream of becoming a professional musician and you might ask, did she? well, you'll have to dive into this amazing tale and find that answer! Caugherty's writing is vibrant, sensational, deep, and just pulls at your heartstrings! If you love a story with fire, courage, one where the characters are beating all the odds, and deep emotion, then this is the tale for you! I highly recommend Waltz in Swing Time!