Paradise

Written by Karen Anne Coccioli

Narrated by Maria McCann

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection. ~Anais Nin

Paradise is a fictionalized story of the author's personal experiences and told through the recollections of Claire...

Romance novelist, Claire Leccese writes happy endings for a living but her personal existence is consumed with battling demons—sexual cruelty and the specter of her father’s gun. She is plagued by self-loathing and an inability to trust the people who claim to love her, especially Sydney Howard, a beautiful, younger artist.

In alternating chapters that shift between the past and the present, Paradise speaks to how Claire’s issues of severe trauma tangle with her desire to exorcise the powerful influence of her dead father. At the same time, it reveals the complex realities and delights of coming out as a gay woman late in life and ultimately, allowing herself to find love.

At its core, Paradise is a story of the power of the human spirit engrained in anyone with a heart and a soul and who genuinely seeks redemption, transformation, forgiveness, and love.

Please read the trigger warnings: This book contains graphic scenes, which may trigger some people, including past and present emotional mistreatment, and implied past childhood incest and sexual abuse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen Anne Coccioli
• Release date: Mar 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9781666661521

Karen Anne Coccioli

I'm Karen Anne Coccioli I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I believe the stutter I experienced as a child had a lot to do with all the words building up in my head for future stories that weren’t ready to make their debut. By age five, I’d decorated the pages of my mother’s Italian cookbooks with short verses and vignettes while the women in the family prepared the meals. When I was old enough to climb the steep stairs into the attic of the colonial house I grew up in, I’d sit cross-legged in front of the fanlight window and compose poems about the mysteries of the night—the moon, stars, and unseen planets. I still love all things mystical, magical, sensual, and dark. My most inspired moments are those spent in exploring humanity’s dark desires and divining how to reach the light. My love of writing and books coupled with my identity as an androgenous gay woman manifested an aspiration to delve into academic studies that married my innate passions. I hold a Ph.D. in comparative literature, within the context of women’s meditations regarding gender identity, sexuality, and madness. In my spare time, I meditate, cook, take long walks with my two mixed-breed labs, read or listen to audiobooks from one of the many gay romance authors I follow.