Six Hearts; Seven Stories

By Shakey Smith

Nineteen-year -old Marie Rastrelli did not believe in true love. Lark, dark, brilliantly sarcastic, fiercely independent, and undeniably homely, neither motherhood nor a family had ever been in her plans. She wanted to be a dentist. Balding, bespectacled, and even homelier than Marie, eighteen-year-old Sandy Dupee not only believed in true love, he knew it for a fact. He fell in love with Marie at first sight.
In order to marry Marie, Sandy was required to swear off romantic love forever. It was a tough swear for a hearts-and-flowers kid; Sandy did it for their unborn child. The strain was tremendous but for ten rocky years, through college, careers, an extramarital affair, and three more unplanned pregnancies, Sandy managed to stifle his declarations of undying love... until one wintry morning when he snapped.
Maybe it was his parents' harping. Maybe it was his younger brother's happiness in his off-the-wall marriage. Maybe it was watching Tori, his ex-mistress, find true love. Whatever it was, Sandy snapped, and snapped publicly. On Christmas Day, at a family house party, Sandy and Marie armed themselves, she with a revolver, he with a violin, and hashed things out on an icy rooftop.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shakey Smith
• Release date: Apr 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370505036

Shakey Smith

A resident of Kansas, Shakey weaves her stories from a simple fabric of life, creating beautiful tapestries that are a testament to everyday existence, highlighted with the addition of those globally familiar colorful characters who touch all our lives. A widow, a mother, a Spanish teacher, she draws on all of her own roles and trials as she brings to life ordinary people, sharing with us the depth of their emotions, making us aware of ‘the every man’s’ daily triumphs and troubles. While she might claim to have majored in bead-stringing, and minored in hitch hiking and Neil Young, her official parchments show degrees in English and Spanish.

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