West of Venus — Judy Troy

There are 4,000 friends, lovers, relatives, and neighbors in Venus, Kansas. Holly Parker lives just west of there.

Holly Parker knows that people almost always make the wrong choices. Like her sixteen year-old-son who is dating his former sixth grade teacher. Like her friend, Marvelle, still mourning a husband she should have left long before he died and broke her heart.

But while 36-year-old Holly can see what's best for other people, when it comes to her own life her vision is less than perfect. With the kind, decent veterinarian who lives next door interested in her, Holly would rather turn back to an ill-starred love affair with a married man--her boss at the restaurant where she works as a waitress. But there's also Gene Rollison, the quietly sexy state trooper who seems to turn up at all the wrong moments, leaving Holly flustered and confused. That's when a grieving friend, a few crazy summer nights, and a small Kansas town come together to help Holly see what she's been missing, and where she should go from here.

West Of Venus marks the arrival of a major new talent, a writer who treats her characters tenderly, capturing for us, with remarkable skill and grace, both their loneliness and their very human desire for connection.