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So Happy Together

A Novel

Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

As her stultifying marriage is unravelling, and in the midst of mourning the loss of her creative self, Caro Tanner has a nightmare about Peter, an old love whom she hasn’t seen in twenty years. She takes this as a sign he still needs her. With her three children safely off to summer camp, Caro embarks on a pre-Facebook, pre-cell phone road trip to recapture who she once was and what she thinks she once had.

Set in the rock ‘n roll ‘60s of Tucson, Arizona—when Caro and Peter were kooky, colorful, and inseparable drama students—and in the suburban ‘80s, when Caro’s creative spark has been quenched to serve the needs of her husband and children, So Happy Together explores the conundrum of love and physical attraction, creativity and family responsibilities, and what happens when they are out of sync. It is a story of missed opportunities, the alluring possibility of second chances, and what we leave behind, carry forward, and settle for when we choose. It sits in that complicated, confounding, beautiful place where love resides.

About The Author

Deborah K. Shepherd was born in Cambridge, MA and spent much of her early life in the New York area. Before retiring in 2014, she was a social worker with a primary focus on the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, and provision of victim services. During an earlier career as a reporter, she wrote for Show Business in New York City and for the Roe Jan Independent, a weekly newspaper in Columbia County, New York. She also freelanced as a travel writer. She graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, and holds a BFA in drama from the University of Arizona and an MSW from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. Deborah lives with her husband and two rescue dogs on the coast of Maine, where she gardens, cooks, swims, reads, entertains her grandsons, tries to speak French, and blogs at www.deborahshepherdwrites.com and www.paleogram.com. She is currently at work on a memoir. She lives in Belfast, ME.

Product Details

  • Publisher: She Writes Press (April 20, 2021)
  • Length: 352 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781647420277

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Raves and Reviews

2022 American Writing Awards Finalist in Best New (Debut) Fiction and Fiction (Women’s Fiction)
2022 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Marriage
2022 Firebird Book Awards Third Place Winner in New Fiction
2022 Firebird Book Awards Third Place Winner in Relationships


“Shepherd takes us on a literal ride into the not-so-distant past, remembering how naïve we were before we understood there are things you just can’t change—even if you’re destined, even if you’re soulmates, even if you’re willing to risk everything . . . The reader will ache at the forced (and quite salty) sass of the young narrator, desperate to show it doesn’t hurt, and highly enjoy the ironic wit of the mature voice who knows better and goes for it all the same. A story for anyone who can relate to how we cling to a fantasy of the past to avoid committing to the present.”
—Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September

“Many of us waste years fantasizing about a lost love, but the feisty heroine in So Happy Together takes to the road to track him down. This compelling novel is about how a smart and lusty drama student in the tumultuous ’60s discovers twenty years later that she’s trapped in a failing marriage. Shepherd’s engaging characters make mistakes, hurt, and lash out, yet ultimately clean up the mess with kindness and humor. Their search for understanding is what ultimately sets them free.”
—Elizabeth Garber, author of Implosion: A Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter

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