Caren Penland

The Poison of Life Caren Penland

Grey Chesterfield is the daughter of a millionaire-smart, alluring, and ill-equipped to handle life when her father's jet plummets in an accident. Cut off from her fortune by her stepmother, she boards a bus to New Orleans to the only opportunity she can scrounge: a job as a nanny for a lesbian couple and their three-year-old daughter. Zoë Cates is an author of sensual vampire tales with writer's block. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she feels exhilarated by her daughter and stifled by her wife's threats of taking her child away. She drowns herself in remorse, cognac, and jazz, tortured by longing for another time when she painted the Crescent City red with bold strokes of her pen. Grey's infatuation with the dark author grows into longing, which neither can resist. Their mounting tension opens a flood of inspiration for Zoë, yet threatens everything she holds dear. Is it possible to love someone so much, you would risk everything you have ever loved? Zoë and Grey are on a collision course to find out.