Casting About [Paperback]

Terri DuLong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2010

In this beautifully crafted and uplifting novel, the author of the acclaimed Spinning Forward welcomes readers back to the lush Florida island of Cedar Key, where the vibrant shades of hibiscus and azaleas are the perfect backdrop to a colorful, quirky community. . .

In the four years since Monica Brooks moved to Cedar Key, she's found a home, a husband, and now a business to love. Taking over her mother's bustling knitting shop is a welcome challenge, but Monica's exciting plans are waylaid by unexpected news. Her husband's ex-wife has been deemed an unfit mother, and custody of their eight-year-old daughter, Clarissa, is to be transferred to Adam.

Going straight from honeymoon to motherhood--especially when she's unsure she wants children--leaves the normally even-keeled Monica doubting herself at every turn. Yet in a place like Cedar Key, nobody goes it alone. With help from friends and relatives, Monica, Clarissa, and Adam begin to forge a close-knit family of their own--one that will need to be strong enough to withstand all the surprises set to unravel. . .

Praise for Spinning Forward

"Poignant, absorbing, humorous...a debut that tugs at the heart." --Sophia Nash, author of A Dangerous Beauty

"Captures the essence of what often lies in each of our hearts. Don't miss it!" --J.L. Miles, author of Cold Rock River

"Like a lazy island summer. . .a story of secrets and loss, friendship and recovery, and rediscovered love." --Laura Castoro, author of Love on the Line

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this syrupy return to Spinning Forward, the Cedar Key, Fla., knitting business that gave her previous novel its name, DuLong explores a young woman's awakening to stepmotherhood. Since buying her mother, Sydney Webster's, yarn shop, and adjusting to married life with Adam Brooks, Monica is feeling peaceful, if a little overwhelmed. But that peace is challenged when Adam is awarded custody of his eight-year-old daughter, Clarissa Jo, after his alcoholic ex has a drunk-driving accident while Clarissa Jo is left unsupervised at home. When Clarissa Jo arrives acting much younger than she is (she totes a Raggedy Ann doll), Monica begins an uneasy relationship with her that slowly blooms into a sweet bond. Also spun into DuLong's yarn-centric tale is a subplot about Monica's best friend dating an untrustworthy developer who'd rather have her coffee shop property than her heart. And with the appearance of the ghost of Monica's grandmother, a benevolent spirit who helps Clarissa adjust to her new life, DuLong adds a bit of paranormal magic to this otherwise paint-by-numbers endeavor. (Nov.) (c)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Kensington; Original edition (November 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758232055
• ISBN-13: 978-0758232052
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of the acclaimed women's fiction Cedar Key Series and NY Times/USA Today best seller, Terri DuLong is the author of Spinning Forward (Kensington Books, November 2009).
Born and reared in the Boston area . . . Salem, the Witch City, to be exact, DuLong was an only child, who relied on imaginary friends for playmates. All these years later, she believes those playmates (and her love for books) led her to her passion for writing.
Married young, with three children, then divorced, Terri went to college to become a legal secretary. After remarrying, with the children getting older, she decided to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse. She also continued her love for reading women's fiction. As for her own writing, well it was limited to extremely long letters to friends and keeping a journal. After working in Critical Care as an R.N., the thought of writing "seriously" became stronger, and Terri took a creative writing class at college. Encouraged by the professor, Terri began writing with the hope of publication.
With the transfer of her husband's job to the Tampa, Florida, area, she began to work part-time as a home health RN and devote more and more time to writing. She began attending writers' conferences to not only improve her craft of writing but also to understand the complicated world of publishing.
Attending more and more writers' conferences, networking, reading, always working on her writing, Terri never gave up. She couldn't. Writing was her passion and filled her soul. Queries went out; rejections came back. But she noticed the rejections were now not form letters but very nice personal correspondence. Believing there had to be an agent, editor or publisher out there who would love her work, she kept writing.
When Terri's husband retired in 2004, the couple relocated two hours north to Cedar Key, an island off the west coast of Florida. They knew from many previous visits that the small town, surrounded as it is by Mother Nature, was the perfect place for them. And Terri's muse went into high gear . . . lots of quirky characters, people who actually waved to you and knew your name, a place that touched her soul. She was in her element.
She wrote a women's novel set in Cedar Key, and then she attended the Romance Writers of America Conference, summer 2007. Upon returning home, she sent off a query to Kensington Books with the required first three chapters, promptly forgot about it and got on with life . . . until December 11, 2007.
That was when Terri received an e-mail from her editor's assistant, requesting the full manuscript. And on Feb. 26, 2008, Terri was offered a two-book contract from Kensington. Her debut women's fiction novel--the first in her Cedar Key series--was released Oct. 27, 2009. Now in its second printing, Spinning Forward has been named a finalist for "Long Contemporary Novel" in the 2010 New England Reader's Choice Bean Pot Awards. And Reader's Digest has bought the rights to release Spinning Forward in a Condensed Special Edition in December 2010.
Book 2 in Terri's Cedar Key series, Casting About, was published by Kensington Books Oct. 26, 2010. Readers can also catch Terri's first novella for Kensington--A Cedar Key Christmas--in the Fern Michaels holiday anthology, Holiday Magic, released November 2010 and a NY Times & USA Today Best Seller. Book 3, Sunrise On Cedar Key, was released November 2011 and Book 4 will hit shelves in 2012.
Meanwhile, Terri's motto remains the one that has made so many of her dreams reality: "Believe in yourself and make great things happen."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DuLong Weaves Wonder with CASTING ABOUT, October 27, 2010

By 

Bingo-Karen Haney "Reader, Reviewer, and BOOK... (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Casting About (Paperback)

Terri DuLong has given a gift to readers everywhere with her new Cedar Key Series novel, CASTING ABOUT. I absolutely adored this book as it was the perfect read to curl up with on a fall day and get lost on the Island of Cedar Key with its down home charm and friendly inhabitants. In the first novel of the series, SPINNING FORWARD, readers were introduced to Monica who is the daughter of Sydney Webster. Sydney's story was mostly what the first book was about and in it (not to add a spoiler) we found that her yarn shop was taken over by Monica when Sydney left town.

Monica is in the "honeymoon stage" of her marriage of five months to the marvelous Adams Brooks, a strong male role model who is a school teacher and single dad of eight-year-old daughter Clarissa Jo. When Adam's ex-wife, Carrie Sue, a "real character", is declared unfit, Adam gains full custody of Clarissa Jo and couldn't be happier. Newly located and settled in Cedar Key, Monica fell in love with Adam, and they were only married those few months when she is suddenly thrust head-first into the sudden responsibility of motherhood. Clarissa arrives and the three begin the process of forming a suddenly ready-made family as Monica is required to make huge strides into becoming a mother very quickly. Unsure if she even wants to be a mother, Monica takes on the mission however, and through trial and error, many emotional ups and downs, slowly helps the three begin to bond as a family. After a few missteps, things are moving right along and Monica's doubts about her maternal instinct begin to diminish.

With the help of family and friends, Monica is able to run her business and actually make some great improvements to the shop as well as slowly become used to being married and being a suddenly new mother. Adam's mother, Opal, comes to stay on the island for a while and her stay stretches out as she bonds more with her granddaughter and her own insecurities begin to fade somewhat on this tiny strip of paradise. Delightful Dora is Monica's aunt and helps run the shop, although she does it out of love of the business and knitting, rather than for any money. Last in Monica's circle is Grace, who is her best friend, and runs a wonderful local coffee shop that is down the street from the shop. The two friends are great support for each other and with Grace, another plot line develops.

When Grace starts to see a new man in town, Monica worries as Grace seems to be getting in pretty deep, pretty fast. It turns out the local beehive of gossip has it that developers are trying to buy up property to turn the lovely island into a tourist mecca. The locals are against this and when Monica gets an idea that the man Grace is seeing is implicated, she gets involved in their business which starts some fireworks going.

The other sub-plot deals with a spirit of Sybile who was Monica's late grandmother. Faintly, and then more noticeably, she seems to make her presence known to Monica who at first chalks it up as coincidence. First things disappear and then show up again suddenly. Next Sybile seems to play an important part in helping Clarissa adjust to her new home. However, when sudden illness strikes the family, Sybile's presence is most assuredly felt and it plays an important part in the story.

With the twists and turns of each story line keeping the pages turning, all "knitting" together nicely at the conclusion; this is a novel I hated to see end. CASTING ABOUT reads just fine as a stand alone novel, but my guess is that you are going to want to start with SPINNING FORWARD so you can then have the follow-up of CASTING ABOUT ready to follow with. Thus, you leave less time to wait for the next installment, unlike myself who now has to hope that Terri DuLong is writing furiously about more of these memorable characters who you wish lived down the street from you!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plesant, but not Wow....., June 30, 2011

By 

Rachael A. Warrington "R. A. Warrington" (Wichita Ks.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casting About (Kindle Edition)

I must be jaded; I am struggling to find books that really send me over the top. I will buy a book after reading the reviews and previewing the book myself, get home and get ready to dive in, only I find the shallow bottom. Clunk another disappointment.
The book started okay, but I quickly got bored and unfortunately did not develop any love for the characters. And I have to say the way the main character talked about treated motherhood, I was a bit offended and insulted. I kept yelling at the book for Monica to just talk to her step daughter....not keep quiet and ignore the huge elephant in the room.
There was very little and I do mean very little knitting in the book. And at 80 I hope I have a fourth of Aunt Dora's energy, I wish I had it now in my late forties.

Again here was a book that could have been deep, even a bit profound, and it could have been about knitting. A really good book about knitting and people is Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson.

5.0 out of 5 stars nice little book, January 26, 2012

By 

Mimi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casting About (Kindle Edition)

I read this book and really like Terri Dulong's style. Just made me want to read the next book in the series. Terri Dulong, keep writing!