Picture This: A Novel (P.S.) [Paperback]

Jacqueline Sheehan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 22, 2012 | Series: P.S.

Jacqueline Sheehan made serious waves with her much beloved runaway bestseller, Lost and Found (“The best book I’ve read in a long time” —Susan Elizabeth Phillips). Now she treats readers to a sequel, Picture This—a story of rebirth and personal redemption that is as moving, funny, and heart-soaring as its predecessor. Whip-smart contemporary women’s fiction with heart and soul, in Picture This, Rocky Pelligrino is back on Peaks Island off the coast of Maine, along with Cooper the dog, the beautiful black Labrador retriever who gave her a new “leash” on life. But this time a new wrinkle warps the fabric of her world when a young girl shows up on Rocky’s doorstep claiming to be the long-lost daughter of her late husband.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The poignant and unforgettable sequel to the beloved bestseller Lost & Found; a marvelous tale of life-altering surprises and unanticipated guests

Peaks Island, Maine, vibrates with its own special magic, a unique flow to life that knits together the small community that calls it home. The people, the animals, and even the houses have a charm and personality all their own. Just ask Rocky Pelligrino. Devastated by her husband Bob's sudden death, she found hope thanks to a relentlessly loyal black Lab named Cooper. Warm friends and a new job—as the island's animal control warden—have helped Rocky chart a course toward a promising future. She's even ready to try love again with Hill, the gentle and patient archery instructor. And there is an old house haunted by lost love and forgotten secrets that speaks to her soul.

But a phone call from a troubled young woman looking for her biological father shakes Rocky's newfound joy. Could this young girl hold a tendril of the man who was the love of her life? Or could the girl's appearance throw Rocky's world into chaos . . . and shatter her heart again?

About the Author

Jacqueline Sheehan, Ph.D., is a fiction writer and essayist, the bestselling author of the novels Lost & Found and Now & Then. Currently on the faculty of Writers in Progress and Grub Street in Massachusetts, she also offers international workshops on the combination of yoga and writing. She writes travel articles about lesser-known destinations and lives in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (May 22, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062008129
• ISBN-13: 978-0062008121
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacqueline Sheehan, Ph.D., is a fiction writer and essayist. She is a New Englander through and through, but spent twenty years living in the western states of Oregon, California, and New Mexico doing a variety of things, including house painting, freelance photography, newspaper writing, clerking in a health food store, and directing a traveling troupe of high school puppeteers. She is currently the fiction editor for Patchwork Journal, an online journal sponsored by Patchwork Farm, an internationally based writing center. Jacqueline teaches workshops on writing and the combination of yoga and writing.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mystical Ilse that Exists May 8, 2012

By Susannah St Clair Foxy Loxy VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

OK ,first thought. This book is a keeper. Don't loan it to your friends, you might not get it back! I love the writing . Not only does the story suck you in, but the beauty of the prose pulls you along. You want to read the next unusual way to say something totally common in the here and now. It's deep , rolling and beautifully nuanced. Her characters are people you begin to know and feel very close to. You care, which is what a good book is all about to me. Well, along with a great storyline and "Picture This" has it all. Love story, animal story, a commentary on the social problems people are faced with every day. Oh an did I leave out a fair amount of the mystical? I don't try to re-create the summation that anyone can read when checking into a book. I want to create "flavor" and maybe a desire to read something that I have found a joy for myself. I want YOU to receive the same pleasure that I did. This is a book that I think will find a place in a lot of book shelves. A keeper.
The descriptions of the Island, the country side make you want to visit. Maybe even move.. :) The story starts off with your leading character's pain of the loss of her husband. Hence her retreat to the Island. She meets humans and a wonder dog who are slowly helping her to recover from the depth of her loss when along comes a very large monkey wrench into the life she is making for herself. Her dead husbands "daughter"? One he may not have known about , but IS she really? Here comes the mystery and then follows the excitement and chase to find all the correct answers. Amazing book.
I think it has all the ingredients of what a great book is about. I hope you find out for yourself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Enough, But Nothing Spectacular August 22, 2012

By Steven James

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I read LOST AND FOUND by Sheehan and I thoroughly enjoyed that book. I should have stopped there. PICTURE THIS continues where the first book left off and it tries to do too much. It involves a girl who believes she is the long-lost daughter of the the protagonist's long-dead husband (he's actually been dead for a litle over a year,) and she comes to stake her rightful claim as his only dependent.

That portion of the story was interesting, but what bored me were the passages on archery, anorexia, synesthesia, photography and there was not enough of Hill, the new boyfriend. He disappears about one-third of the way through the book and doesn't appear again until the end. What the heck?!! There are too many topics and the author doesn't fully complete one idea before introducing another. It was a mish-mash, of sorts.

I did enjoy reading about Cooper the dog, whom we first met in LOST AND FOUND. He is the nicest, most realistically drawn character in the whole book. Don't get me wrong, this is not a terrible book at all. I just expected more after reading the previous book. PICTURE THIS earns a solid 3 Stars from this reader.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A summer -- then more -- on a New England island June 8, 2012

By D. Williams VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Roxanne (Rocky) Pelligrino leaves behind her counseling job at a college and moves from Augusta, Maine, to Peak's Island in the wake of the sudden death of her husband Robert (Bob) Tilbe. She becomes the animal warden on the island and has taken in a big black Labrador retriever she has named Cooper to help her through this time.

One day a young woman named Natalie phones Rocky. Natalie claims that she is Bob's daughter. But what proof does she have? Is she Bob's daughter from an early indiscretion, or is Natalie mistaken? Or did Natalie's computer-hacker boyfriend forge documents?

Rocky hears Natalie's story and sees Natalie as a victim of the system; Natalie claims she has been through many bad foster homes - a story Rocky has heard too many times as a college counselor. But Melissa, a neighbor girl studying photography, believes she sees through Natalie's stories - or is Melissa simply jealous of Rocky's attentions toward Natalie? Even more, how well does Cooper take to Natalie, and Natalie to Cooper? (Dogs have better sense about people than people have about people sometimes.)

Not only did I want to keep reading to find the answers to these questions, I am most impressed with the author's use of imagery. Readers can hear that ferry whistle, feel that New England breeze, find themselves in the down-and-out places where Melissa is taking pictures for her portfolio. Readers even see (and smell, because his lack of personal care is brought up) Natalie's boyfriend. Even those who've never been to Maine can see and feel what's happening and are along on the thirty-minute ferry rides from Peak's Island to the mainland....

This is the second of Sheehan's works that I have read; I have also read Now & Then, and I find this novel even better than Now and Then. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, quick read September 10, 2012

By Shana TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The other reviewers have covered the plot of this book numerous times, so I won't go too much into it. I loved the diverse characters in this book. Though, my favorite character was the almost human Cooper, the black lab. Amongst the main characters are Rocky, the brokenhearted widow learning to love and have hope again; Natalie the emotionally hurt girl, that came from an abused past or does she? Most of the characters are believable and each with their own weaknesses and struggles which are revealed by the story.

This book is a sequel and at times I did feel that I was missing parts of the history of the characters. There are also a few chapters which are written from the dog Cooper's perspective which took a bit to get used to, but, after I got into it I liked that.

Overall, this is an entertaining, simple read, I'd read another book by this author if I came across one.