Stray Affections ~ by Charlene Baumbich

I found Stray Affections by Charlene Ann Baumbich to be captivating, magical, tender and even healing. This is a story of love and loss, struggle and triumph, and releasing the old and embracing the new. The characters are memorable, the story is gripping, the pace is quick and the ending is very satisfying. The power of love and forgiveness are a threaded throughout, while hope and the excitement of new beginnings come together neatly in the end, like a lovely bow encircling a beautiful package. On a personal note, this story hit on all of my sore spots – rough childhood, estrangement from mother, no father, love of animals and infertility, but it was more like balm to a wound than salt, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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Stray Affections
By Charlene Ann Baumbich

In Stray Affections, the last thing that Cassandra expects out of her Sunday is to be mesmerized at a collectors’ convention by a snowglobe. She’s enjoying some shopping time, with husband Ken at home tending their brood of four young boys, when she’s utterly charmed by the one-of-a kind globe containing figures of three dogs and a little girl with hair the color of her own. She can’t resist taking the unique globe home—even if means wrestling another shopper for it!

The beautiful snowglobe sparks long-dormant memories for Cassie, of her beloved Grandpa Wonky, the stray she rescued as a child and the painful roots of her combative relationship with her mother, “Bad Betty” Kamrowski. Life in Wanonishaw, Minnesota is never dull, though, and Cassie keeps the recollections at bay, busy balancing her boys, her home daycare operation, and being a good friend to best pal Margret. But after a strange—flurrious, as Cassie deems it—moment happens with the remarkable snowglobe, Cassie and the people she loves are swirled into a tumultuous, yet grace-filled, and life-changing journey.

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Author Bio:
Charlene Ann Baumbich is a popular author and speaker and an award-winning journalist. In addition to her Dearest Dorothy series of novels, she has written seven nonfiction books of humor and inspiration. A bungee-jumping, once motorcycle-owning grandma and unabashed dog lover, Charlene lives with her husband and rescued dog Kornflake in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She loves telling stories, laughing whenever possible, and considers herself a Wild Child of God.

To get more information about Stray Affections, including online purchase options, simply visit https://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307444714 or to view the video of Charlene introducing the book to readers, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWwya52SkjU