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Shayne's Supernaturals #5
Stargazer
*Previously Dr. Duffy's Close Encounter
He hasn’t always been that way. The little boy inside him–the one who spun wild fantasies about rescuing beautiful girls from far away planets–still whispers to him from within. He ignores that little boy.
But when something and crashes into the woods behind his Iowa farm, it’s that little boy who compels him to go running out in the dead of night to investigate. And when he finds that same little girl, all grown up and more beautiful than ever, he can no longer doubt the truth. The fantasy of his childhood was real. And the girl who fell from the stars is back.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD MARRIAGE.
This book has been re-edited, re-polished, re-packaged, and made available for a whole new audience. One reader wrote: “This story will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you wish the book could go on forever.” Originally published as a Silhouette Intimate Moments, about 75-80,000 words, or 250 paperback pages.
Thomas Duffy’s heart is hard, and he likes it that way. After 8 years as a military doctor on a war-torn third world island, he’s learned that caring too much will tear a man apart.
He hasn’t always been that way. The little boy inside him–the one who spun wild fantasies about rescuing beautiful girls from far away planets–still whispers to him from within. He ignores that little boy.
But when something and crashes into the woods behind his Iowa farm, it’s that little boy who compels him to go running out in the dead of night to investigate. And when he finds that same little girl, all grown up and more beautiful than ever, he can no longer doubt the truth. The fantasy of his childhood was real. And the girl who fell from the stars is back.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD MARRIAGE.
This book has been re-edited, re-polished, re-packaged, and made available for a whole new audience. One reader wrote: “This story will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you wish the book could go on forever.” Originally published as a Silhouette Intimate Moments, about 75-80,000 words, or 250 paperback pages.
182 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
16 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Maggie Shayne
269 books2,583 followersI live in the teeny, tiny town of Taylor, NY, (Alliteration Alert!) though my mailing address is Cincinnatus, my telephone exchange is Truxton and I pay taxes and vote in Cuyler. All of these are at least in the same rural county in the southern hills of New York State; Cortland County. There are more cattle than people here. The nearest “big” cities are Syracuse and Binghamton and they are an hour away, in different directions, and not really all that big by most standards, though they both seem humongous to me. I look out my window to see rolling, green, thickly forested hills, wildflower laden meadows and wide open blue, blue skies. My road is barely paved. The nearest neighboring place is a 700 acre dairy farm.
My house is a big, century old farmhouse. I moved in here after my divorce in 2006. Just a little over a year later, the house, which I had named, SERENITY, burned. It was 99% gutted, and I lost my two dogs, Sally, an 11-year-old great Dane, and Wrinkles, my 14-year-old, blind bulldog. This was the culmination of my Dark Night of the soul, which had seemed to hit me all at once in 2006-2007. My mother died that year, after a 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was only 60. The youngest of my five daughters had left home that same year, and while that’s not a tragedy at all, it felt like one to me. Then came the divorce. And finally there was the fire--it seemed my darkest night wasn’t quite finished with me after all. I had lost almost everything before that point, and as I poked through the wet ashes and soot the next day, I realized that I had now been stripped all the way to the bone.
No better time to start over. (And no, I didn’t come to that realization that day--there were a few days of wallowing in pity first, particularly the day after the fire, when I hit a deer and smashed up my car, which I was practically living in!)
That’s when I started to laugh. Just sat on the side of the road as the deer bounded, uninjured and carefree, out of sight, and laughed. It was just too ridiculous at that point, to do anything else!
And from there, I picked myself up, and brushed myself off, and said, okay, there’s only one way to go from here. Forward. And that’s what I did. There I was at the age of harrurmphemmph, living in my one, mostly undamaged remaining room, with a dorm-sized mini-fridge, a futon, a TV, my cat (nine lives!) and a laptop. And not much else. (Though thank goodness the room that survived the fire, was a room that had its own attached bathroom!)
Since then I have rebuilt my beloved home, which really has become my haven, my “Serenity.” I share it now with my fiancé, Lance, and we have accumulated quite the little family together. “Little” being a relative term. We have a pair of English Mastiffs, Dozer and Daisy, who weigh 203 pounds and 208 pounds respectively, and a little pudgy English Bulldog named Niblet, who is bigger than both of them, inside her mind. We also have the aforementioned cat, Glorificus (“Glory” for short,) who adores her canine pups and keeps them firmly in line. And we've acquired a pair of stray cats as well, a mother and son, Luna (Lulu for short) and Butters aka Buddy. Lulu showed up pregnant during a lunar eclipse, had a litter, and vanished again. We found homes for all the kittens except one. Butters. We got him fixed and kept him. A few months later, Lulu returned, again expecting. This litter was born on the "Monster Moon." Again, all the kittens were spayed and neutered and placed in homes, and this time we got Lulu to the vet in time to spay her before the cycle could repeat.
Glory is not amused.
She has a story of her own, my old Glory cat, having been with me before the Dark Times descended, she went through it all with me, moved with me, survived the fire, and remains with me still. She's tolerating the newcomers. Barely.
My partner is an artist, a mechanic, a welder and an inventor, and the rumors are true, he is much younger than I
My house is a big, century old farmhouse. I moved in here after my divorce in 2006. Just a little over a year later, the house, which I had named, SERENITY, burned. It was 99% gutted, and I lost my two dogs, Sally, an 11-year-old great Dane, and Wrinkles, my 14-year-old, blind bulldog. This was the culmination of my Dark Night of the soul, which had seemed to hit me all at once in 2006-2007. My mother died that year, after a 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was only 60. The youngest of my five daughters had left home that same year, and while that’s not a tragedy at all, it felt like one to me. Then came the divorce. And finally there was the fire--it seemed my darkest night wasn’t quite finished with me after all. I had lost almost everything before that point, and as I poked through the wet ashes and soot the next day, I realized that I had now been stripped all the way to the bone.
No better time to start over. (And no, I didn’t come to that realization that day--there were a few days of wallowing in pity first, particularly the day after the fire, when I hit a deer and smashed up my car, which I was practically living in!)
That’s when I started to laugh. Just sat on the side of the road as the deer bounded, uninjured and carefree, out of sight, and laughed. It was just too ridiculous at that point, to do anything else!
And from there, I picked myself up, and brushed myself off, and said, okay, there’s only one way to go from here. Forward. And that’s what I did. There I was at the age of harrurmphemmph, living in my one, mostly undamaged remaining room, with a dorm-sized mini-fridge, a futon, a TV, my cat (nine lives!) and a laptop. And not much else. (Though thank goodness the room that survived the fire, was a room that had its own attached bathroom!)
Since then I have rebuilt my beloved home, which really has become my haven, my “Serenity.” I share it now with my fiancé, Lance, and we have accumulated quite the little family together. “Little” being a relative term. We have a pair of English Mastiffs, Dozer and Daisy, who weigh 203 pounds and 208 pounds respectively, and a little pudgy English Bulldog named Niblet, who is bigger than both of them, inside her mind. We also have the aforementioned cat, Glorificus (“Glory” for short,) who adores her canine pups and keeps them firmly in line. And we've acquired a pair of stray cats as well, a mother and son, Luna (Lulu for short) and Butters aka Buddy. Lulu showed up pregnant during a lunar eclipse, had a litter, and vanished again. We found homes for all the kittens except one. Butters. We got him fixed and kept him. A few months later, Lulu returned, again expecting. This litter was born on the "Monster Moon." Again, all the kittens were spayed and neutered and placed in homes, and this time we got Lulu to the vet in time to spay her before the cycle could repeat.
Glory is not amused.
She has a story of her own, my old Glory cat, having been with me before the Dark Times descended, she went through it all with me, moved with me, survived the fire, and remains with me still. She's tolerating the newcomers. Barely.
My partner is an artist, a mechanic, a welder and an inventor, and the rumors are true, he is much younger than I
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 1, 2018
Loved it, with Maggie Shayne's books you never know what you are going to get other than quality and a great story. But what else matters?
January 18, 2019
Another great story
Maggie Shayne stories always gets you additive wanting more. They never disappointed me and enjoy each and every story she's written
Maggie Shayne stories always gets you additive wanting more. They never disappointed me and enjoy each and every story she's written
March 30, 2008
Humorous, sweet story of an imaginative boy who rescues a little girl and they bond. He grows up and becomes hard to save himself pain, then meets the woman who is fleeing a cold, merciless world. An early Maggie Shayne that includes a female alien from a world where women rule...
November 22, 2008
*Sigh* The hero was annoying and so was the heroine. I usually like Paranormal Romances, but this was just terrible. The plot was SOOO predictable. Boring, boring, boring.
July 9, 2012
Decent book in my opinion considering this isn't really what I normally gravitate to when I read books. Good for anyone looking for otherworldly type romance books.
April 5, 2013
Book 2 of the Nook BadAss Brides Collection. Amusing in an out-of-this world kinda way.
June 5, 2014
was this story predictable? yeah. did i still enjoy it? yeah. was it tropealicious? hell yeah. would i recommend it? sure
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews