(W)hole

Elizabeth Foster is a young woman with a promising future. She has the perfect family in a nice neighborhood and she is getting ready to graduate from high school and begin her life. The only problem is a dark secret that she has kept hidden all her life. No one would ever guess that the quiet and shy girl has a rare sexuality. She is only attracted to men with physical disabilities. After years of trying to make it go away, Elizabeth comes face to face with the paraplegic man of her dreams and can fight it no longer. As they begin a relationship, she works hard to keep him from finding out the truth about her initial interest. But she can’t hide it forever. Stewart Masterson was a champion surfer before he lost the use of his legs. He has come to Massachusetts running away from his past and trying to remake himself as someone new. He can’t escape from his own guilt so easily, though. Only three people in the world know the truth about how he became paralyzed and he disappeared from the surfing world without his fans ever knowing what happened to him. He is making a new life for himself when he meets Elizabeth and they start a relationship based on secrets. Together they begin a terrifying journey of self-discovery.Will Elizabeth and Stewart learn to accept the broken parts in themselves and each other? Will they be able to re-define what it means to be whole or will fear and guilt drive them apart? *** -The synopsis won an honorable mention from the Byline Novel Synopsis contest -The book was an award finalist in the romance category of the USA Book News’s National Best Books Awards in 2009