Book Tour: Marva Cope by Teddy Jones

 

 

MARVA COPE

Jackson’s Pond, Texas Series #4

by

TEDDY JONES

Rural Fiction / Small Town Texas / Literary Fiction

Publisher: MidTown Publishing

Date of Publication: February 5, 2023

Number of Pages: 281 pages 

 

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A stranger comes to Jackson’s Pond and everything changes.

Marva Cope, the fourth novel in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas Series, brings new elements to the story of the small town in the Texas Panhandle. 

Marva arrives as the new postmaster in 2017. She brings with her a lifetime of hesitancy to open herself to others. It is here, while living with her elder Aunt Violet, that she comes to appreciate the value of true friendships. With new relationships, long walks, and conversations with herself, she comes to terms with her difficult past...the loss of a beloved teenaged brother in a tragic farm accident, her father’s death from a broken heart, and a distant mother who had no love for the young teenager.

Troubled teenage years followed as a flawed young man lures her to New Mexico, then left her alone with their newborn daughter. With her newfound courage of trusting others as friends, she reconnects with her daughter and a college dorm-mate she had deserted in years past. In Jackson’s Pond, she finds the ability to consider what to do with the rest of her life. 

PRAISE FOR MARVA COPE:

There is so much to admire in this wise and luminous novel. Marva Cope is written with abiding tenderness and compassion. -- John Dufresne, author of Storyville

The novel Marva Cope is a rarity— an artfully told “coming of age” story that morphs into a “getting on with life” saga that, in the end, celebrates the simple joys of human connection. -- Martha Burns, author of Blind Eye

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Teddy Jones is the author of five published novels, as well as a collection of short stories. Her short fiction received the Gold Medal First Prize in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2015. Jackson’s Pond, Texas was a finalist for the 2014 Willa Award in contemporary fiction from Women Writing the West. Her novel, Making It Home, was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2017 and A Good Family (not yet unpublished) was named finalist in that contest in 2018.

Although her fiction tends to be set in West Texas, her characters’ lives embody issues not bounded by geography of any particular region. Families and loners; communities in flux; people struggling, others successful; some folks satisfied in solitude and others yearning for connection populate her work. And they all have in common that they are more human than otherwise.

Jones grew up in a small Texas town, Iowa Park. Earlier she worked as a nurse, a nurse educator, a nursing college administrator, and as a nurse practitioner in Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. For the past twenty years, she and her husband have lived in the rural West Texas Panhandle where he farms and she writes. 

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Sometimes, you open a book and fall in love...

Marva Cope is a dual time story, set in the 1970s -1980s and 2017. 

When Marva Cope, single with a grown daughter, takes the job of postmaster in Jackson’s Pond, she moves in with her elderly Aunt Violet. Without prodding, wise Violet coaxes her niece’s life story from her, causing Marva to rethink her life.

As a teenager, Marva Cope’s life was altered by the tragic deaths of her brother and later her father and her mother’s inability to see past her own pain to the traumatic effects on her daughter. In high-school, Marva pours herself into her studies with the one aim of getting into college and away from her mom. Head down, Marva concentrates on her courses until befriended by a group of girls and she realizes she’s cut herself off from any type of relationship. When she meets an attractive young man her life changes course once again, leaving school for a tough life on a New Mexico ranch.

As Marva settles into her new home in Jackson’s Pond, she makes an effort to forge new friendships and reach out to people in her past life to reestablish links. Then she meets Chick Talley, a man with his own share of heartache. Understanding and patient, he is willing to wait for Marva to find room for him in her life. 

I really, really enjoyed this well-written book. From the first page, I fell in love with Marva and Aunt Violet. My heart ached for her troubled life and cheered as she fought to make a decent life for herself and her daughter. I felt like the author dropped me into Marva’s world with her poignant storytelling. It’s a quiet story of inner-strength, testing your limits, and learning to open your heart to others, no matter your age.

Highly recommend this lovely story. I rate this book 5+ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Stars

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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

 ONE WINNER: 

A set of all 4 Jackson’s Pond, Texas books, a copy of Nowhere Near,

and a $25 Amazon gift card.

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 3/17/23)

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CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 

or visit the blogs directly:

03/07/23	Rox Burkey Blog	Excerpt
03/07/23	Jennie Reads	Review
03/07/23	Hall Ways Blog	BONUS promo
03/08/23	All the Ups and Downs	Excerpt
03/08/23	Shelf Life Blog	Review
03/09/23	Librariel Book Adventures	Review
03/09/23	LSBBT Blog	BONUS promo
03/10/23	The Clueless Gent	Review
03/11/23	The Real World According to Sam	Review
03/12/23	StoreyBook Reviews	Scrapbook
03/13/23	Chapter Break Book Blog	Deleted Scene
03/14/23	The Plain-Spoken Pen	Review
03/14/23	It's Not All Gravy	Review
03/15/23	Boys' Mom Reads	Series Spotlight
03/15/23	Reading by Moonlight	Review
03/16/23	Forgotten Winds	Review
03/16/23	The Book's Delight	Review

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