A Divorced Woman Survives a Midlife (and Mid-death) Crisis in This Charming Southern Paranormal Novel
A 2020 Publisher’s Weekly BookLife Prize Quarter Finalist, Charleston Green effortlessly combines multiple genres—southern women's fiction, historical fiction, and paranormal mystery—into a wholly unique story of personal evolution and redemption. Heroine Tipsy Collins is a reluctant clairvoyant, but she’s also a mother of three, an ex-wife, and a frustrated artistic genius. Tipsy’s rare supernatural power becomes the quirky lens through which she rebuilds her life after her devastating divorce. She tackles parenting, dating, financial woes, a custody battle, and career challenges with relatable humor and southern charm, all while sharing a haunted mansion with eccentric, undead roommates who give her the opportunity to solve their century-old murder mystery.
Kirkus Book Reviews calls Charleston Green “an enchanting novel.” Author Stephanie Alexander “blends the warm humor of her characters with balmy descriptions of her Southern gothic setting. Her descriptions of Tipsy’s paintings are particularly lyrical… It’s a breezy paranormal read, and yet one with more depth than the reader might expect from the premise. In Tipsy and her ghosts, Alexander finds a story about the frustrations of love and aging as well as the weight that history places on the living, particularly perhaps, in the South Carolina Lowcountry.”
A 2020 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medalist in Paranormal Fiction, Charleston Green is a perfect weekend read.
SYNOPSIS
If Tipsy Collins learned one thing from her divorce, it's that everyone in Charleston, South Carolina is a little crazy—even if they’re already dead.
Tipsy may not be able to ignore her nutty friends or vindictive ex-husband, but as a reluctant, lifelong clairvoyant, she has always avoided dead people. That all changes when Tipsy and her three children move into a new house on Bennett Street in Charleston. There, Tipsy learns that some ghosts won’t be ignored.
’Til death do us part didn’t pan out for Jane and Henry Mott, who have haunted the Bennett Street house for nearly a century. In fact, Tipsy’s marriage was downright felicitous compared to Jane and Henry’s ill-fated union. Jane believes Henry killed her and then himself—though Henry vehemently denies both accusations. Unfortunately, neither phantom remembers all the details of that ill-fated afternoon in 1923.
Tipsy doesn’t know whether to side with Jane, who seems to be hiding something under her southern-belle charm, or Henry, a mercurial and creative genius. As Jane and Henry draw Tipsy into their conundrum, she uncovers secrets long concealed under layers of good manners, broken promises, and soupy Lowcountry air. But living with ghosts takes a toll on Tipsy’s health, and possibly even her sanity. Struggling to forge a new path for herself and her children, she discovers a chance to set Jane and Henry free, and perhaps release the ghosts of her own complex past.
Stephanie Alexander grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Drawing, writing stories, and harassing her parents for a pony consumed much of her childhood. After graduating from high school in 1995 she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the College of Charleston, South Carolina. She returned to Washington, DC, where she followed a long-time fascination with sociopolitical structures and women's issues to a Master of Arts in Sociology from the American University. She spent several years as a Policy Associate at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), a think-tank focused on women's health and economic advancement.
Her award-winning first Southern fiction novel, Charleston Green was released in April 2020 and is the 2020 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Silver Medalist for Paranormal Fiction.
Stephanie and her husband live in the Charleston area with their blended family of five children and their two miniature dachshunds, Trinket and Tipsy. She is represented by Stefanie Lieberman of Janklow & Nesbit Associates, New York, NY.