Sharon Owens,

Author of The Tea House on Mulberry Street The Ballroom on Magnolia Street, The Tavern on Maple Street, The Trouble with Weddings

 

 

The Tea House on Mulberry Street

 

 

“Daniel Stanley came hurrying down the stairs from the first floor flat and flicked on the lights in the teahouse. For a brief moment the old place looked almost cheery. The dusty curtains, the faded linoleum, the cracked furniture and flaking walls bathed in golden light.”

 

If every picture paints a story then Sharon Owens, Poolbeg’s exciting new writer, has created a breathtaking canvas with her debut novel TheTea House on Mulberry Street.

The vibrancy of Ireland ’s new generation of women writers has never been more evident than in the beautifully warm and evocative writing of this new talent. While dreaming up a plot and storyline may appear within the reach of many, the ability to really draw the reader into the lives of the characters so that one can get a real sense of them, care about them and want to be part of their lives is reserved for the few…for the best.

The Tea House on Mulberry Street is truly groundbreaking fiction from an author who has combined her artistic talent and vibrant imagination to create a warm, moving, often funny, tale heavy with nostalgia, romance and everyday life. An intelligent read for women of all ages who like to indulge.

‘Penny Stanley’s seventeen-year marriage to Daniel is falling apart and so is their shabby teahouse on Mulberry Street . But its regular customers love the cosy atmosphere and luscious desserts.

Penniless artist Brenda Brown sits in the café penning letters to Nicolas Cage. Will they ever be answered? Sadie Smith finds refuge from her diet and her husband’s ultra-slim mistress in a slice of the café’s cherry cheesecake and Clare Fitzgerald returns to the teahouse after twenty years in New York .

But the teahouse needs more than a coat of paint and as Penny takes action she discovers that the teahouse is a magical place with secrets of its own.

 

The Tea House on Mulberry Street - TV film rights have already been sold.

The exquisite drawings throughout this book were also done by the author.

 

 

The Ballroom on Magnolia Street

 

Sharon Owens’ spectacularly quirky, mouthwateringly tasty and utterly unique novels have been likened to Joanne Harris’ Chocolat . Owens is taking the world by storm with her sweet tasty morsels of stories wrapped up in wonderfully evocative packages. Sweet like chocolate…. this book is tasty, warm and satisfying.

The Ballroom on Magnolia Street is a delicious step back into the time of stripy legwarmers, fish and chips at the local dance hall and blue suede shoes. Cecilia Ahearn said she would rather stay in and read this book than go out on the town, HEAT magazine gave it 5 stars and Company Magazine devoured it in one sitting!

 

On a hot summer’s night in 1967, Johnny “ Hollywood ” Hogan parked his pale blue Lincoln continental on Portstewart Strand and solemnly told his girlfriend Marion that he would always love her. But Johnny didn’t ask her to be his wife. Marion, pregnant and terrified of a scandal, fled to the safe embrace of gentle baker Eddy Greenwood. Seven months later, Declan was born. Too late, Johnny realised what he had lost. He consoled himself with running his precious ballroom on Magnolia Street and dreaming of the day when Marion would come back to him.

 Fast forward to 1987, and Declan is a young man who loves pop music and wearing army surplus overcoats. Marion and Eddy worry that he will drop out of medical college and join a rock band. But then Declan meets Shirley Winters and within weeks they are expecting a child of their own. Will history repeat itself?

 

Set in Belfast , The Ballroom on Magnolia Street is a story of passion, romance and regret; and proves that falling in love is never as straightforward as it seems.

Sharon ’s first novel The Teahouse on Mulberry Street has received rave reviews in the UK with HEAT Magazine, New Woman and Company magazine all awarding it full marks! Poolbeg have sold the rights to Sharon ’s Books to an amazing 13 countries so far and new rights agreements are continuously being negotiated. When Sharon ’s first novel was released in the United States it went straight to number 27 in the New York Times Bestsellers list!

 

The Tavern on Maple Street

 

Follow Sharon down a cobbled street and into an old Victorian bar to meet writers, musicians, comedians and barmaids who stir up a delightful mix of quirky and hilarious events. The International Bestselling author Sharon Owens brings us the third and final enchanting instalment in the Belfast Trilogy.

 

Beautiful Lily Black and her husband Jack are owners of a genuine Victorian Tavern, situated on one of Belfast ’s few remaining narrow cobbled streets. It is a quiet place, untouched by the modern world, and that is why the customers like it so much. They have been married for twenty years and have spent that time madly in love and contented in their own little world with their regular customers.

 

One day a letter arrives to inform them that the entire street is to be demolished, leaving Lily and Jack no choice but to fight to save their home. They are suddenly plunged into the limelight, in a desperate struggle to save their business from the bulldozers. As Christmas approaches, they decide to do all that they can to prevent the closure, or to at least make as much money as possible during their last few months as landlord and landlady of the Tavern on Maple Street .

 

But is it too little, too late?

 

Poolbeg have sold the rights to Sharon’s books to an amazing 13 countries so far and new rights are continuously being negotiated. When Sharon’s first novel was released in the United States it went straight to Number 27 in the New York Times Bestsellers list!

The Trouble With Weddings

"It was all such a holy mess. And Bill was being so decent about it, really. He was being his usual loving and understanding self. Patting me on the head for trying so hard, and failing miserably. I couldn’t stand it. It was like Dad’s shocking death and Julie’s mad affair and even Mary’s baby were all my fault, but he was still going to be nice about it because he loved me. That made me so angry, I couldn’t breathe. None of it was my fault, none of it."

 

Margaret (Mags) Grimsdale is a "post-Goth" 39-year-old, happily married to Bill. She's a mother of four teenage and grown-up children, and works as PA to the ultra-glamorous Julie Sultana, 40. Julie runs her wedding-planner business, Dream Weddings, from a decommissioned lighthouse on the outskirts of Belfast . The two women are best friends as well as colleagues but their relationship is tested to its limits when Julie embarks on a passionate affair with a barman from Galway , who is twelve years her junior and a dead ringer for the actor, Sean Bean. As well as coping with Julie's frequent absences from work, Mags also has to deal with her estranged father's sudden death, her eldest son Alex's grief when his anorexic girlfriend miscarries their baby, and her only daughter Alicia-Rose decides to emigrate to Australia. Mags staggers from one crisis to the next, having a tattoo on her back and her hair dyed peacock-blue along the way.

 

And then the biggest wedding that Julie and Mags have ever dealt with goes disastrously wrong, when Julie's toyboy lover, Jay O'Hanlon, trades her in for a celebrity French model. Bill is almost killed in the fallout and Julie is arrested for assault in the middle of the "Vampires & Rock Chicks" themed marquee.

 

Will Julie and Mags ever be friends again, and can Dream Weddings rise from the ashes???