Fresh talent CJ Hauser makes her literary debut with The From-Aways, an irreverent story of family, love, friendship, and lobsters, in the tradition of J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine and Richard Russo’s Empire Falls.Two women come to Maine in search of family, and find more love, heartbreak, and friendship, than they’d ever imagined one little fishing town could hold.When Leah, a young New York reporter, meets Henry, she falls in love with everything about him: his freckles, green thumb, and tales of a Maine childhood. They marry quickly and Leah convinces Henry to move back to Menamon. As Leah builds a life there, reporting for The Menamon Star and vowing to be less of an emotional screw-up, the newlyweds are shocked to discover that they don’t know each other nearly so well as they thought they did.When Quinn’s mother dies, she tracks down the famous folk-singer father she’s never known, in Menamon. Scrappy and smart-mouthed, Quinn gets a job at the local paper, an apartment above the town diner, and tries to shore up the courage to meet her father. But falling in love with her roommate, Rosie, was never part of the plan.These two unruly women’s work relationship at The Star deepens into best-friendship when they stumble onto a story that shakes sleepy Menamon—and holds damaging repercussions for Leah’s husband and Quinn’s roommate both. As the town descends into turmoil, both women must decide what kind of lives they are willing to fight for.

A literary read with two alternating viewpoints and different voices. In Menamon, Maine we find a newlywed couple, one a native to Menamon and one from NY, a young gay woman moved there to be near her absent father, and assorted other locals. The small local newspaper hires both of the females, neither a native, making a staff of 3. The problem is that wealthy people "from away", and the two recent additions to the newspaper staff, also "from-aways", are at odds over the wealthy couple's enormous new house. Their new property encompasses a historic carousel and park that residents of the town don't want to lose. The new owners plan to destroy it. The newlyweds, Leah and Henry, are at odds, quietly, because he is doing landscaping for the new owners and she is helping report what is wrong with the purchase of the land, thereby jeopardizing his job. There's more at stake for the little town and for each person and their relationships.

Characters in the book are all over the place and charming, and real. Details are exquisite. If you enjoy literary work, don't miss this book.

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A woman moves to her husbands small Maine coastal town. She expects to feel like an outsider while everyone welcomes him back from NYC. However, through events she comes to feel more at home than she thought possible and her husband isnt sure he wants to stay. ( )

A woman moves to her husbands small Maine coastal town. She expects to feel like an outsider while everyone welcomes him back from NYC. However, through events she comes to feel more at home than she thought possible and her husband isnt sure he wants to stay. ( )

Menamon, Maine didn’t know what it was in for when Henry’s wife, Leah, convinced him to leave his landscaping job in New York and move home. It didn’t expect Carter Marks only daughter to come in search of the father she’d not known. It didn’t expect a lot of things, but they happened anyway.

Leah had fallen in love with Henry at their first meeting. He was all she had ever wanted, strong, funny and totally different person than she had ever known. They didn’t wait to get married and then Leah began the process of getting him home because his tales of Maine were so wonderful.

Quinn had nursed her mother through cancer, mental issues and grew up in a two person home. They made do, but it was never anything elaborate. Mom refused to ask the man who fathered Quinn for anything so that is exactly what she got. After paying off the funeral, there wasn‘t much left so Quinn decided to launch off to Maine in search of dad.

They come together at the Menamon Star, the local “paper” run by Henry’s sister. Quinn writer of obits becomes 2nd in charge and Leah, having written many, many articles for a much bigger paper becomes basically the runner, which she resents.

This debut novel is so full of life and quirks that you won’t want to leave. How Leah, Quinn and others make Menamon home will wrap you up and have you wanting everything to turn out all right. But, of course, it may not. ( )