First Fall by Genevieve Fortin

Hear a reading from First Fall by Genevieve Fortin @kenefief on this episode of Book Clips, the mini podcast where authors and narrators give you a taste of a book with a short snippet. 

Listen to this reading here

Synopsis 

Audrey Eriksson gladly gave up fast-paced city living and all its complications years ago. Living in quiet St. Georges suits her perfectly and she’s quite content with her surroundings. But then an unexpected work assignment throws her off-kilter professionally, and a growing attraction to her neighbor threatens to upend her personal life as well. 

New to the neighborhood and absorbed in her own problems with a failing marriage, Marielle Demers welcomes her easy friendship with Audrey. Soon the nature of their friendship forces her to question her feelings and when she sees Audrey with another woman she realizes that she’d prefer to be the one who’s dating Audrey. She keeps the revelation secret as long as she can, but her feelings prove harder and harder to ignore. 

Can two women who prefer an uncomplicated life handle the messiness of falling in love?

Transcript

please note this transcript has not been edited and is automatically generated meaning certain words will be incorrect

you are listening to book clips a mini podcast in which authors and erasers do readings from novels check out the show notes for the synopsis and buy links for this book.

I am Genevieve Fortin and I will read a part of first fall my first novel this is the part where Audrey meets Muriel for the first time

Audrey moved from Manhattan to live in st. George a quiet town in Canada and she has new neighbors Marielle her husband and her son and right now our son is playing with Audrey’s dog in Audrey’s yard so this is where the sing starts Hawtree was both frightened and fascinated by the scene being played out right in front of her in her own yard frightened because Rafa never been around children before so she was watching for any sign of aggression on his part not even sure what those signs might be as he’d never been aggressive with anyone to this day she also knew deep down a tiny dog couldn’t cause much damage but her head was full of horrible stories about young children being unexpectedly bitten by dogs these accidents always resulted in the disfiguration of the child and the dog owner being forced by law to have their crazed animal utilized she was ready to stop it from happening at any cost she was fascinated on the other hand because the same dog could barely get the concept of fetching a ball and bringing it back to her was now participating in a chasing game with a child didn’t know understanding what it was a stern to chase or be chased as if he’d been playing this game forever distracted by something entering your peripheral vision she turned to come face to face with a woman walking in her direction the same woman she’d been observing earlier the blush instantly spread across her face as she finally took in the whole picture natural red highlights gave depth and richness were dark hair solo freckles on her cheeks gave her a healthy glow her eyes were dark almost black with the same never-ending eyelashes or son that inherited from her how do we had to force her gaze to stay at eye level when she noticed the red hooded sweatshirt was unzipped just enough to reveal part of the cleavage between full perfectly round breasts where more freckles were showcased it had been so long since a woman at this kind of effect on Audrey that she barely recognized the tingling in her stomach she returned a woman’s smile and forgot all about the dog and the child playing in her yard Bonjour the woman started at Papa jose felix suffered before his mother could finish her greeting you ran to them and continued with pride looking at Audrey I told her you don’t speak French the hint you thanks buddy she ruffled the boys hair awkwardly hoping she looked more at ease than she felt before bringing her attention back to his mother I’m afraid he’s right do you speak English oh yes of course but please forgive my accent had we smiled thinking there was nothing to forgive at all the accent was adorable and if this woman got any sexier she would be in deep trouble get a hold of yourself you idiot she tried it herself how could I wasn’t sure because your son said his dad is the one who taught him yes well Sam that’s my husband he spent his childhood in Connecticut so his English is much better than mine he speaks to Felix in English and I speak to him in French it was very important to us that he learns both languages hard we can keep the stupid grin off her face she could listen to the woman talk all day Connecticut and never sounded as exotic as when she said it pronouncing each syllable in each letter Connecticut I see that makes sense it wasn’t language do you speak to each other that’s a good question sorry French we speak French to each other my name is Marie Alda maths by the way how do we led the way the French name rolled off Mariel stung make its way through our entire body as she shook her hand audrey erickson nice to meet you nice to meet you too and I think you’ve already met my son Felix I hope he’s not bothering you too much oh no not at all she lied Felix and my dog were just getting acquainted his name is Wolf’s mom he’s so cool and just like that the boy ran away for the adults and the dog followed Audrey watched them go back to their chasing game and when she turned to Marielle again she cut her amused yet inquisitive look wolf well it’s Ralph but seeing how he seems to do everything your son wants I think I may start calling him wolf myself they laughed together and it felt strangely comfortable as they left her subsided she saw another question takes shape in Mario’s mind before she even opened her mouth Erikson is that Swedish originally yes but I’m American my family’s been in the States for so many generations I couldn’t even tell you what part of Sweden we came from I’m from Brunswick actually on the coast of Maine oh yeah that’s close to Freeport right we go shopping down there once or twice a year great outlets they both smiled how’d we let our gaze wander to the full lips and the white teeth perfection that a slight overlap between the top incisors only made more perfect Marielle indicated the log cabin with a movement of her chin nice Chalet Audrey uselessly turned to look at her own house as if she didn’t know what Marielle was referring to on the same salary that forced her to live with two roommates in Manhattan she only needed three years in st. George to come up with a down payment on her cabin she’d fallen in love with the square logs the steep roof the stonework on the facade and most of all the large windows looking out on the park thank you it’s small but cozy and it’s plenty big enough for me in a wolf Marielle left again and Audrey took foolish pride in making the woman laugh Marielle didn’t look as though she wanted to go or was that just wishful thinking but nevertheless she pointed her thumb over a shoulder at the bungalow and announced okay well happy to go back to those boxes there are so many it was really very nice to meet you Audrey same here welcome to the neighborhood this shook hands again and Audrey realized she held on to the warmth longer than necessary Muriel smiled and turned to her son who was still running around with Ralph come on Felix let’s go but mom I said let’s go the boy patted his new best friend’s haired and started running after his mother followed by the small white dog Ralph you stay here Audrey shook her head at her own complete lack of authority when the doc kept running away and reached inside her pocket she held the dog biscuit in front of her and yelled again you want to treat the dog immediately turn around and ran to her she let him have the biscuit and picked him up before he had a chance to escape again she watched Mary Ellen Felix make their way to the front door shamelessly admiring the way Mario’s bottom swayed left and right and waved back when the woman stopped to look at her in a wave with a smile before disappearing inside the house Audrey put the dog back on the ground and let him walk behind her through their own front door once inside she mothered to herself Audrey Erikson you are a pathetic idiot get your hormones under control and your eyes back into their sockets will you she grunted with frustration and looked down at the dog staring back at her what are you looking at you silly mutt huh he yawned and left her to go curl up on a large square pillow by the fireplace apparently playing with a six-year-old was an exhausting enterprise you’ve been listening to Jen gia Fortin reading from my first novel first of all thank you very much you have been listening to book clips check out the show notes for the synopsis and by links for this book if you are interested in showcasing your novel then check out the show notes for more information [Music]