Drunk Lady Advice, from the Desk of Linda Hartley ― A Novel

• Critical success: Rebecca Barry’s first novel, Later, at the Bar, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, received enthusiastic feedback from booksellers across the country, and the hardcover was chosen as a Fall 2007 Book Sense Reading Group Pick. Having published extensively in both literary journals and women’s magazines, Barry has a following among authors, including #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert, who calls Barry “an artist of everyday heartbreak.”

• The continuing story of Linda Hartely: Drunk Lady Advice, from the Desk of Linda Hartley is the story of a year in the life of lovelorn advice columnist Linda Hartley. Looking to escape the big city and her own dismal romance, she returns to her hometown in upstate New York. She finds a barstool waiting for her at Lucy’s Tavern, along with a cast of familiar barflies, including attractive wastrel Austin Jones. As Linda herself says, hers “is a love story, not just with a person (or several people, as the case may be and usually is), but with a place and a time. It is the story of Linda Hartley, patron saint of the lonely-hearted, who lost her way, found a home, and also found her voice.”