The Calamity Janes: Lauren. Sherryl Woods

       www.mirabooks.co.uk

Dear Friends,

      When I first conceived the idea for The Calamity Janes series years ago, I knew I wanted to write about a group of friends who’d been a bit of a disaster back in high school, then taken very different paths. Now they’re back in Wyoming for their class reunion and the chance to catch up on their lives. In a lot of ways, these women were the predecessors of The Sweet Magnolias. I’m so delighted that new readers will have a chance to get to know them.

      Back then, in addition to writing about strong friendships, I also wanted to attempt a group of books set in a parallel time frame. In other words, even though these are very separate stories, the plots overlap during the big class reunion. Only the final book continues past the last dance. It was an interesting writing challenge. As you read the five stories, you’ll have to decide if the experiment worked.

      I hope you’ll have as much fun with The Calamity Janes as you’ve had through the years with The Sweet Magnolias and that you’ll enjoy the Wyoming setting as much as I enjoyed visiting that part of the country to do research for the series.

      With all good wishes for lasting friendships in your life.

      Sherryl

      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

Also by

       Title Page

Dear Friends

Prologue

1

2

3

       4

       5

       6

       7

       8

       9

       10

       11

       12

       13

       14

       15

       Epilogue

       Extract from Willow Brook Road by Sherryl Woods

       Copyright

Prologue

      The plastic surgeon, a Hollywood celebrity in his own right, seemed particularly enamored by his computerized demonstration of exactly what he could achieve with a face-lift.

      “A little nip right here,” he said, clicking a key and altering the world-famous face on the screen so that the already flawless skin around the eyes was an almost imperceptible smidgen tighter. “A tuck here.” The soft, rounded chin disappeared.

      “It’ll take ten years off,” he promised enthusiastically. “And now’s the time to start, before the aging process really gets a grip on you.”

      Lauren Winters listened to his spiel, stared at the image of her face on the screen and shuddered.

      What was she thinking? She was only twenty-eight, and she was worrying about taking ten years off of her appearance. Was she suddenly expecting to be cast in some teen flick as an eighteen-year-old high-school senior? Hardly. She was doing just fine playing leading ladies her own age in blockbuster romantic comedies.

      Making this appointment to discuss plastic surgery had obviously been a knee-jerk reaction to her latest divorce. That made two failed marriages—not bad by Hollywood standards, but a far cry from what she’d anticipated when she’d been growing up on a ranch in Winding River, Wyoming, where marriages—even bad ones like her parents’—tended to last forever.

      Suddenly her life seemed incredibly shallow and pointless. Mentally she ticked off the accomplishments