Help Yourself A Novel

In A Small Southern Town, A Young Woman Is About To Get Some Life-changing News . . . Lured Away From Her Small Mountain Town By The Promise Of An Inheritance From A Biological Father She Never Knew, Merry Stand Heads To A Remote Barrier Island Off Of North Carolina Called Topsail. This Sudden And Unexpected Windfall Could Save Her Family From Financial Ruin. But There’s A Catch. Before She Can Get The Money, She Needs To Complete A Regimen Of Self-improvement Tasks. Surrounded By Her Late Father’s Lawyer, Fritz (who Just Wants To Go Home To London); An Uncle Who’s Hoping To Steal Her Newfound Legacy; And A Widower Staying In The Beach House Next Door, Merry Has Her Work Cut Out For Her And Plenty Of Obstacles In Her Way. And Complicating Matters Are A Crazy Radio Therapist, A Suicidal Software Engineer, A Matchmaking Dog, And Possibly A Ghost . . . Set During The Island’s Offseason, This Lively Tale, Both Poignant And Packed With Humor, Shows How Romance Can Come When You Least Expect It And How When It Comes To Improving Our Lives, We Can All Use A Little Help. When it's time to change your life for the better, everyone could use a little help. Merry Strand is spinning her wheels in her rural mountain hometown when Fritz Forth, her late father's attorney, suddenly appears with a strange and wonderful proposition. Merry has a substantial inheritance coming, he says ... but it's conditional. Merry must accompany Fritz to the Atlantic coast and complete a series of life-improving tasks to earn her windfall. Like a fussy fairy godfather, Fritz promises to help Merry, though he makes it clear that he'd really rather not. Arriving on an abandoned barrier island in the offseason, Merry meets her curmudgeonly Uncle Max, who is hoping to steal her inheritance. Jack Morningstar, a depressed Midwestern widower, numbly occupies the beach house next door. Added to the mix are a philosophical dead Englishman, a crazy mountain town radio therapist, a suicidal software engineer, a matchmaking dog, and, possibly, a ghost. With empathy and wit, Rachel Michael Arends chronicles the ups and downs and eventual transformations of her richly drawn characters as they learn to help each other, and ultimately, to help themselves In a small Southern town, a young woman is about to get some life-changing news . . . Lured away from her small mountain town by the promise of an inheritance from the biological father she never met, Merry Strand heads to a remote barrier island off of North Carolina called Topsail. This sudden and unexpected windfall could save her family from financial ruin. But there’s a catch. Before she can get the money, she needs to complete a regimen of self-improvement tasks. Surrounded by her late father’s lawyer, Fritz (who just wants to go home to London); an uncle who’s hoping to steal her newfound legacy; and a widower staying in the beach house next door, Merry has her work cut out for her and plenty of obstacles in her way. And complicating matters are a crazy radio therapist, a suicidal software engineer, a matchmaking dog, and possibly a ghost . . . Set during the island’s off-season, this lively tale, both poignant and packed with humor, shows how romance can come when you least expect it and how when it comes to improving our lives, we can all use a little help.