Welcome to Our Literary Grove
|
We are a small press located in Central Florida that publishes adult and children's books. Our focus is on stories about love, wellness, and humor, with a concentration on the female audience. Take a look at our books below.
We are deeply passionate about stories. We want to fall in love with unforgettable characters and intriguing places. We want to laugh, cry, and gasp at the unexpected. We want a story to stay with us after the reading is long finished.
We also offer a variety of services from editing to speaking events to ad design. |
New Releases
|
Denali Summerby Faydra StrattonAccepting a promise ring doesn’t feel like freedom.
But there it is, in front of Dawn's face on the eve of high school graduation. While Dawn freaks out on the inside, she goes through the motions on the outside. She and Chris have been together almost three years. Her family--Mama, Daddy and all five of her brothers and sisters--expect them to be together forever, and Dawn’s never gone against expectations. Mama picked her college, and her boyfriend’s picking her life, so Dawn concocts a plan to pick her own summer—dumping Texas for a hotel job near Denali National Park. But Alaska is more than she bargained for. On her first solo hike she’s cornered by an imposing moose. One co-worker pushes her too far during their night sharing a tent. Meanwhile there's a sexy cook from Dallas who friend-zones her even though she’s conflicted about wanting more. Mama and Daddy arrive late-summer with her boyfriend and siblings in tow, pushing for Dawn to come on home, claiming she’s needed to help with her oldest brother’s shotgun wedding. But the wild beauty of Alaska has stolen her heart and she’s not letting go of her chance to make her own choices. Dawn has to find the courage to stand up to her family and Chris to finish out her Denali summer or risk going back to small-town Texas, following everyone else’s plan for her life. |
|
Bone Carnivalby Megan LynchWhen her parents accept summer teaching jobs in Rome, talented, troublemaking, twelve-year-old Mia Moretti tags along. Eager to learn more about her surroundings, she drags her new friend, buttoned-up and straight-laced Grace, out to explore the Italian cityscape. But when they stumble upon a strange street carnival, Mia wins a mysterious prize: a fragment of a bone from an ancient conjuror, secured in a velvet pouch and strung on a necklace. Supposedly, it makes the wearer lucky in anything they attempt until nightfall.
Sensing danger, Mia throws the bone into the dumpster. But the carnival disappears into thin air, and the bone mysteriously finds its way back to them. The only way to rid themselves of it is to reunite it with the decaying skeleton it came from before the sun sets. But by the time they locate the remains and attempt to return the bone, they’re too late. Caught between life and death and trapped inside the nightmarish carnival, they discover an alarming plot that threatens more lives than just their own. Mia and Grace team up with another recently taken boy, Val, and the three of them must get their souls back into their bodies, in Rome, or else their spirits will be imprisoned for all eternity. |
|
The Curious Conundrum of Charlemagne Crosseby PJ McIlvainePrecocious Charlemagne Crosse had an idyllic childhood until the night her parents Sir Archibald and Lady Lavinia vanished in the aftermath of a solar eclipse. Shipped off to disreputable boarding schools, Charlemagne’s life is bleak. However, on her sixteenth birthday, Charlemagne unexpectedly regains her wealth and freedom. Upon her return to the ancestral Crosse mansion, she’s reunited with black sheep Uncle Alistair and his new family: his wife, the exotic Antoinette, and her peculiar daughter Simone.
Charlemagne is summoned to a meeting with the mercurial Queen Victoria who still grieves for her late husband Prince Albert. Victoria reveals that Sir Archibald, an eccentric inventor, was under Crown orders to devise a way to contact Albert in the afterlife. The queen is convinced that only Charlemagne can decipher the clues that her father surely left behind. Supported by a cast of diverse characters, Charlemagne embarks on a perilous journey through the seedy underbelly of an alternate Victorian London. And with another solar eclipse looming, it might be Charlemagne’s best—and last—chance to reunite with her parents. |
News-Worthy
Jaguars and Other Game Wins a National Indie Excellence Award
|
1808 Rio de Janeiro. The Portuguese Court flees Napoleon to Brazil. For the first and only time in history, a European royal family transfers its capital to an American colony.
Maria Azevedo and her sister, Isabel, have spent years transporting gold through the jungle to Rio’s port. They can dispatch jaguars and smugglers with a crack of a whip, but the Prince Regent’s efforts to civilize the city have them looking over their shoulders. More soldiers. New laws. Full stocks. Then the sisters’ childhood friend is wrongly imprisoned for murder. Maria knows the only hope a Brazilian has for justice in the Court’s Rio is if someone drops the real murderer on the palace steps. The sisters recruit Victoria Cruz, a Portuguese refugee in service to Mad Queen Maria, and together they begin hunting a murderer through a city teeming with corruption. The women soon discover a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the Portuguese court. To save their friend from execution, they’ll have to decide what they’re willing to risk for justice, love and family. |
Song of the Chimney Sweep Wins a Florida Book Award
|
Song of the Chimney Sweep by Tamatha Cain won a silver Florida Book Award in the category of Popular Fiction.
Love is a song played on repeat… A cryptic blog post leads cold case podcasters Melody and Dorian on a twisty journey back in time to uncover the mysterious story of a forgotten missing woman. In 1969 near the Florida/Georgia Line, idealistic young Betty Langdon and fast-rising R&B singer Dominicus Owens begin an irresistible but dangerous interracial romance that ends under mysterious, heartbreaking circumstances. Betty is forced to return to her rural home to care for her manipulative mother, while Dominicus goes on to mega-stardom with his band The Downtown Sound. She follows his skyrocketing career from behind the front desk of a dying highway motel--until one day decades later, she disappears. Now, a popular true crime podcast produced by college friends Melody Hinterson and Dorian Santos takes on the cold case of a missing local woman. The duo’s carefully-balanced workplace dynamic is weirdly off-kilter lately, but they can't take their eyes off the investigation as the intriguing new story suddenly boosts the show into the national spotlight. When the investigation uncovers the missing woman's diaries full of family secrets and the local legend of a fortune hidden in an old chimney somewhere in town, the truth behind the podcast's mystery becomes personal, and Melody must make life-changing choices before the final episode airs. But who owns the rights to a secret? |
Woven Wins a Book Fest Award
|
Woven by Stephania Thompson won a bronze award from The BookFest in the category of New Adult Fiction.
Bound by a devastating secret, childhood friends David, Josh, and Kate take on home renovation as a means of healing from a dark, shared past. Their only promise? Friendship first—no hookups. Only several months after moving into their Baltimore fixer, the aptly nicknamed Canton Catastrophe, walls are crumbling, sparks are flying, and promises are getting ignored. Josh, a paramedic, is plagued with panic attacks, haunted by the past, and sharing a room with David, who he is definitely not attracted to. And then there's Kate. She's having a job crisis, popping pills, and pretending she doesn’t notice how distant the boys have grown. And David? The eternally calm, blue-eyed beauty’s health is deteriorating and he’s mysteriously blacking out. But when they learn someone may have discovered their darkest secret and is now stalking them--and blackmailing Josh's father, a conservative media personality with secrets of his own, renovation and relationship woes take a back seat. Suddenly, their past is unraveling, and the shocking truths unearthed will have them questioning everything from family ties and friendships to love, loss, and the lengths they’re willing to go for each other. |
Pling's Party Awarded Children's Book of the Year
|
In the 2021 Royal Palm Literary Awards, presented by the Florida Writers Association, our picture book Pling's Party was awarded Gold in the Published Picture Book category. It was also given the highest honor for children's books, Children's Book of the Year.
Pling's Party previously won a Story Monster's award and received a five star seal from Reader's Favorite. It is our most-awarded book! What happens when an exuberant exclamation point keeps taking over a story? Things get pretty interesting... Pling is an exclamation point--he adds excitement to stories. He has one rule to follow: he can only appear twice in the story. As the tale of three goats unfolds, Pling has trouble staying out of the story until he's needed. Things get a bit out of hand and hilarity ensues. |
Mass Wins RPLA Gold for Young Adult Fiction
WINNER OF THE 2021 GOLD AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN THE ROYAL PALM LITERARY AWARDS.
Sixteen-year-old Stevie Albie is a religious person, but nothing prepares her for meeting Mary. Like the Mary, mother of Jesus. Just as Stevie becomes convinced she has a special connection with God, doctors discover a brain tumor in her frontal lobe they claim is causing the hallucinations.
Her parents insist on removing the tumor as quickly as possible, but Stevie isn’t so sure. Feeling special for the first time in her life, she runs away to a religious cult that’s convinced her visions are their salvation and vow to protect her. But as time goes on she suspects they have their own agenda. Torn on who to trust, Stevie wonders if she'll have to choose: her visions or her future?
*There are two versions of this novel. The original version contains profanity and a reference to sex. The clean version is profanity-free and the sex reference has been removed.
Sixteen-year-old Stevie Albie is a religious person, but nothing prepares her for meeting Mary. Like the Mary, mother of Jesus. Just as Stevie becomes convinced she has a special connection with God, doctors discover a brain tumor in her frontal lobe they claim is causing the hallucinations.
Her parents insist on removing the tumor as quickly as possible, but Stevie isn’t so sure. Feeling special for the first time in her life, she runs away to a religious cult that’s convinced her visions are their salvation and vow to protect her. But as time goes on she suspects they have their own agenda. Torn on who to trust, Stevie wonders if she'll have to choose: her visions or her future?
*There are two versions of this novel. The original version contains profanity and a reference to sex. The clean version is profanity-free and the sex reference has been removed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Book Trailers
Award-Winning Books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our Involvement in the Literary Community
|
|
|
|
Our Founder
|
Arielle Haughee (Hoy) is a seven-time RPLA-winning author, editor, speaker, and publisher. She is the owner of the small press Orange Blossom Publishing and was previously the Executive Vice President and Marketing Chair for the Florida Writers Association. She was honored with the President’s Award from FWA in 2020, and in 2021 Pling’s Party was awarded Children’s Book of the Year. She is also the recipient of a Purple Dragonfly Award for Piper and a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for Sixth Sunday.
She has a serious reading addiction, fantasy romance her absolute favorite, and loves nothing more than good conversation paired with a good wine. She is surrounded by males at home—a husband, two sons, and an energetic dog—and tries to integrate as much purple and flowers in the house as possible. |
Listen to Podcast Interviews with Arielle
(c) 2022 Orange Blossom Publishing • 2020 Geronimo Trail, Maitland, FL 32751 • (407) 494-3721