The Ballroom on Magnolia Street — Sharon Owens

On the heels of her captivating debut "The Tea House on Mulberry Street," Owens delivers this new novel of passion, romance, and regret -- and the winding paths to falling in love.

On a hot summer's night in 1967, Johnny "Hollywood" Hogan parked his pale blue Lincoln Continental on Portstewart Strand and solemnly told his beautiful girlfriend Marion that he would always love her. But Johnny didn't ask her to be his wife. Marion, pregnant and terrified of a scandal, fled to the safe embrace of gentle baker Eddy Greenwood. Seven months later, Declan was born. Too late, Johnny realized what he had lost. He consoled himself with running his precious Ballroom on Magnolia Street and dreaming of the day when Marion would come back to him.

Now it is 1987, and Declan is a young man who loves pop music and wearing Army Surplus overcoats. Marion and Eddy worry that he will drop out of college and join a rock band. But then Declan meets Shirley Winters and within weeks they are expecting a child of their own. Will history repeat itself?

Set in Belfast, The Ballroom on Magnolia Street is a story of passion, romance and regret; and proves that falling in love is never as straightforward as it seems.