Jenn Bouchard
After moving eight times before college, Jenn was happy to land in Maine. At Bates College, she helped run large concerts and campus-wide events, survived the ice storm of 1998, met her future husband, and graduated with a degree in Political Science. From there she moved to Boston, where she fell in love with the Red Sox and earned a master’s degree and teaching certification from Tufts University. After a twelve year stint in Chicago, she and her family moved back to Boston, got season tickets to Fenway, and Jenn began working on FIRST COURSE, her debut novel. She has been a high school social studies teacher for 24 years, and she is a regular presenter at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) annual conference. In her spare time, Jenn volunteers as both a fundraiser and secretary for her Bates College class and is a past president of the alumni association. She is a member of Grub Street and the Women Fiction Writers’ Association, as well as a board member for her local Dollars for Scholars chapter. She is an avid cook and is always planning her next adventure. FIRST COURSE was published in 2021 by TouchPoint Press and released as an audiobook in 2023 by Tantor Audio. You will find her short stories in The Bookends Review, Litbreak Magazine, The Penmen Review, MARY, the Little Patuxent Review, and forthcoming in FOLIO. Her second novel, titled CONSIDERING US, will be published by Black Rose Writing on February 6, 2025. She is currently querying a novel called PALMS ON THE CAPE.
First Course
Women’s Fiction
2022 Eric Hoffer Award – Short List for Grand Prize
2022 Eric Hoffer Award – Finalist in First Horizon Award (for debut authors)
2022 Book Excellence Award – Finalist in Chick Lit
2021 NYC Big Book Awards (Distinguished Favorite, Contemporary Novel)
2021 Paris Book Festival (Honorable Mention, General Fiction)
2021 American Fiction Awards (Finalist, Women’s Fiction)
2021 San Francisco Book Festival (Honorable Mention, General Fiction)
Second acts can be delicious.
When four life-altering catastrophes hit in just one day—including the loss of her parents in a tragic plane crash—twenty-four-year-old Janie Whitman retreats to her family’s summer house in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Here she tries to provide stability for her older sister Alyssa and two young nieces by cooking them amazing food.
Through a mix-up with the alumni office at her parents’ alma mater, Janie meets a young high school guidance counselor named Rocky at a volunteer event, and their fast-tracked romance helps Janie to see possibilities beyond the life she had known just a few weeks prior. But with her ex-boyfriend (and former boss) making overtures beyond her wildest dreams, as well as Alyssa’s estranged husband willing to do whatever it takes to win her back, the Whitman sisters are faced with big decisions.
Despite the obstacles in their way, when Janie and Alyssa are tasked with establishing a lasting memorial for their parents, they just might find the second acts they are seeking.
Considering Us
Romance
Coming February 6, 2025
After an affair with a client’s husband leads to scandal, private chef Devon Paige is left with only one client in Boston -a reclusive professional basketball player with a craving for cookies. With no other choice, Devon lands on the doorstep of Rockwood, a boarding school on the New Hampshire seacoast, taking a job leading their dining services. She is shocked to soon discover Kyle Holling on staff, who she hasn’t seen in over fifteen years since a memorable night just before departing for college in different cities. Devon and Kyle must determine what their relationship looks like years later, all while dodging the cameras of an underground newspaper, dealing with the installation of a controversial campus sculpture, and grappling with the arrival of Devon’s former lover’s daughter as a newly-enrolled student.
When Devon meets a handsome paramedic named Heath, she ditches the possibility of romance with Kyle in favor of what appears to be a more straightforward relationship. But a trip to Los Angeles to keep her client well-fed ahead of his basketball game threatens to upend everything, forcing Devon to finally answer the one question she has been avoiding: is fifteen years too late to rekindle a one-night stand?
