The Catcher in the Rye meets The World According to Garp in this story of young love, heartbreak, and redemption.

Young love, a talking fish, and broken hearts.

When Barnaby Atlas Fox is five years old, he “marries” the love of his life, Annabel, the girl that lives in the apartment above his. The first time they met, they both ended up with shiners, but that didn’t prevent the saplings of first love from sprouting. Barnaby is a walking disaster, despite consistently good intentions.

When Barnaby attends Annabel’s sixth birthday, he tries to save her fish from the birthday cake contaminating its tank, only to accidentally send it down the garbage disposal. Afterward, he hears the fish, Ceviche, in his mind, reprimanding, cajoling, advising.

When Barnaby discovers that Annabel will be moving away, he is devastated. Deciding that he can’t let her leave without saying goodbye and giving her a present, he sneaks up to her bedroom window via the fire escape; however, tragedy strikes when the candles he is using to light his way fall and set fire to the building. Guilt-ridden and resented by most of the people they know, Barnaby and his family are forced to leave New York.

In addition to the pains of growing up, Barnaby can’t seem to outrun the shadow of his past, as tragedy continues to befall him at every turn. All the while, his longing for his first love is ever-present in his mind and heart.

Will Barnaby ever find Annabel again? Will he be able to make amends? And, most importantly, will he ever be able to forgive himself?

Find out in this captivating coming of age tale of redemption and heartbreak.

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Sometimes your worst enemy is your own memory

California was as far from New York and Annabel as Barnaby Fox could flee. Two stars of the same constellation but still light-years apart. He’s still screwing up everything he touches, even being forced out of the newspaper he founded, undone by the outcry over his column on gay marriage. The snarky voice of a goldfish ghost still swims around in his head, cajoling and advising, and he still can’t quite let Annabel go, the brilliant, impossible love of his youth. His friend Paige told him, “You need a once-in-a-lifetime, epic kind of love. Ordinary love is not enough for you.”

Reunions, revenge, remembrance, and the revelation of heart-shattering secrets are at the core of The Firefly Season, the final novel in The Barnaby Atlas Fox Series, as Barnaby discovers that sometimes the key to the future lies in the wreckage of the past

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Every heartbreak brings him closer to the man he’s meant to become.

It feels like fate is offering Barnaby Fox a second chance when Annabel's face on the school brochure leads him to Kentwood Landing, but it’s not to the joyful reunion he expected. Barnaby’s heartsick to discover Annabel’s dating Devlin now, and Devlin’s made it his mission to torment  Barnaby. In spite of Barnaby’s always good intentions, there are some things even using his secret trust fund can’t make amends for, including the accident that killed Devlin’s mother. What Barnaby needs is a coxswain, someone to guide and inspire him to stay on the right path. As Annabel and Devlin’s relationship fractures, old sparks refuse to die and Barnaby dares to hope that love, and redemption, might be within reach.

Where will life take these star-crossed lovers next? Tender, wry, and quietly redemptive, The Death Spiral, the enticing sequel to Barnaby Atlas Fox, is a story of first loves, second chances, and the long, uncertain work of growing into oneself.

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