Lesley Kagen is an actress, voice-over talent, former restaurateur, sought-after speaker, and award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of five previous novels. Her work has been translated into seven languages. A mother of two and grandmother of two, she lives in a hundred-year-old farm house in a small town in Wisconsin. Visit with her on Facebook and at her web site www.lesleykagen.com

The Resurrection of Tess Blessing is by turns heartbreaking and heartwarming, emotional, perceptive, slightly magical, and funny. It's a redemptive story about second chances and realizing what—and who—is really important, before it's too late.

After she is diagnosed with breast cancer, fifty-one-year-old Tess sets forth on a mission to complete her final "to-do" list before, what she's sure is, her impending death. She needs to make peace with her estranged sister, say goodbye to her mother's long-kept ashes that she keeps in the garage, rescue her daughter from the grip of an eating disorder, help her son grow-up, and reignite the spark in her marriage. One factor she never considers is that she might have to stick around and deal with her handiwork.

Tess is aided on her quest by narrator, Grace, who lends the story its most brilliant elements: subtle magical realism and deep psychological complexity. Is Grace an "imaginary friend," guardian angel, or a part of Tess who knows better than she?

The Resurrection of Tess Blessing is authentic, funny, sad, and at its heart… redemptive.

During the summer of 1959, ten-year-old Theresa "Tessie" Finley has her work cut out for her. Not only is she attempting to come to grips with the devastating loss and guilt she feels after she witnessed her father's drowning, her kid sister, Birdie, refuses to believe that their beloved Daddy is really gone. Tessie needs to make sure that she does before their Mom gets wind of how much "weirder" her sister's getting. Stronger, and more down to Earth than ethereal Birdie, she's always watched over her sister, so it's only natural for her to come up with a plan that she jots down on one of her never-ending TO-DO lists. If Tessie can't achieve her goals, she's desperately worried that the beautiful, but self-occupied Louise, might send emotionally fragile Birdie to the County insane asylum.

Her Daddy always told her, "A Finley never throws in the towel," so more than anything Tess wants to make him proud, but despite her resourcefulness and grit, she's smart enough to know that the odds are stacked against her and her time is running out.

Heartbreaking, funny, nostalgic, and spiritually uplifting, you'll cheer the Finley sisters on from the first page to the last of this charming novella that sets the stage for the upcoming novel, The Resurrection of Tess Blessing.