After too many years as an English teacher, Kassi Stanton has to move on. Her boss’s self-promotion, her husband’s disloyalty, her daughter’s personal choices, and her own character flaws combine to test her self-control. She fails the exam. An impulsive reaction in a moment of weakness forces her out of teaching and into a second career that takes her to tourist destinations she can check off her bucket list and confrontations she could never imagine she'd have. Kassi's first customer, Nick Ryfinski, a seventy-something Vietnam War vet, tugs at her heartstrings when he convinces her to find his past lover who may or may not have been pregnant with his child. 

With Nick covering her expenses and two friends and colleagues from her teaching days cheering from the sidelines, she finds herself traveling to the so-called eighth wonder of the world, to the self-proclaimed magical kingdom, and to the bona fide birthplace of American independence.  Along the way, she finds a bit of touristy fun, sexual excitement, life-threatening conflict, and less-than-encouraging evidence she's a better writer than detective. Adding to that, her innocent, uncomplicated search for a past lover opens the lid on a box of problems. They may not be as troubling as those in Pandora’s. But they raise a question for Kassi and Nick. Is there hope? 

Join Kassi on her adventure to the other side of teaching in Memories and Messes and find out.  If you enjoyed Sally Franson’s A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out, Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, or Amy Poeppel’s Small Admissions, you'll love this thrilling story of love, loss, and learning to live in the present moment.