Act Two: A Novel In Perfect Pitch

New Yorker Sadie Maddox is the toast of the classical music world and the queen of all she surveys in short, she's a bit of a diva. But lately her CD sales are sagging, not to mention parts of her anatomy. Maybe it's time for a change. Something new. A second act. So when her agent suggests she take on a professorship at a small liberal arts college, Sadie decides to give it a go. Ivy-covered walls, worshipful students . . . oh yes, the ivory tower has its appeal. And she needs the money.

Except the college is in rural Iowa, and the closest thing to designer clothes is the western wear shop down on Main Street. Sadie's colleagues are intimidated, her students aren't impressed, and she has to live far too close to farm animals.

And when Sadie meets Mac, a large animal veterinarian, she assumes they have nothing in common he is, after all, a country music fan.

But when the semester ends, Sadie packs up and decamps for the city that never sleeps . . . and finds she can't, either. This laugh-out-loud novel about second chances will have readers cheering as Sadie struggles to find her life's second act.

Author Kimberly Stuart makes her home in Des Moines, Iowa with her husband Marc and two children, Ana and Mitch. She is the author of Balancing Act and its sequel, Bottom Line.

She began her writing career by journaling throughout her daughter's first year of life. She entered one of her vignettes into the University of Iowa Alumni magazine's annual nonfiction short story contest, at the urging of her mother.


After winning the contest, she attended the Blue Ridge Mountains Writer's Conference in North Carolina where she made new friends and received much encouragement. Her first book, Balancing Act was accepted a few months after the birth of her son.


You can find out more about her at her website: http://www.kimberlystuart.com. Go visit: she's giving away an iPod Nano.

Check out her book at Amazon.