Disparate Destinies (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781663279934)

onny Shay is an amiable and adventurous young man who acts on a dream and defies the imaginary curse that keeps people confined in the New Jersey Shore town of Seal Harbor. He dares to cross Raritan Bay and start a new life in the great Manhattan. Nell Galvin, his friend and girlfriend, chooses not to defy the curse.

In New York, Donny finds employment with the Institute for Wellness and Joy, a clinic that surreptitiously treats people with psychedelic mushrooms. In Seal Harbor, Nell runs for mayor to arrest the real estate boom that replaced unpretentious bars and bungalows with luxurious apartments purchased by affluent newcomers.

People plan. God snickers. Donny discovers therapists act in unethical and provocative ways. The Institute is raided. Nell's courted by a former New Yorker with duplicitous motives. The campaign proves to be a corrupting affair.

Destiny can undo decisions wrongfully made. The choices that separated Donny and Nell reunite them in an unbreakable bond. Donny finds that he can return home. Nell learns that she can leave Seal Harbor. Together, they risk getting lost in the greater world as they seek a future beyond their provincial hometown.