Spotlight & Giveaway: The Secrets of Maiden’s Cove by Erin Palmisano

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Erin Palmisano to HJ!

Hi Erin and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Secrets of Maiden’s Cove!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

‘One from the land, one from the sea, summer soul sisters forever shall we be.’

When Grace and Isla met when they were twelve years old, they knew that their friendship was special. Grace, from Maiden’s Cove, a small, magical village on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and Isla, the enigmatic and mysterious daughter of a fisherman who may or may not be a mermaid. They were summer soul sisters, and from the ages of twelve to seventeen, they spent every summer together, until one, fifteen years ago, where events pulled them apart.

Fast forward to the present day. Grace, having recently ‘escaped’ with her daughter Bayla from her controlling husband, is back in Maiden’s Cove, the home she loved growing up. After her father’s recently unexpected death, she inherits their beloved restaurant, a classic Maryland crab shack called Cleary’s, only to find that it is in the red and in danger of closing.

When Isla, too, suddenly returns to Maiden’s Cove, they find that they are not only reconnecting with one another, but taking a journey through their memories of past summers that may allow them to heal from the hardships they have both been through.

In this unforgettable summer filled with midnight swims, cookouts and festivals, and unexpected adventures in love, Grace and Isla, with the help from friends both old and new, may just have the chance at saving Cleary’s, and in the process, perhaps have a second chance in life – and love.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Chapter Eleven:
‘Grace used to imagine that if there were aliens in space, looking down at a beach like Sandy Bay on the Fourth of July, they would see bioluminescence, too. She’d imagined that those lights were us, our souls. That the pulsing, throbbing magic in this world that is beyond our ability to comprehend is our own emergency, reverberating out when we find a love so powerful that our hearts beat together as one. The love of a best friend, a of a daughter, a partner, a parent. When the loneliness of the existence we have is shared by the loneliness of the existence of the one standing next to us. And we are one, and we are alive, and we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves, this generating, living, breathing bioluminescence that is us.” Pages 192-193
Adapted from THE SECRETS OF MAIDEN’S COVE by Erin Palmisano published on May 13, 2025. Copyright © 2025 by Erin Palmisano. Used by arrangement with Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Maryland is where I’m from and writing this book from New Zealand in lockdown turned into a love letter to home and my youth! I was inspired while reconnecting during that time with my own childhood best friend while editing The Secrets of the Little Greek Taverna, my first novel.
• All the phrases between Grace and Isla that they quote were actual mantras between my childhood best friend and I.
• Tommy’s Cook Off is based on my dad’s annual Smoke-Off parties he used to have at his house – he even had party shirts and trophies made every year!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Luke is Grace’s brother Ben’s childhood best friend, so her first attraction to him was a schoolgirl crush. Of course, to Grace, it felt like love – she and Isla would write letters to each other as their grown-up selves and Grace was certain she was going to marry Luke McCann from the time she was twelve years old.

When Luke comes back home to Maiden’s Cove and starts working for Grace as her head chef at Cleary’s, fireworks are there from the first second they reconnect. No matter how much Grace tries to smother that attraction, she realises that maybe her first love was her one true love.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

There is one scene that had me doing all of the above at the same time. It’s a scene between Luke and Grace one night at Cleary’s, where they are trying a recipe together.

The part of the scene that made me laugh out loud are when Grace is receiving silly photos over text message of Isla babysitting her daughter Bayla. I had a great deal of fun with that scene!

While this is happening, Luke is in the dry store trying to find a secret hidden ingredient, when he finds himself instead doused in a bag of flour and cannot stop sneezing, which is how Grace finds him.

“He sneezed again. Grace snickered but reached his face, gently wiping the flour aside as to not get it in his eyes, nose or mouth. In a few minutes he was mostly clean, and when they met eyes, suddenly nothing was funny anymore. Suddenly there was nothing but their breath, their lips, their hands, and for the first time in her life, Grace Cleary felt the warm lips of Luke McCann upon hers.” Page 141

Adapted from THE SECRETS OF MAIDEN’S COVE by Erin Palmisano published on May 13, 2025. Copyright © 2025 by Erin Palmisano. Used by arrangement with Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.

Readers should read this book….

If they love strong female friendships, small town quirk, delicious food, the sea, subtle romance, and most of course, that hint of magic. Oh, and if you love mermaids.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently editing the third book in the ‘Secrets Series’ (as yet untitled).

It follows Victoria, a young woman who finds out, just as her present day life seems to be falling apart, that she has inherited a property in Argentina from her birth family which she’d previously known nothing about.

Taking a sabbatical from work, she makes the trip to the Mendoza region and her property only to find that what she has inherited is actually a cursed vineyard that hasn’t produced fruit since the 1970’s, and nobody knows why.

As Victoria explores her hacienda and land, she begins to find snippets of her late grandmother’s diary from her youth, and as she does, the vineyard, it seems, begins to awaken, bit by bit.
With the help (and sometimes sabotage) from her new neighbours, villagers, and the sexy new vineyard manager she’s hired, can they unleash the secrets within the vines, and release the curse?
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One paperback copy of the book each for 5 winners. This is US based only!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you think Isla is a mermaid? Why or why not? Use examples!

 
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Excerpt from The Secrets of Maiden’s Cove:

“It will probably take a while,” Luke said as he and Grace pulled back up to the crab pots twenty minutes later. He turned off the engine and dropped the anchor.
“We only have an hour for the competition, which narrows the margins a bit,” Grace said.
She glanced back at the beach they’d let Bayla and Mape play on, just twenty feet behind them, then relaxed and leaned back into the seat on the boat. She closed her eyes, feeling the sun on her face, and started to chuckle softly.
“What?” Luke asked.
She didn’t open her eyes, but could hear the smile in his voice, could feel him looking at her.
“I was thinking about how funny it is that I haven’t been crabbing since I was about eight years old,” she said.
“What?!” he exclaimed. “How is that possible? You? You run a crab shack. Your best friend is a friggin’ mermaid!” he finished.
“I know! Maybe it’s because the water has always been so magical to me. The bioluminescence we shouldn’t have in this part of the bay, the myths and legends . . . Isla. After I met her, I always wanted the water to stay a magical place,” she said. “That probably sounds really stupid.”
“No, it doesn’t,” said Luke. “It sounds like Maiden’s Cove. It sounds like you. How did you end up landlocked in Phoenix for so long?”
“A lot of things happen that you don’t see clearly until you’re out of it. That’s a scary thing,” Grace said.
“I can imagine,” Luke replied. “Grace, I don’t want to be a scary thing for you. But I do want to be a thing for you, if you’re willing. And I can go slow, so slow we don’t even have to turn the motor back on today. But only if you say yes.”
Grace sat back, looking at him, and her eye caught on his tattoo. She reached over and touched the intricate design, unlike anything she’d ever seen.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It’s a Māori design. I had it done in New Zealand,” he replied hoarsely.
She leaned forward and lifted the sleeve of his shirt until suddenly, she was face to face with him. “Sorry, I just always wanted to see how far up your tattoo went.” Her mouth was dry, her lips so close to his she could feel his breath on his lips when he spoke next.
“I can show you,” he said, leaning in to kiss her again, right as the “Mermaid Caller” buoy started bobbing up and down.
“Oh my god!” Grace cried. “Look, the crab line is going down, I think we caught something!”
“This quickly?” Luke grabbed the oar and paddled them over to the bobbing buoy. He lifted up the line as the same noise and movement started from the “Mermaid” buoy.
Grace squealed happily. “Come on, let’s pull one up.” She began to lift the closest crab pot, but it was so heavy Luke needed to help her. It was still a few feet under when they saw it. “Luke! It’s full!” she cried.
“How did this happen?” he asked incredulously a few minutes later as they pulled the second full pot into the boat.
She started the engine to go pick up Bayla and Mape, and the last crab pot, with Isla’s graffitied buoy. “Must be all that mermaid magic down there.”

Adapted from THE SECRETS OF MAIDEN’S COVE by Erin Palmisano published on May 13, 2025. Copyright © 2025 by Erin Palmisano. Used by arrangement with Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Once upon a time, a girl called out to the sea, and the sea answered back…

Welcome to a magical seaside village in the Chesapeake Bay, where the ocean glitters and glows as it calls friends and family home.

Grace is finally home. When she inherits her late father’s restaurant in her enchanting childhood hometown of Maiden’s Cove—a magical cove where rumors of mermaids abound—it seems like the perfect escape for her and her daughter from her controlling husband.

Isla was said to be a mermaid. But to Grace, Isla was her best friend, until one summer by the sea fifteen years ago tore them apart. Now Grace calls out to the sea once more, and Isla is drawn back to Maiden’s Cove, where forgiveness and peace might just be found.

THE SECRETS OF MAIDEN’S COVE asks us what it means to have a home, as midnight swims, reunited friends, and a reawakened love await Grace as she fights to revive her family restaurant and forge a new life for herself and her daughter .
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Meet the Author:

Erin Palmisano is a dual NZ and US citizen. She grew up reading books and has always wanted to write stories of food, wine, and travel that come together with a hint of magic. Erin and her chef partner live in New Zealand, where they own and operate three restaurants.
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