Suanne Laqueur Books In Order

Publication Order of Fish Tales Books

Publication Order of Fish Tales Collections

Publication Order of Venery Books

Publication Order of Small Hotel Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Suanne Laquer is a former teacher and professional dancer turned author of contemporary fiction novels. Her novels have been described as contemporary train wrecks, emotionally intelligent romances, and therapy fiction. An “Exaltation of Larks” the first novel of the “Venery” series was the winner of the Writers’ Digest Grand Prize in 2017 and the North Street Book Prize in 2019. Her debut novel was “The Man I Love” that was published in 2014 and went on to win the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards gold medal and the Feathered Quill Book Awards as a Best Debut. She also won the gold medal at the 2016 RFBA for the novel “Give Me Your Answer True.” Laquer has a degree in theater and dance from Alfred University and after graduation, she was for a time a teacher in Croton-on-Hudson’s Carol Bierman School of Ballet Arts. She is an avid gardener, cook, and reader and also a blogger at EatsReadsThinks. She currently lives with her husband and children in Westchester County, New York.

Suanne grew up in Croton-on-Hudson a small suburb just north of New York City. Her father commuted to Manhattan every day where he worked as a translator while her mother owned a dance studio. Suanne thus spent much of her childhood days with her mother in the studio. Together with her brother Steve, she grew up in a very artsy, musical and eclectic environment. Nonetheless, she was a very introverted and shy child and had very few friends as she preferred to live inside her head. When she was little, she wanted to be a nurse then shifted to artist and finally dancer. She never did belong to any cliques in school as she was on the edges of most of them though she was known for her dancing which had become a passion. During this time, Laquer also developed an interest in writing and wrote short fiction in her journals. However, she soon got lost in the creative streak that runs in her family and never wrote again until she was in her forties. When she went to college she decided to major in theater and dance and while she has never practiced professionally, the education has proved invaluable. Being an actress and dancer means that she learned to be super organized, use all parts of her brain and improvise and handle disaster on the fly. This means she has a very creative but organized mind that can create interesting characters and thrilling but well-written plots and settings.

Since Suanne Laquer is most familiar with the world of theater and dance, and as such she wrote and set most of her stories in that world. She wrote her first real novel while she was studying in college. The novel told the romance story between a football player and a dance major. It was a complete manuscript though she never did get it published as it lay in some envelope for two decades. Every now and then, she goes back to those characters and writes about them as adults. However, it was not until her forties that her writing career began to get some traction. The trigger was when someone that had hurt her deeply came back into her life. The emotions were so intense and she was not prepared as she felt like she was reopening wounds from the past and hence attempted to bury them. This soon became depression and filled with fear, she decided to go into counseling. But counseling was not enough and she told herself that she needed something more to channel those emotions from her being. It was at this point in 2013 that she unearthed that old manuscript and all of a sudden, she heard a voice whisper that she should finish writing the novel. “The Man I Love” was published in 2014. Once she had that first novel published things fell into place and she has never looked back since, publishing more than ten novels in the “Venery” and “Fish Tales” series.

Suanne Laquer’s “The Man I Love” is a story of transitions. Erik “Fish” Fiskare was in the campus theater when something unexpected happened. A gunman walked in intending to stop the music by killing a few students. Fish was sitting in the lighting booth and from his vantage point saw Marguerite “Daisy” Bianco his girlfriend directly in the line of fire of the deranged maniac. Everyone is heading for the exits in a panic but he runs towards the man in what would become a watershed moment. The story is set over more than fifteen years and explores the effects of the day the gunman opened fire on unarmed students and changed their lives forever. At the center of it is the couple of Daisy and Fish that always brought out the best in each other. Once the shooting was over, they had been hailed as heroes for how they had helped get people out of the theater in the chaos. But soon after the shooting, the horror and trauma bring out the worst in them as their circle is torn apart. Fish is soon forced to go on the run this time far away from Daisy. But is it possible for one to leave the person they were fated to love?

“Give Me Your Answer True” by Suanne Laquer tells the story of Daisy Bianco three years after the events of the debut. A lapse of judgment had resulted in the loss of her soul mate. Erik Fish had been the love of her life but now he has decided to disconnect totally from his past and has refused to acknowledge her betrayal let alone speak to her. Shattered and alone, she decides that she needs to take responsibility for what she had done as she made a career for herself as one of the best dancers in the Big Apple. But the estrangement with Erik is too much to bear and she is unsure if she can take it anymore. She also has to deal with traumatic flashbacks to the shooting at the theater and these only serve to worsen her spiral down the pit of despair. She descends further into self-harm and even cuts herself until something unanticipated happens. She is pulled back from the brink when John “Opie” Quillis an old friend of hers arrives on the scene giving her a chance at love. With John offering the support and she working hard at dealing with unresolved grief and guilt, it makes for a great story.

Suanne Laqueur’s “Here to Stay” is a sweet love story of second chances. The author comes back to the romance of Daisy Bianco and Erik Fiskare that had been separated for twelve years though their bond remains strong. But forgiveness is usually hard especially when someone has hurt the other as much as they have. It would need a lot of faith to trust someone that broke your heart. Daisy and Erik commit to a new life together but still have to deal with career commitments, geography and lingering pain from the heartbreak. But despite all the challenges, Erik believes that being with Daisy is his fate. Slowly but surely, he manages to convince Daisy of his love and commitment even as he also works to win back the friendship of Will Kaeger. Both relationships soon become more complex and deeper thought they threaten to expose Erik’s past. He had endured a difficult childhood and this had shaped much of his adult life and this explains much of his behavior.