Winner of the 2025 WOMEN IN PUBLISHING SUMMIT AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE DEBUT.

Featured in the INDIE AUTHOR PROJECT SELECT COLLECTION curated by Library Journal.

WARM, WITTY,AND REFRESHINGLY ORIGINAL. Lunch Ladies captures time and place with laugh-out-loud humor and reach-for-a-tissue heartache, as the people of Hanley, Minnesota - living and dead - come together for a community celebration.

For lovers of women's fiction with characters who linger long after the close of a book, Lunch Ladies immerses readers in lives and relationships that are joyful, troubled, and emotionally charged. Characters' dreams and heartbreaks, their histories, and their secrets, emerge as this story unfolds with startling honesty and depth. Lunch Ladies reflects the dignity of women who are essential within their community, and the impact of love, loss, regret, and redemption, which are as unique as the women themselves.

Hanley, Minnesota offers a spot-on depiction of the 1970's in small-town America. As the book opens, it's 1976 and there's a bicentennial parade in the works. Is this a task for the school district's lunch ladies? Their answer would be "no." Yet Crystal, Coralene, and Sheila find themselves crafting food stands to feed parader goers, come the Fourth of July.

Crystal has other things to do: matching lonely travelers from the obituaries with kind souls still living. Coralene doesn't need this nonsense. She has a home and family, and a nephew she must save before it's too late. Is it already too late for Sheila? Her safe harbor is a booth at Denny's on Friday nights with the only person who might help her move beyond her past.

Lunch Ladies serves up a poignant, tender, and humorous view of the flawed and fascinating citizens of Hanley. The novel is peppered with wit and insight, as it captures the absurdities of family and community life, while revealing the humanity of those who've been lost, or left behind.

Jodi Thompson Carr