Bernadette Walsh

Fearless Fiction

Novelist Bernadette Walsh leads fun, relaxed discussions about novels with authors and various members of the publishing industry.

Stolen Innocence

Twenty years ago Maura Lenihan was the curvaceous red-haired teenager at the center of a political sex scandal. Today, Maura is a thirty-five year old hospice nurse who spends her days caring for the cancer-ridden and comatose and her nights reading romance novels in a drab apartment with only a dying ficus for company.

Her life is boring and safe and just the way she likes it. However, Maura's safe cocoon is now being threatened both by the press' renewed interest in the twenty year old scandal and the attentions of her most recent patient—a thirty year old Wall Street investment banker whose black hair and blue eyes are oddly familiar.

Here we get all the drama and sadness but some happy times too—that's what I need. Five Stars, a great emotional read.

Published 2021.

A Safe Distance

Ellie Barrett and Joanna Fox are neighbors who used to be friends. Now they are neighbors who pretend to be friends. And that's okay with Ellie.

With three children, a sick mother and a difficult husband who admires the slim athletic Joanna a little too much, Ellie doesn't have time for neurotic Joanna Fox. A wave and a nod across the cul-de-sac and the occasional car pool is enough for Ellie. She prefers to keep her distance.

Ellie's and Joanna's not-so-peaceful co-existence is threatened when a global pandemic and roiling social unrest trap the two families together.

Will the two families rally to protect themselves from the violence that threatens their suburban oasis? Or will long-held secrets blow the two families—and their respective marriages—apart?

Published 2021.

The Reluctant Witch

Two powerful witches—two powerful stories in one book!

Fiona Morrissey learned from an early age not to trust her magical powers and certainly not to trust the spirits her "gifts" allowed her to see. Mama always said, "Spirits may act like they are giving you something, but they will take from you a hundredfold anything they give you. Spirits always want something and are not to be trusted."

Being a good girl, Fiona followed her mother's advice and for years steered clear of spirits and magic. That is until the spirit of gorgeous John Callahan, Fiona's ex-boyfriend and the only man she ever truly loved, decided to camp outside her door. Now Fiona must decide, can she trust the spirit of her beloved boyfriend or was John like all the other selfish and dangerous spirits her mother warned her about?

DNA is destiny. Or is it? Nell Donahue was born an echo witch—a weak witch with just enough magic in her to read the tea leaves of bored suburban housewives. Nell's spent her life envying her more gifted sister and chasing magical powers she could never attain until an unexpected trip to hell increased Nell's abilities ten-fold.

Now Nell has more powers than she ever dreamed of. She's also being haunted by the ghost of a slain college student, threatened by a pack of semi-human demon-worshipping ghouls and harassed by a brawny detective who's awakened something in unlucky-in-love Nell that she'd much prefer remained dormant. Too late to return to her status as an echo witch, Nell must learn to harness her enhanced powers before she loses everything, including her heart.

Published 2020.

Johnny Be Good

Peggy Lynch devoted her life to maintaining the facade of the perfect suburban family and sacrificed everything to hide unforgivable sins.

Years have passed since Peggy ruled the Lynch house and Veronica is no longer her mother's obedient little girl.

Moving into her childhood home with her husband and infant twins, Verionica's starting a new life and should finally be happy. Right? Wrong.

While cleaning out her old bedroom, Veronica finds a letter from her deceased mother. If Veronica were smart she'd burn it and leave her family secrets buried with the dead. But as her mother so often said, Veronica's never been that smart. Veronica rips open the envelope and proves her mother right…

Published 2019.

Friends Forever

Keep your friends close—and your enemies closer!

Successful attorney Molly Reid thought she had put the past behind her. But when the body of her flaky but lovable college roommate, Sarah, is discovered abandoned in a field, Molly is drawn back into the tangled incestuous world of Devereaux College.

At Sarah's wake, Molly confronts her ex-fiance, a suddenly attentive former big-man-on-campus, the bitchy college friends who still treat Molly like the slutty wrong-side-of-the-tracks scholarship student she once was, and Sarah's mother, who forces Molly to take Sarah's rehab journals.

As Molly sifts through Sarah's scrawled journal entries, she discovers Sarah was not a lovable kook but rather an intelligent, but damaged, woman. The journals become for Molly a Pandora's Box of secrets.

Will Sarah's secrets topple Molly's carefully constructed façade?

Published 2015.

The Girls on Rose Hill

Three generations of women; three generations of secrets.

Ellen Murphy spent her childhood in an idyllic house by the sea. A house surrounded by flower filled gardens and a white picket fence. A house she fled at eighteen. A house full of secrets. When Ellen's mother Rose, an ex-nun, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ellen reluctantly returns home to care for her and uncovers a clue to the one secret that has haunted Ellen all her life: the identity of her father. But that is just one of the many secrets hidden behind the beautiful façade of the house on Rose Hill.

The Girls on Rose Hill is a beautifully written story about the complicated relationship between three generations of women. It will touch you, make you laugh, and make you cry. Bernadette Walsh's subtle use of language, traditions, and manners painted an authentic portrait of an Irish Catholic family. I loved it.

Published 2014.