Visible dances lithely between contemporary romance and women’s fiction

WordCrafts Press and author Darlene Corbett are celebrating this week’s unveiling of her debut novel, Visible, which is now available worldwide in hardback, trade paperback, and all major ebook formats. The story dances between contemporary romance and women’s fiction, using the Tango, the world’s most romantic dance, as a metaphor and backdrop for navigating life, love, and family relationships. 

Therapist Rachel Karem is accustomed to helping emotionally wounded individuals navigate the murky waters of dealing with complicated family dynamics, relationship issues, and life transitions. When individual therapy hits a brick wall for five successful professionals, she persuades them to engage in a ten-week group therapy program. But working through these sessions with her clients reveals Rachel’s own brokenness.

Widowed, childless, and estranged from her family, Rachel wonders if she will ever have a second chance at love. She is amazed when her own therapist advocates for her to “get back in the game.” To her surprise, Rachel enrolls in dance classes where she learns the Tango. Romantic, passionate, intense, sensual, dramatic, the Tango embodies everything that is missing in Rachel’s life. As she grows more confident in her dance steps, her life becomes more entwined with her handsome dance partner, Michael. But past betrayals haunt Rachel’s emotions, and current rivals for Michael’s affections feed past rejections.

Even as her clients in the therapy group learn to support each other in their quest for personal wholeness, Rachel yearns for a deeper connection within herself to propel her into the next stage of her life. But will it be with or without Michael?

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From the Novel

He touched her cheek, and she blinked. “Rachel, please trust me.”

Enchantment wrapped around Rachel’s heart. Her eyes captured his. “So let me tell you my story.”

For the next hour, Rachel shared everything about her family, from growing up with Leah through the harrowing experience of their parents’ death. She took a breath, with tears streaming down her face.

Michael squeezed her hand, his eyes probing hers. “Do you feel you need to stop?”

Rachel dabbed at her face with a tissue, and in a choked voice said, “You’re doing it again.”

He nodded with a sheepish grin. “I’m not trying to sound like a therapist, so it must be your influence, but on a serious note, please don’t feel rushed.”

“I’m not.” Rachel wiped her face.

Rachel talked more about what unfolded after her parents’ death, and she paused as Sam’s smiling face came in front of her. Out of nowhere, a child with a stuffed toy elephant ran by them. A sign. She shut her eyes, imagining Sam kissing her nose. She opened them, catching Michael observing her.

“Now I’ll tell you about Sam. I think you would’ve liked each other.”

“Being a Baby Boomer and hearing about second chances in the later parts of life, I wanted to create a unique story, one that included elements of both romance and women’s fiction,” explains author Darlene Corbett. “Since I’ve been a therapist in private practice for over thirty-five years, I thought, Why not write about a therapist? Now, I’m certainly not the first person to weave a tale about a psychotherapist, but I don’t know too many authors who have their characters embarking on a similar course as those in my novel, Visible.

“I’m most pleased with the way the story unfolded,” she adds with a smile. “Often, while writing and rewriting, I would fall asleep thinking about the five group members, figments of my busy imagination, as if they were my clients. I can see them in action right now.”

“Darlene writes with the insight of a psychotherapy professional and the panache of member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,” declared WordCrafts Press publisher, Mike Parker. “Visible is a remarkable debut novel, filled with abundant detail, intense color, and complex characters. And it is refreshing to find the spiritual aspect of mental health being explored in a contemporary romance novel.”

“The field of social work, my discipline in the mental health field, has become increasingly secular, a mirror image of what’s unfolding in our culture,” Darlene says of her decision to include a faith element in her novel. “Although I’ve navigated that world for years, I’m a woman of faith, kept quite separate from my professional role as a therapist. Most of the time, the issue of religious beliefs never emerges. However, when it does, I support my clients who look upon their faith as a means to augment their healing. As such, I made the protagonist, Rachel, a woman of faith.”

About The Author

Darlene Corbett is a lifelong learner, a pursuer of excellence, a work-in-progress, and a seeker-of-the-truth. For over thirty years, as a licensed therapist, she has helped people get unstuck.

Throughout her career, adjectives used to describe Darlene include, animated and effervescent, which tends to contradict the common perception of a psychotherapist. Her first book, Stop Depriving The World of You, was published by Sound Wisdom.

Darlene lives in central Massachusetts with her beloved Shih Tzu, Churchill.

Visible is her first novel.

Connect with Darlene at:
Darlene Corbett.com