Stage Seven

Barbara Gordon is a self-reliant, divorced mom, brilliant at managing her life with lists and spreadsheets. Lately, though, the demands of a teenage daughter, a manipulative sister, and a mother with worsening Alzheimer’s are more than she can handle.

Then Barbara meets Jack, an appealing older man married to a late-stage dementia patient who no longer knows him. Jack and Barbara hold the power to make each other happy…but only if Barbara can break her long cycle of romantic abstinence.

Funny, sad, and heartwarming, Stage Seven is about two people caught between love and duty, and the risks we take when we commit our hearts to family, friends, and lovers alike.

“Stage Seven is the story of Barbara, a caregiver, who finds love again in the most impossible of situations. But the unconventional romance she can’t quit breaks cultural taboos and Barbara must choose. Will this 'Sandwich Generation' protagonist with every free moment dedicated to her family finally choose to allow herself to enjoy some happiness while she can? Or will she choose to let the needs of her mother, daughter, and sister suck the life out of her? Ruth Stevens’ captivating story of Barbara’s (one of my favorite names by the way!) roller coaster of desire, self-doubt, selflessness, envelope-pushing risk-taking, loyalty, and standing in her truth make this book a great read I enjoyed. It emboldens the reader to reexamine priorities and refine their point of view on the meaning of life. Is everything that happens out of our control? Or can we influence our destinies by grabbing hold of opportunities and live, live, live?"
~ Dan Gasby, co-author with B. Smith, Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Acceptance in Our Fight Against Alzheimer’s

"Stage Seven is an honest and touching romance that reminds us how much we can mean to each other. It’s a sweet reminder that love appears on its own schedule, and that being open is a gift of self-love. A romance with emotional maturity and true connection, delightful and touching."
~ Abbi Waxman, USA Today best-selling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and several other novels

"Stage Seven is a heart-in-your-throat story with the nuance and emotional resonance of some of the best accounts on family. A book so intimate I saw my own family reflected within its pages. If you’re looking for humor, love and the strength of spirit to face heartbreaking realities head on, Stage Seven may just be the elixir. I feel so inspired to live life to the fullest again and I have to thank Ruth and her delicate characters for that. This book feels important."
~ Daniel Kenner, author of Room For Grace

"Ruth Stevens has written a compassionate and moving novel about the lives we are living now. She reveals the ways that Alzheimer's challenges and changes who we are and how we love. This is a book that is an affirmation and an inspiration."
~ Marita Golden, author of The Wide Circumference of Love, an NPR Best Book of 2017