It Started in New York Paperback – April 26, 2024

Part One in a two part series, John Michael Harvey is the only child of a second marriage that is marred by his mother’s near fatal bout with breast cancer and his father’s first family being destroyed in a devastating house fire.He grows up in Geneva, New York, during the 60’s and 70’s. The youngest grandchild in a religious family of Middle-Eastern immigrants, John is lavished with the kind of love and adoration that is only seen in Old World families.This fairytale childhood is tainted by heart trouble and a schoolhouse bully, but life is still as it should be until John’s grandfather dies and his parents divorce. Devastated by his family life crumbling around him, John spends his teen years getting in and out of trouble. It is during this time that he affronts and enrages Skyler VanHorn, Geneva’s assistant district attorney, an arrogant, cold-hearted man who vows publicly to send John to prison.Meanwhile a beautiful young girl, Gloria, is sent off to Puerto Rico to live with her aunt when her mother becomes involved in black magic and welfare fraud. Plagued with too many children and an endless stream of illicit affairs, Anna has her children taken away by child protective services. Hiding her witchcraft and adultery, Anna eventually convinces the state that she has turned her life around. After retrieving her children from foster care, she immediately has Gloria returned to New York to increase her welfare benefits.It is during his troubled teens that John and Gloria fall helplessly in love. When their mothers find out about the young lovers, both sides forbid them to see each other. However, John and Gloria ignore everyone’s wishes. Hatred and bitterness arise between the families.After several brushes with the law and two crucial, headline-making legal battles with the district attorney, John overcomes both mental and physical adversity to flourish into a young man of good character and devoted faith. Throughout a decade full of harrowing ordeals, he remains steadfast and true to both the girl he loves and his family’s beliefs and principles. Ultimately, he is forced to leave his family and the town he grew up in to escape the ever-tightening grip of Skyler VanHorn. Read more