2017 Gold Medal IPPY Award in Autobiography/Memoir They first meet in Paris in the spring of 1996. David is a divorced American attorney living on a converted barge moored on the banks of the Seine; Roni Beth is an empty-nested clinical and research psychologist working from her home in Connecticut. Now in their fifties, both have signed off on loving again—until they meet each other. Miracle at Midlife tells the inspiring story of Roni Beth and David’s intense and transformative transatlantic courtship. Along the way, David the loner, living amid the beauty, freedom, and pleasures of Paris, brings Roni Beth, a responsible and overextended professional haunted by earlier loss and trauma, back to her core as a woman, while she helps him reclaim connections that tie him to a larger world. They wrestle internal demons (mostly hers) and external threats (friends, family and different perspectives) as they share adventures in their respective worlds. Throughout their journey, stories of courage, joy and integrity bring hope and delight to those who wonder how romantic love appears and evolves; inspiration to people in mid-life who, knowingly or unknowingly, have completed a chapter in their lives and are ready to move on; and comfort to anyone who longs to wrestle and conquer the demons of fear, born of history or of the unknown, and win. Testimony that love is real. “A wonderful, thoughtful and inspiring story of love and courage—the kind of tale that teaches us to take chances, and that we CAN overcome our own obstacles. ” —Betsy Stone, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of Happily Ever After “Roni Beth Tower shares her journey through life with wit, warmth, and insight. Miracle at Midlife is written with an eye for detail and for the ability to make the reader feel like a participant in this adventure. Following a romantic meeting in Paris, the author describes events that involve two continents. Subsequently, she was able to overcome many obstacles, and to reinvent herself as someone open to love and affection.” —Dorothy and Jerome L. Singer, Yale University “ Miracle at Midlife is an honest, thoughtful and authentic memoir about a real love affair, in which the intimacies, conflicts, misunderstandings and resolutions of new love are explored. Roni Beth Tower writes with a compelling command of psychological process and insight, while ably injecting humor in the story of her transatlantic romance.” —Jeanne Bodin, author of We, the American Women and Women Who Work “ Miracle at Midlife is a captivating memoir of a courageous woman’s physical and emotional journey from Connecticut to Paris, where a sometimes challenging love affair awaits. Roni Beth Tower’s vividly detailed story is candid and insightful about the joys of finding love in middle age, and the resilience required to voyage down new paths to personal fulfillment. Drawing on her experience as a clinical psychologist, she describes the passionate attraction that moves both lovers to modify and unite their lives. Tower’s gifts of lyrical language, emotional resonance, and psychological sensitivity offer a memorable narrative about achieving happiness at any age." —Sybil Steinberg, Former Forecasts Editor, Publishers Weekly “Conquering the dual challenges of parenting herself as well as her adult children, Roni Beth Tower lives her transatlantic romance with consciousness and insight, as she decides to leave the safe shore of her home in Connecticut to create a new life with a man she meets in Paris when she is in her early 50's. Miracle at Midlife is a classic love story set in modern times that draws on the author's background as a psychologist as well as her wisdom as a woman. It is also a wonderful and moving story that will inspire everyone who reads it." —Shefali Tsabary, PhD, New York Times bestselling author and clinical psychologist “Roni Beth Tower’s Miracle at Midlife transports the reader across time and the Atlantic to the sights, tastes, and heady romance of Paris. Through a meeting of the minds, and with great passion, Roni rebirths herself and finds her soul mate. Her journey is at once moving, humorous, candid, and a gift." —Traci Stein, PhD, MPH, integrative medicine expert and award-winning author of T he Everything Guide to Integrative Pain Management “A wonderful story (that) needed to be told… demonstrates triumph for all of us who aspire, regardless of our age or doubts, and is a reminder to take life by the coat tails and fly. Miracle at Midlife by Roni Beth Tower, is a testimonial to pursuing a passion, to doing, completing, persevering, and to embracing life." —Camille Mancuso, Chatterbox column, Bucks County Herald “REMARKABLE! Roni Beth Tower starts with that most romantic ideal—an unexpected romantic encounter in Paris—and completely rediscovers and re-creates her own life as a result. In prose both literary and analytic, she glides us through this whirlwind courtship, w