What Should Have Been

About the Book

After leaving her hometown and first true love, Libby Bennett returns to begin her life anew. Years of abuse and deceit at the hands of her now ex-husband, Stephen, a big city attorney, have caused her to long for the simple, peaceful life of Clifton and the sort of life she knew as a child and teenager. Little does she know, Stephen lurks in the shadows with evil in his twisted mind. With the help of her lifelong friend, Maggie, and her husband, Libby would forge a new life for herself, beginning with opening a business of her own. Handsome, strong, gentle, hardworking Ben Stewart, Libby’s first love, slowly reenters her life. Before long, the young couple have rekindled the love for each other they had never truly lost. All the while, Stephen is in the background—always dangerous, always a threat, always disrupting what should have been.

About the Author

Joni (pronounced Johnnie) Berry grew up in Charleston, MO in the southeast part of the state known as the Bootheel. She graduated from Charleston High School and attended Southeast Missouri State University, in Cape Girardeau, MO. She married her long time ‘crush’, Robert ‘Bob’ Berry in 1979. Together they have one son, Brad, his wife, Kristi, and their beautiful sons, Bennett & Bryson. Charleston, MO, with its many traditions, beautiful Victorian homes, flowering trees & shrubs, its close proximity to the great Mississippi River, as well as the people, offered a wonderful foundation for Joni’s imagination in writing her first book, What Should Have Been. The Berry’s now make their home in Jackson, MO, where Joni continues to explore her imagination, putting word to paper, in hopes of writing a sequel to Libby’s story, What Should Have Been.