Lauren Crane

The Square Donut Lauren Crane

"Sugar?" One question, one word, sweeps Toby Renfrew onto love's uncharted path when a hitchhiker named Carolina plants her skinny butt at the donut counter and orders up a jelly-filled.

Row up to the shore of the Great Lake Erie, step over the dead fish and enter the world of Toby Renfrew, future heiress reluctant to The Precinct Donut Emporium, home of the square donut with the amazing pink icing. The year is 1977. The Vietnam War is a fresh scar on America's wrist. John Travolta makes white double-knit dance. And 17-year-old Toby's hellishly dull life takes an unexpected turn when Carolina's thumb lands her in "Dishrag," Ohio. Toby finds herself attracted to Carolina in every way, from her ice-blue Grace Slick eyes to her searing-hot intensity. Coinciding with her (willing) seduction by Carolina, Toby's father unwittingly asks if she'd be generous enough to share her room with the poor homeless girl. Toby's brother, Friday, spews his coffee at the suggestion. Her Auntie Flo, a bible-toting member of the Christ Almighty Baptist Church weighs in, as does the homophobic local fuzz, Officer Wheedle, who wants a piece of Carolina for himself. But when death casts its shadow across the threshold of The Precinct, and Carolina goes back home to face her demons, Toby is left to grapple with her own choices. Will she find the courage to claim the life and the love that she desires?

Exploring the warmth and sweetness of life and the pain of loss with both empathy and humor, The Square Donut is a story of love, death and donuts.