NYT Bestseller Tosca Lee Offers Comfort and Entertainment With STORY TIME WITH TOSCA

New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee has spent the last five weeks reading to her fans live on Facebook during "Story Time with Tosca." The nightly event started March 20 with a promise to read until quarantine is no longer necessary - which means she has no idea when she'll stop.

Lee is currently reading from "The Progeny," her bestselling thriller in development for TV. She read previously from her award-winning novel, Iscariot, chosen by her readers. (Poll results were close-Lee's 2019 pandemic thriller, "The Line Between," came in second to perennial Easter season favorite, "Iscariot," which won out over a novel eerily close to current reality.)

Tonight marks her 40th consecutive Story Time in what has become, for many, a daily highlight-featuring laughter, giveaways, and appearances by Lee's 150-pound giant German Shepherd, Timber, the breakout star of the nightly broadcast who has become so popular fans have begun requesting the dog's paw print "signature" in addition to Lee's on signed book orders.

For Story Time regulars, the 40-minute evening event provides a much-needed escape from pandemic news and the rigors of quarantine. Josie Siler, a Wisconsin resident and chronic illness warrior, says, "It's an incredible gift that Tosca is giving her readers each night." Michigan resident Les Braddock says Lee's nightly Story Time "has done wonders in helping to maintain a level of normalcy."

"It's been a blessing for my family in return," Lee says. "A much-needed bit of routine in days that feel like they're running together." From days that are a little extra surreal given how closely the news has mirrored her 2019 bestselling thriller, "The Line Between."

A Washington outbreak... closed schools... quarantined towns... borders shut down.

The spate of recent headlines is also the plotline of Lee's medical thriller, "The Line Between," which released January, 2019 from Howard Books/Simon & Schuster-a year before COVID-19 arrived in the U.S. The book's sequel, A Single Light (September, 2019, Howard Books/Simon & Schuster) comes to paperback August 17.

Watching the news over a year after the release of "The Line Between" - a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for best mystery/thriller of 2019 - Lee calls life "eerie and surreal." Another one of the reasons Lee, herself, finds solace in Story Time with her readers.

"The Line Between" has been optioned by Radar Pictures ("Jumanji") and Ed Burns' Marlboro Road Gang Productions ("Public Morals") and is in development for television.

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