In Love with the Jersey Shore

Since she published her first book in 1999, Caridad Pineiro has touched upon many subjects in her stories, from discrimination and domestic violence, to Prohibition-era Jersey, vampires, ghosts and genetic modification.

The reason for this incredible literary diversity could be Pineiro’s own multifaceted persona. This Cuban-born, suburban-raised, scientific-minded, nature-conscious lover of the Jersey Shore has many passions and interests to put into her books – 29 published, and more on the way.

Her latest, The Lost, is a paranormal romance, in which a Marine vet who has returned home from her service in Iraq, traumatized “physically and emotionally,” and a troubled millionaire with mysterious powers are caught in a feud between two powerful clans of energy-gathering shape-shifters.  

The story is set in Bradley Beach, Monmouth County, and its surrounding communities, on the stretch of the shore where she spends most of the summer, and comes every weekend during the off-season.

“The shore the readers will find in my books is that real Jersey Shore,” says Pineiro, who works as an intellectual property rights and contracts lawyer in Manhattan and lives in Edison during the week. “It’s filled with nature, filled with towns that have unique flavor.”

When she speaks of the shore, Pineiro describes the intimacy of folks greeting each other on the streets, the beautiful energy found both around the ocean and on a Sunday morning church service. Walking along the boardwalk, Pineiro’s mind works out the intricacies of her latest storyline, while her soul rests. “When I come down here, there is peace,” Pineiro says. “And that is what the shore is to me, not something that is unfortunately being portrayed by television.”

Pineiro’s parents were Cuban refugees who had to leave her and her sister behind before they could reclaim them in New York City when Pineiro was four years old. Pineiro studied general science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, but ended up working in law. Pineiro credits her daughter, who is now grown, for getting her started on writing when her law career was stalling.

"I kind of hit a glass ceiling at my law firm,”  Pineiro said, speaking of the time when her daughter was little. “I asked myself what was I going to teach her about the possibilities in a woman’s life?” This reflection led Pineiro to writing, and, perhaps to her most important literary subject of all.

“The one theme in my work is strong, empowered women,” Pineiro said. “My mom was a really strong woman. She basically had to start her life all over again after we left Cuba,” Pineiro said. “She always taught to rely on yourself, that you had to stand on your own two feet. I think that lesson still stuck with me, and I guess I keep passing it on to my readers.”

Next year, look for Pineiro’s new book, The Claimed, a Romeo-and-Juliet type story where two members of the feuding energy-gathering races fall in love on the Jersey Shore.