"A forbidden romance, a fractured family, and one woman's journey to piece it all together
Hometown hero Ana Leigh Watkins ventures to Bitter End, Tennessee, to help her great-aunt prepare for retirement. A town called Bitter End seems an ironic place for Ana to refresh her weary spirit, but she's desperate for respite from the attention and unwarranted admiration of her community. While on a hike in Roan Mountain, a ragtag group of amateur bird-watchers takes her under their wing—a little against her will. However, she quickly warms to these genuine souls seeking solace in the great outdoors.
But when Ana's adventures in Bitter End lead her to a severed branch of her family tree—one that involves the forbidden love between a moonshiner's daughter and a preacher's son—what began as a getaway to help her great-aunt becomes a transformative journey that binds together two women who, though they live on the same street, have been estranged for sixty years.
'Cox's brilliantly plotted new novel brings both its historical and modern storylines to life, exploring self-forgiveness for past mistakes.'—Library Journal"
"Every family has its secrets. Josephina “Joey” Harris wouldn’t mind if her family still had a few of their own after a lawsuit tarnishes their name. When an opportunity opens to become a temporary keeper of a decommissioned lighthouse on a North Carolina island, she takes the opportunity to escape the scrutiny of her small town to oversee its restoration.
Soon Joey discovers strange notes tucked deep in the crevices of the lighthouse’s old stone walls—pages torn from a keeper’s log recounting harrowing rescues at sea. When things start to go amiss on the island, locals are convinced that it is the ghost of the lighthouse keeper and his daughter who were lost at sea during World War II.
As Joey sifts through decades of rumors and legends and puts together the pieces of the past, a love story emerges—one that’s clearly not over yet.
“An emotionally gripping must-read [that] reminds us that life is a beautiful gift and love overcomes all.”—Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Perennials"
"Beekeeper Beckett Walsh was living her dream, until her father’s untimely death sent her world into a tailspin. She suddenly finds she must deal with a new part owner of the family apiary—one who is looking to sell the property—and she cannot fathom why her father would put her in the position to lose everything they built together.
When Callie Peterson is named in the trust of a man she’s never heard of, she’s not sure what to do. Her fledgling business has just taken wing and her mother has reentered her life asking for help, making Callie’s financial situation rather … precarious. She’s sure she has no right to someone else’s farm, but the money from the sale could solve her problems and give her the stability she’s always craved.
With an entangled past behind them and an uncertain future ahead, Beckett and Callie must discover why they’ve been thrown together before all is lost."
"Present day. Sarah Ashby returns to her childhood home, determined to finally follow her dream of running the family business alongside her mother and grandmother. So when her mother, Rosemary, announces to her that Old Depot
Grocery is closing, Sarah and her grandmother, Glory Ann, make a plan to save the store. But Rosemary has worked her entire life to make sure her daughter never follows in her footsteps. She has her reasons—but she’ll certainly never reveal the real one.
1965. Glory Ann confesses to her family that she’s pregnant with her deceased fiancé’s baby. Pressured into a marriage of convenience with a shopkeeper to preserve her family’s reputation, Glory Ann vows never to love again. But some
promises are not as easily kept as she imagined.
This dual-time story from Amanda Cox deftly explores the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, the way the secrets we keep shape our lives and the lives of others, and the healing power of telling the truth."
"When Ivy Rose returns to her hometown to oversee an estate sale, she soon discovers that her grandmother left behind more than trinkets and photo frames--she provided a path to the truth behind Ivy's adoption. Shocked, Ivy seeks clues to her past, but a key piece to the mystery is missing.
Twenty-four years earlier, Harvey James finds an abandoned newborn who gives him a sense of human connection for the first time in his life. His desire to care for the baby runs up against the stark fact that he is homeless. When he becomes entwined with two people seeking to help him find his way, Harvey knows he must keep the baby a secret or risk losing the only person he's ever loved.
In this dual-time story from debut novelist Amanda Cox, the truth--both the search for it and the desire to keep it from others--takes center stage as Ivy and Harvey grapple with love, loss, and letting go."
