Four stories. Each one set in the enchanting world of the South. These are the kinds of stories your grandmother told you from a front porch swing. Ice Melts in Spring by Linda W. Yezak When Kerry Graham's boss forces her to return to the Gulf of Mexico where her husband drowned years ago, she feels only spring's chill and not the warmth of the Texas sun. Can the joy of a reclusive author and the compassion of a shrimp-boat preacher thaw Kerry's frigid heart? Lillie Beth in Summer by Eva Marie Everson With the untimely death of his wife, Dr. James Gillespie believes God has abandoned him. He also believes he's never met anyone like the young widow Lillie Beth, whose beloved Granny lies dying at home, and who sees a God who sweeps hope through a farmhouse window. Can a young woman whose husband died in Vietnam restore a faith that is all but dead. Through an Autumn Window by Claire Fullerton Because her larger than life mother Daphne Goodwyn is dead, forty-year-old Cate returns to Memphis with one thought in mind: something always goes wrong at a Southern funeral. But surrounded by the well-mannered society that raised her, the nostalgic rites of a three-day, autumn mourning bring the unexpected gift of the end of sibling rivalry. A Magnolia Blooms in Winter by Ane Mulligan With Broadway stardom within her reach, Morgan James returns home in winter to help an old friend. Maybe it s just nostalgia, but when she sees him again, an old flame rekindles. When she s called back to NYC to take the lead in a new musical, will fame be worth losing the man she loves?

    Irish teen dancer Flannery Curry lives in this beautiful setting but feels stuck between two worlds—the one before her family’s tragic accident and the one that beckons her. While her self-identity has shifted drastically, her stepmother Vesta is intent on grooming her as a rising socialite among the community’s elite families. But out the Currys’ back door is a despised sunflower forest, a towering garden tended by an African American neighbor Flannery calls the “sunflower man.” Even though Vesta forbids any association with this man or his eclectic relatives and guests, Flannery discovers a secret photograph in her deceased sister’s keepsake box—a photo that implies Siobhan entertained a taboo relationship with the people beyond the sunflower forest.Now driven to know more about the taboo family Flannery has only watched from her bedroom window, she does the unthinkable and crosses into the sunflower forest. Now she is the one feasting and dancing under the alluring summer moon. To continue in her rebellion threatens to destroy her already fragile home life. But to remain in a state of blankness threatens her identity. How will she choose?Tiny Dancer is a story of survivor’s guilt and secrecy, a universal story of how humans find meaning in the midst of broken dreams.

    A masterful debut, Coldwater Revival will forever be etched in your memories and upon your heart.Download the Readers' Guide.

     Mallory Barrows has one last Christmas with her uncle. She’s determined to make it the best one he’s ever had. She knows when she asks what he wants as his final gift, it won’t be a tie or a new mug. He won’t need those where he’s going, and he’s quite happy about that. Mallory just didn’t think he wanted a miracle wrapped in paper and tied with a shiny red bow! Christmas on Breakers Point is the introductory book to the Independence Islands Series.

    The end of summer and a baby about to be born. But in the midst of hope and celebration comes unexpected tragedy, and Dylan Styles must come to terms with how much he's lost. Will the music of his heart be stilled forever—or will he choose to dance with life once more, in spite of sorrow and heartbreak?The Dead Don't Dance is a bittersweet yet triumphant love story—a tale of one man's spiritual journey through the darkness of despair and into the light of hope.

    That is until Cooper Robinson, local sheriff’s deputy, came to her rescue. And though Katie narrowly escaped her brush with death, she still fell. Hard.She wasn’t the only one. But soon Cooper learns that the woman he’s more attracted to than any he’s ever met is his brother’s new girlfriend—and therefore unquestionably off limits. Yet, despite his best efforts, Cooper and Katie can’t seem to avoid running into each other. Or ignore the undeniable chemistry between them.As they grow closer, Katie shares the secrets of her past and the real reason she moved to their small North Carolina town. She also wins over Cooper’s welcoming and bighearted family. But they don’t know that her feelings for Cooper keep growing—all while she’s dating his brother. Soon the stakes of their emotional connection become higher than either of them could have imagined. Katie stands to lose the first family she’s ever had, and a scandal could doom Cooper’s campaign for sheriff’s office. Suddenly they find themselves on the edge of another precipice—and they’re forced to make a decision that could change their lives forever.

    When the University of Northwest Oregon decides to close the house they called home for four years, Jenna, Ireland, and Vicky travel back and are reunited only to find their other roommate has passed away.With regrets high, and the weight of their crumbling lives as motivation, the women embark on a survival week. When tragedy strikes, leaving them lost without a guide, they must face the wounds that tore them apart and work together if they have any hope of making it home.

    After learning that her actual biological daughter was recently orphaned, she decides to fight for custody. Winning the court case was the easy part.This still-grieving, single mom is torn between memories and realities. And wants desperately for God to heal her family.For Andie, tall and blonde like Marty, being forced to live with strangers is just one more reason not to trust anyone. Her soul is as beat up as the rundown Blue Moon Drive-In the family owns. But Tuesday night is family night at the Blue Moon. And as Andie’s hopes grow fade, healing comes from the last place she wanted or expected—the hurting family and loving God she fought so hard to resist.

    A tragic event threatens her parents’ plans to refurbish an abandoned hotel and transform the obscure Georgia setting into a tourist destination.Sadie Lyles left Willow Falls a murderer who’d killed the town hero. She returns as a despised felon and seeks solace in the town’s café. Emily struggles to unite the close-knit community and becomes Sadie’s biggest advocate. She strives to uncover the truth about the crime and save her town from dying. To appease her father, Rachel, a VP in his Atlanta real-estate-development firm, relegates her acting dream to secret performances for imaginary audiences. After meeting charming, flirtatious Charlie Bricker, manager for Willow Falls’ future vineyard, she vows to break free from her father’s control.The tragedy and Willow Inn’s secret past launch Emily and Rachel on a collision course with destiny and truth.

    "Used to" was a graceful home in a historic Charleston neighborhood. Country clubs, cotillions, childhood friends, and a close-knit church group. "Now" is a run-down cottage on an island estate that is no longer in the family. A restaurant job, a cantankerous old truck, and mud on just about everything.But something is wearing DeVeaux down. It's not living on the island, which is actually kind of interesting. And it's not missing her old friends, who have developed an annoying fixation on boys. What really bothers DeVeaux is that being "ruined" has changed her dad into an ill-tempered jerk, and her mother just tiptoes around him. If the good Lord has a plan for saving them, now might be a good time to start.A gritty but gentle drawl of a story, Grace at Low Tide is a tender and evocative portrait of a young girl embracing womanhood. With southern society as her backdrop, Beth Webb Hart paints for us a hard-luck family scrabbling to find its heart again. It is a testimony to the small miracles of love and loyalty--the gifts of grace that manage to keep us all afloat, even at our lowest ebb.

    But in a matter of a year’s time, everything she’d counted on fell apart, leaving her devastated. Seven years later, she’s stable again. She has a supportive boyfriend, fulfilling career, and close friends. She keeps her past heartache where it belongs—in her rearview mirror. Until the man who broke her heart finds his way back to Big Prairie.Craig Erikson had it all—popularity, success, and the love of his high school coach’s daughter. But after a year of mistakes that ended in a tragic accident, he’d left Big Prairie—the place he’d thought to always call home—hoping that without his antagonizing presence, Brenna would be able to heal. Now his mother desperately needs him, as do two young boys in her care. Craig has little choice but to return for good.Unsure that she can forgive him, Brenna does her best to avoid him. Irritated that she ignores him as if they’d never meant anything to each other, Craig becomes determined not to allow it. Life in a small town forces their interaction, making them confront their unresolved issues and igniting emotions that have smoldered for seven years. As Craig and Brenna are pushed together, can they endure the hard places still littering their lives? If so, is it possible to find their way back to love and home again?

    We all had.When all else fails, turn to the divine taste of hummingbird cake.In the South you always say “yes, ma’am” and “no, ma’am.” You know everybody’s business. Football is a lifestyle not a pastime. Food—especially dessert— is almost a religious experience. And you protect your friends as fiercely as you protect your family— even if the threat is something you cannot see.In this spot-on Southern novel brimming with wit and authenticity, you’ll laugh alongside lifelong friends, navigate the sometimes rocky path of marriage, and roll through the outrageous curveballs that life sometimes throws . . . from devastating pain to absolute joy. And if you’re lucky, you just may discover the secret to hummingbird cake along the way.

    . .En route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Tampa International, Flight 848 bursts into flames and crashes into Tampa Bay. All 261 passengers and crew are killed. For one week, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder and her fellow reporters cover one of the nation's worst air disasters in years with overwhelming and numbed emotions.Then a woman Peyton's never met gives her a plastic bag that has washed up behind her house. The bag contains a note, almost certainly from the doomed flight, with a simple yet wrenching message: T- I love you. All is forgiven. -DadCombing through the passenger list to find the victims whose children's names begin with T, Peyton is determined to deliver the note to its proper owner. A quest which will prove as important to Peyton's own life as to the mysterious T.

    The town of Ringgold, Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. The daughter of Ringgold's third-generation Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life. Every Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to Atlanta. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, she immediately packs her bags, leaving her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she's always imagined. But before things have even begun to get off the ground in Atlanta, tragedy brings Catherine Grace back home. As a series of extraordinary events alter her perspective and sweeping changes come to Ringgold itself Catherine Grace begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began. Intelligent, charming, and utterly readable, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen marks the debut of a talented new literary voice.

    After tragedy plunges her into grief and unresolved anger, Sarah Ashby returns to her childhood home determined to finally follow her long-denied dream of running Old Depot Grocery alongside her mother and grandmother. But when she arrives, her mother, Rosemary, announces to her that the store is closing. Sarah and her grandmother, Glory Ann, make a pact 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 the family reputation, Glory Ann vows never to love again. But some promises are not as easily kept as she imagined.This dual-timeline story from Amanda Cox deftly explores the complexity of a mother-daughter dynamic, the way the secrets we keep shape our lives and the lives of others, and the healing power of telling the truth.