First published 2024
Tanner Hughes has spent his entire military career moving from one assignment to the next, never staying anywhere long enough to put down roots. When his grandmother dies, her final words send him on an unexpected mission: find where you belong. She also reveals the name and location of the father he never knew. Instead of reporting to his next Army Ranger posting, Tanner travels to Asheboro, North Carolina, to search for answers. Within a day of arriving, he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a local doctor raising her child alone. The attraction between them is immediate, but Tanner's departure date looms just weeks away. Nearby, eighty-three-year-old Jasper lives in isolation with his dog Arlo, still carrying the weight of a decades-old tragedy. When Jasper hears reports of a legendary white deer in the surrounding forest, he becomes determined to shield the creature from hunters. The paths of these three people begin to converge in ways none of them anticipate, setting the stage for changes that could reshape all their lives.
Genres: romance, family-life, military-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Asheboro, North Carolina
368 pages · Hardcover · Random House