by Bill Clegg
First published 2015
June Reid watches her world collapse when a catastrophic accident kills her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend Luke on the night before the wedding. She alone survives. June flees her Connecticut town and drives across the country, eventually settling at a motel on the Pacific coast where she exists in emotional numbness. Behind her, the tragedy ripples through her community in unexpected ways. The wedding caterer waits for payment that will never come. Luke's mother faces ostracism from neighbors. The motel owners who shelter June carry their own buried pain. As these strangers navigate their shared grief, they uncover hidden connections and long-kept secrets. Their stories interweave across time and distance, revealing how loss can forge new bonds between unlikely people. The novel explores how communities form around shared suffering and how families can be built from choice rather than blood.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, grief
Setting: Connecticut, Pacific Coast
Period: 21st-century
293 pages · Hardcover · Scout Press
Content warnings: death