First published 2020
Gray Howard is having the worst summer of her life on the North Carolina coast. Her mother died of cancer. Her sister disappeared into a controlling marriage. Her husband left her for his executive assistant. Then, before things can settle, Gray accidentally gets a stranger fired from the local pharmacy. The stranger is Diana Harrington, who that same morning broke up with her boyfriend, packed what she owned, and drove away in a beat-up Impala with nowhere to go. Gray offers Diana the guest house. It is equal parts guilt and generosity. The arrangement works. Diana steadies herself, and Gray starts to breathe again. But Diana's first love reappears, and the secrets she buried come back fast. Gray, meanwhile, is building something new for herself, and Diana keeps pushing her toward it. The two women hold each other up through the summer, and by the end, Gray is not sure the life she always pictured was ever the right one.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, contemporary-romance
Vibes: bittersweet, contemplative, emotional, healing, intimate, introspective
Tropes: found-family, personal-growth, second-chance, strangers-to-friends
Setting: North Carolina coast
Period: summer, contemporary
389 pages · Paperback · Gallery Books
Content warnings: death