by Sandra Brown
First published 2009
Ella Baron manages her Texas boarding house with military precision during the Dust Bowl. She handles every task from cooking to cleaning while caring for her ten-year-old son Solly, who doesn't speak and draws unwanted comments from townspeople. When Dr. Kincaid asks her to take in a new boarder, Ella resists. The mysterious David Rainwater, a former cotton broker ruined by the Great Depression, seems respectable enough, but Ella guards her carefully ordered world. The doctor reveals that Rainwater is dying and won't need the room long. Reluctantly, Ella agrees. As racial tensions mount and cotton farms turn to dust, political unrest threatens their small community. Ella realizes that forces beyond her control are reshaping everything she has built. The independent woman who has controlled every aspect of her life must now face changes that will transform her world completely.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, independent-woman
Setting: Texas
Period: Dust Bowl, Great Depression
256 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: racism