First published 2009
Alexa Hamilton has built a new life as a Manhattan assistant district attorney after fleeing Charleston eleven years ago. Her ex-husband's betrayal and his family's cruelty drove her north, where she now raises seventeen-year-old Savannah alone while prosecuting the city's most dangerous criminals. Everything shifts when Alexa takes on accused serial killer Luke Quentin's case. Threatening letters arrive addressed to Savannah, and Alexa knows Quentin is behind them. She faces an impossible choice: send her daughter to the Charleston world she swore never to revisit, back to the ex-husband who destroyed their marriage and his family who despised her. While Alexa prepares for the high-stakes trial in New York's criminal courts, Savannah discovers her Southern roots in Charleston. She meets the stepmother who stole her father away, learns about her family's history, and bonds with half-siblings she never knew. As the trial reaches its climax and old wounds surface, both mother and daughter navigate separate worlds that will ultimately bring them back together, forever changed by what they've learned about family, forgiveness, and home.
Genres: romance, mystery, contemporary, family-drama, legal-thriller
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, second-chance
Setting: Charleston, Manhattan, New York
Period: 21st-century
336 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, emotional-abuse