First published 2009
Dempsey Jo Killebrew's career as a Washington lobbyist crashes when her boss gets caught in a political scandal. Broke and jobless, she heads to Guthrie, Georgia to fix up Birdsong, the Victorian house her father just inherited. He promised her the place just needs paint and care to become profitable. Instead, Dempsey finds a moldering pink disaster with taped windows and a yard full of trash. A hostile elderly relative has moved in and refuses to leave. The whole town knows Dempsey's business, including a charming lawyer who runs the local paper. FBI agents keep showing up, wanting dirt on her former boss. Dempsey rolls up her sleeves anyway. The renovation work that started as pure necessity slowly transforms into something deeper. The house project becomes a journey that leads Dempsey somewhere she never planned to go.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary, contemporary-romance
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, second-chance
Setting: Guthrie, Georgia
Period: contemporary
422 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins