First published 2017
Jacob Churcher writes bestselling romance novels but hasn't spoken to his mother in twenty years. She kicked him out at sixteen during one of her mental health episodes. Now a lawyer calls to tell him she's dead and left him her house. Jacob drives home days before Christmas to settle her estate and clean out the property. He discovers his mother became a hoarder after he left. Mountains of clutter fill every room. As Jacob sorts through two decades of accumulated junk, he finds a diary written by a pregnant woman named Noel who apparently lived with his family. He has no memory of her. Then Rachel appears at his door. She's searching for the birth mother who gave her up for adoption thirty years ago. Rachel believes that woman might be Noel. Jacob and Rachel team up to find Noel and uncover the truth about Rachel's origins. Their search forces Jacob to confront his painful childhood while giving both of them something unexpected.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Christmas
Period: Twenty Years
304 pages · Hardcover · Gallery Books
Content warnings: mental-illness