by Nora Roberts
First published 2008
Cilla McGowan trades her former life as a child actor for the satisfying work of home restoration. She travels to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to renovate the crumbling farmhouse where her grandmother, a famous actress, died from an overdose three decades earlier. The demanding renovation project consumes her days, leaving little time to notice Ford Sawyer, the graphic novelist living next door. Cilla fights her attraction to Ford, determined to break her family's pattern of doomed love affairs. Her resolve wavers as Ford's unusual charm draws her in. The real danger emerges when Cilla discovers a collection of unsigned letters hidden in the attic, evidence of a secret romance from her grandmother's past. These letters trigger a violent attack against Cilla. She and Ford must identify her attacker and understand the motive before Cilla meets the same fate as her celebrated grandmother.
Genres: romance, suspense, mystery, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
464 pages · Hardcover · Putnam
Content warnings: violence