April 22, 2024
Rains (the Somerset Lake series) draws inspiration from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in this sweet contemporary about second chances. Melody Palmer is shocked when she gets a phone call letting her know that her great-aunt Jo has died and left Melody her Trove Isle, N.C., thrift store, Hidden Treasures. Melody has not returned to her charming coastal hometown since leaving nine years ago, after a car accident killed her younger sister, Alyssa, and fractured Melody’s relationship with her besties Liz Dawson and Bri Johnson, with whom she once shared a treasured charm bracelet that they and Alyssa would pass among them. Now Melody travels from her home in Charlotte to Trove Isle—where she rediscovers the charm bracelet, which had been lost in the accident, within the thrift store’s jumbled inventory. As Melody reestablishes her broken relationship with Liz, who now works at her own mom’s bakery, and Bri, who’s serving time on a drug charge, sparks fly between her and her childhood neighbor, Christopher West. Melody must choose whether to sell the thrift store and return to her lonely life in Charlotte or take a chance on happiness in Trove Isle. The women’s friendship with each other is just as important to the plot as the charming romance. Fans of quaint and affecting small-town stories will be in heaven. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary.