Consumer Reports

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wish comes a poignant love story about risking everything for a dream-and whether it's possible to leave the past behind. Colby Mills once felt destined for a musical career, until tragedy grounded his aspirations. Now the head of a small family farm in North Carolina, he spontaneously takes a gig playing at a bar in St. Pete's Beach, Florida, seeking a rare break from his duties at home. But when...

You Can't Go Home Again is a novel by Thomas Wolfe published posthumously in 1940. The novel tells the story of George Webber, a fledgling author, who writes a book that makes frequent references to his home town of Libya Hill. The book is a national success but the residents of the town, unhappy with what they view as Webber's distorted depiction of them, send the author menacing letters and death threats.

In the middle of the night, Sheriff Winston Barnes learns that a plane has crashed at a coastal airfield, with neither pilot nor cargo in evidence and a local man found shot dead, but as Winston investigates, a devious challenger threatens his reelectionas sheriff, his daughter returns home with heartbreak of her own, and long-submerged racial bitterness comes to the fore.

"When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations,...

"North Carolina, 1960s. Lorraine has it all-the boyfriend, the good grades, the white picket fence, the ambition to become the first woman astronaut. But when she-the darling girl-next-door-becomes pregnant, she learns that love is conditional and ambition has its limits. In an effort to hide their daughter's secret shame, her parents send her away to a maternity home-a common solution for "wayward" girls during that time period. Lorraine soon realizes...

"JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina, to build his dream house and to pursue his high school sweetheart, Ava. But as he reenters his former world, where factories are in decline and the legacy of Jim Crow is still felt, he's startled to find that the people he once knew and loved have changed just as much as he has. Ava is now married and desperate for a baby, though she can't seem to carry one to term. Her husband, Henry, has...

"When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin's innocence in a town where everyone seems to be on the take, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he's ever known. Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops scratching their heads and needing his...

"When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she's not only North Carolina's richest woman, she's also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family's estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate--along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish--pass...

A Desperate Young Mother Rachel Stone's bad luck has taken a turn for the worse. With an empty wallet, a car's that's spilling smoke, and a five-year-old son to support, she's come home to a town that hates her. But this determined young widow with a scandalous past has learned how to be a fighter. And she'll do anything to keep her child safe-even take on. . . A man With No Heart Gabe Bonner wants to be left alone, especially by the beautiful...

"Bestselling author Ann B. Ross cooks up a batch of fun in this latest novel in her popular series With a crisp bite in the air, Miss Julia is enjoying a well-earned respite by her new fireplace. But autumn leaves aren't the only things falling: James, Hazel Marie's housekeeper, has had a nasty tumble down some stairs. How can Hazel Marie feed and take care of him--not to mention a husband and two babies--when she barely knows how to boil water? Miss...