Betsy Carter Knihy

"As a young woman, Geraldine Wingo was a fiery beauty, turning heads in her small upstate New York town where she and her husband, Earle, run a popular bakery. All that changed, however, once she became pregnant with Emilia Mae, a difficult baby Geraldine is convinced is marked by the devil's tongue. Emilia Mae spends her life seeking and losing love in all the wrong places, so she never expects it to come sailing into town one day on a breeze when she's a thirty-three-year-old single mother. But Dillard Fox is no ordinary stranger - Emilia Mae and her daughter, Alice, are immediately drawn to his quiet friendliness, the brown tweed cap he never removes, his slow North Carolina drawl, and his talent for music. There's no question he's hiding a mysterious past, but will that stop them from building a new family together?"--Provided by publisher

Set in 1958 Carbondale, Illinois, the story follows widowed Tessie Lockhart and her daughter Dinah as they embark on a journey to Florida for a fresh start. While Tessie seeks to escape her past, Dinah grapples with the loss of her father and the challenges of fitting in at a new school. Their lives intertwine with the glamorous Crystal Landy and her mother, Victoria, leading to unexpected transformations. As the backdrop of war and societal change unfolds, the narrative explores the complexities of mother-daughter relationships and the impact of friendship and secrets.

For readers of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale or Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, an exquisitely moving novel about friendship, love, and redemption in a circle of immigrants who flee Germany for 1930s-era New York City.