Sarah Allen Benton is a licensed mental health counselor and therapist whose work focuses on substance abuse and dual diagnosis treatment. Her professional experience includes work at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and the Emmanuel College Counseling Center. Benton has also contributed to various media outlets and publications, sharing her expertise on topics such as high-functioning alcoholism. Her background includes involvement in psychologically-based research and training in mind-body medicine, informed by her personal journey of recovery.
When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of the Waverly family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. The Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.
"The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was on a picture postcard--and she knew she was seeing her future. That was half a life ago, and now the idyllic Georgia lakeside community is about to slip into Eby's past. Her husband, along with most of her demanding extended family, is gone. . .as are many of her old dreams and desires. But then, just as Eby considers relinquishing her cabins to a developer with cash in hand, one last opportunity for having a family comes knocking at her door. . . Lost Lake is where Kate Pheris spent her last best summer as an adolescent, before she learned of loneliness and heartbreak and loss. But today she has hope, thanks to her resilient daughter, Devin, whose willingness to move forward gives Kate a chance to rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago. After all, people seem to end up at Lost Lake, looking for something that they weren't sure they needed in the first place: love, closure, a mystery solved, redemption. Can Kate, Devin, and Eby find what each of them needs before it's too late?"--Back page of book