Beth Hoffman

For years, 12-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille-the tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt from Savannah, Tootie Caldwell, who whirls CeeCee into her world of female friendship, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart.

Teddi Overman found her life's passion for furniture in a broken-down chair left by the side of the road in rural Kentucky. Learning to turn other people's castoffs into beautifully restored antiques, she eventually opens her own shop in Charleston. Teddi builds a life surrounded by remarkable friends and finds love in the most surprising way, but nothing can alleviate the uncertainty she's felt in the years since her brother's mysterious disappearance....

Beth Hoffman was living the good life: she had a successful career as a journalist and professor, a comfortable home in San Francisco, and plenty of close friends and family. Yet in her late 40s, she and her husband decided to leave the big city and move to his family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer, to put into practice everything she had learned over decades of reporting on food and agriculture. There was just one problem:...