With “her signature warmth and Southern
charm” (E! Online), the
New York Times bestselling author of The Summer
of Songbirds and the Peachtree Bluff series presents a
tender and touching novel about a young woman who discovers
the family she has always longed for when she spends a life-
changing summer in North Carolina.
Present Day: Keaton Smith is desperate for a fresh start.
So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home
in Beaufort, North Carolina, on the market—the home
that Keaton didn’t know existed until now—she
jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps
foot inside the abandoned house, she’s confronted with
secrets about grandparents who died in a car accident before
she was born. And as she gets to know her charming next-door
neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of
endearingly feisty town busybodies, she soon finds she has
more questions than answers.
1976: After meeting
her adoring husband Townsend, Rebecca “Becks”
Saint James abandoned the life she knew and never looked
back. Forty years later, she’s made a name for herself
as the best hostess North Carolina has ever seen. Her annual
summer suppers have become the stuff of legend, and locals
and out-of-towners alike clamor for an invitation to her
stunning historic home. But she’s struggling behind
the façade. Becks strives to make the lives of those
around her as easy as possible, but this summer she is
facing a dilemma that even she can’t solve. And as the
end of the season looms, she is brought to a decision she
never wanted to make.
As both Keaton and Becks
face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through
time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the
secrets, hopes, and dreams of the women in their family for
generations. For fans of Summer of ‘69 and
The Notebook, A Happier Life explores the
power of family, the bonds of friendship, and the boundless
nature of love.
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