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Sign up todayA Happier Life
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“Meet the Saint James House -- a clapboard home built 250 years ago in Beaufort, NC -- passed on through generation to generation of the Saint James Family. Until one day, the family disappeared, leaving the home trapped in the 1970s. Today, Keaton travels to Beaufort to get the home ready to sell. But she's looking for something more: a second chance, answers to the family whispers, a fresh start. All the family secrets can be undiscovered in the house, if only anyone had looked. A Happier Life will leave you falling in love with the small coastal town and the art of the perfect summer dinner party.”
— Jenny • E. Shaver, bookseller
Bookseller recommendation
“This was a “drop everything and read” book for me. Family, love, drama, and a bit of mysterious past kept me reading to know more. ”
— Stacy • Plenty
“New York Times bestselling author and southern sensation Kristy Woodson Harvey” (Good Morning America) presents a touching novel about eternal love and the places we call home.
The historic houses in the seaside town of Beaufort, North Carolina, have held the secrets of their inhabitants for centuries. One of the most enduring refuses to be washed away by the tide: What happened to Rebecca and Townsend Saint James on that fateful night of their disappearance in 1976?
Now, the granddaughter they never knew, Keaton Smith, is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort on the market, she jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps foot inside the abandoned house, which has been closed for nearly fifty years, she wonders if she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Wading through the detritus of her grandparents’ lives, Keaton finds herself enchanted by their southern traditions—and their great, big love. As she gets to know her charming next-door neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of endearingly feisty town busybodies, Keaton begins to wonder if the stories she has been told about her grandparents are true.
Keaton’s grandmother, Rebecca “Becks” Saint James’s annual summer suppers are the stuff of legend, and locals and out-of-towners alike clamor for an invitation to her stunning historic home. But, in the summer of 1976, she’s struggling behind the facade of the woman who can do it all—and facing a problem that even she can’t solve.
As 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 their family for generations.
“The novel to read this year” (Annabel Monaghan) explores the power of family, the boundless nature of love, and the idea that discovering where we came from just might lead us to A Happier Life.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including The Wedding Veil, Under the Southern Sky, and The Peachtree Bluff series, which is in development for television with NBC. A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, her writing has appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Southern Living, Traditional Home, USA TODAY, Domino, and O. Henry. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. Her books have received numerous accolades, including Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Beach Reads, Parade’s Big Fiction Reads, and Entertainment Weekly’s Spring Reading Picks. Kristy is the cocreator and cohost of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction. She blogs with her mom, Beth Woodson, on Design Chic, and loves connecting with fans on KristyWoodsonHarvey.com. She lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband and son where she is (always!) working on her next novel.