The Memory Keeper

Hannah Townsend has built the Manhattan life she wanted: a respected job at a New York magazine, a polished apartment on the Upper West Side, and a successful boyfriend, Miles Monahan. To celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday, she has booked a winter escape to Barbados, with tickets for two and a week of tropical drinks, beaches, and steel drum music ahead.

Her plans fall apart before she ever leaves. Her grandmother has become seriously ill, and Hannah must return to Franklin, Tennessee, the small town she grew up in, to support her family and keep her grandmother's struggling flower shop running. The homecoming also means facing Ethan Wright, her closest friend from before she left. Then she learns that Miles has been seeing someone else. A snowstorm grounds flights, and she is stranded at LaGuardia Airport. Instead of waking up in a beachfront hotel on her birthday, she is crammed into a ride-share with two other passengers, headed south to Franklin.

When things seem at their worst, Liam McGuire, a successful businessman from Hannah's past, offers her kindness. But a new development threatens her grandmother's shop, and secrets involving Liam could change both of their lives for good.

This is a warm, small-town romance by Jenny Hale, the author of The Summer House, with humor and an emphasis on family. Readers who enjoyed the Christmas movies based on Jenny Hale's books may find this feel-good story a good fit.