Author Kristy
Woodson Harvey has built a brand writing tender, heartfelt stories that
showcase Southern flair, smalltown life, and the bonds of family and friendship.
In A
Happier Life, she adds to her growing body of work, offering readers a
poignant story about one contemporary woman and one woman from the past, both facing
change in their lives.
The book launches with 30-something, Keaton Smith. She is Southern
woman transplanted to a high-powered job working for a New York City “lifestyle
brand” company. On the same day Keaton gets dumped from her job and by her beau,
she’s asked by her mother to clear out the house her mother grew up in--a home Keaton
didn’t know was still in the family--in Beaufort, North Carolina.
Keaton is reluctant. However, being at a crossroads and with
time on her hands, she takes on the task. When she steps into the 254-year-old
house, she finds it has been left eerily untouched--complete with rotary
telephone--since the night her grandparents died unexpectedly in a tragic car
accident in August 1976.
As Keaton settles in and begins to assess the home, she starts
to assemble pieces, like a puzzle, of her grandparents’ lives. Did they really
die by accident? Or could there be more to the story? Keaton becomes more greatly
intrigued when she starts to read her grandmother’s journal. It further
encourages Keaton in her determination to find answers. She mingles with the
locals and even strikes up a relationship with a young father who lives with his
son next door.
What ensues is a captivating, heartwarming story that combines a
long-lost family saga with elements of mystery and romance. Readers will be
riveted and wowed by Woodsen’s (The
Summer of Songbirds, The
Wedding Veil) 12th winning novel.
A
Happier Life by Kristy Woodson Harvey
Gallery
Books (Simon and Schuster),
$28.99 hardcover, 9781668012192, 384 pages
Publication Date: June 25, 2024
To order this book on Bookshop/INDIEBOUND,
link HERE