Good Hair Days

A dynamic Southern novel that pays homage to the bonds of sisterhood, community, and lasting legacies.  

Two sisters struggle to save a family-owned legacy business in Good Hair Days by Grace Helena Walz, a heartfelt novel woven with lots of down-to-earth Southern drama and charm. 

The story focuses on Georgia and Junie Scott, two sisters born and raised in Whitetail, a small town outside of Atlanta. Junie, the younger of the two sisters, stayed behind to run the beauty shop left to her by their mother, while Georgia, the older sister, went to a prestigious college and now lives a seemingly successful corporate life in the city.

 

In the process of trying to renovate the shop, Junie gets into a mountain of debt and thus, summons Georgia home for help. But when the sisters reunite, old wounds get reopened and both women, harboring life-changing secrets from each other, must come to terms with their own--and their shared--fates.

 

Written via the strong narrative points-of-view of each sister, Grace Helena Walz (Southern by Design) has a firm command on sisterly bonds, small-town living, and the often-unyielding depth of Southern roots. This well-drawn, nostalgic story might pay homage to the sass and sparkle of Dolly Parton, but it also delivers an unexpectedly moving, tear-jerking twist.

 

Good Hair Days by Grace Helena Walz

Harper Muse, $18.99 paperback, 9781400345663, 400 pages

Publishing date: November 11, 2025

To order this book on Indiebound/Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

 

Learn more about Grace Helena Walz link HERE

 

Beach House Rules

Bonds of family, friendship, and community bind an engaging story about how a mother and daughter put their lives back together after a scandal rocks their family.

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey sensitively traces how a mother and daughter scramble to steady and rebuild their lives. 

The story takes place in Juniper Shores, a charming, “beautiful Southern coastal town” where the New York-based Sitterly family--Bill, Charlotte, and teenager, Iris--took refuge during the Covid-19 pandemic. For three years, the Sitterlys called idyllic Juniper Shores home. Bill worked remotely. But when Bill is accused of securities fraud--serving jail time while maintaining his innocence--Charlotte and Iris are left homeless and destitute, unable to even access family finances. This leaves Charlotte to suffer a meltdown at the bank, where she is calmed by a local woman, 45-year-old widow, Alice Bailey, who befriends Charlotte and Iris. 

Alice--whom local gossip sites claim might’ve killed her three previous husbands--invites them to come and live with her, as she shares her big beach house, a former B&B, with other women who face troubles of their own. This includes Julie, Alice’s niece, a journalist and single mom. And Grace, a divorced mom who is also a social media sensation. This small tribe of strangers keep house and support each other. The shared living arrangement--deemed a “mommune,” like a commune, something of a “lost ladies’ hostel"--offers stability for Charlotte and Iris. But complications ensue when the past resurrects and comes calling again. 

Woodson Harvey (A Happier Life) plots exciting turns via many story threads. Alternate points of view, along with elements of mystery and romance, make for a greatly entertaining story that will appeal to a wide audience.

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Gallery Books (Simon and Schuster), $28.99 hardcover, 9781668074800, 368 pages

Publication Date: May 27, 2025

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Link HERE to learn more about Kristy Woodson Harvey

The Patron Saint of Second Chances

A small, diminishing village in Italy--facing financial ruin; threatened with having the entire water supply cut-off--faces a hilarious revitalization by the prospect of an upcoming film shoot.

Community loyalty and the power of taking pride in one’s hometown--doing anything to save it--is the central theme of the very funny debut novel, The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon.

Prometto, Italy (fictional) has 212 occupants, and one resident, Signor Giovannino Speranza, believes he has the power to change things—or at least he hopes so. Speranza is of the old school and traditional values. He is a 62-year-old husband, father and grandfather—a vacuum cleaner salesman-repairman disillusioned with young people always on their phones and social media and eagerly determined to leave town. He regularly turns to the saints to guide him and dispel his disappointments and arguments with God. Having always taken pride in Prometto, he’s become something of the local mayor.

Now that the town, in dire financial straits--the budget doesn’t have enough funds to restore the plumbing system and faces having the water turned off, forcing residents to relocate--desperate Speranza concocts a story about how Dante Rinaldi, a heartthrob movie star, is planning to film his next blockbuster near Prometto. The invented news takes off and injects a hopeful jolt of enthusiasm that rallies the town and beyond, including young people and even the local parish priest, while boosting tourism and local businesses in the process. But what will happen when Dante Rinaldi doesn’t descend on Prometto with a film crew and news gets out about the ruse Speranza has crafted?

Simon’s fun, clever story offers a hilarious literary escape. Readers will smile and laugh out loud at her well-drawn cast of quirky characters, those who long--and will do anything--to be a part of the film and its production. The plot snowballs, twisting in madcap ways with turns as sharp as the narrow roads that wind their way through the lovable charm of Prometto.  

The Patron Saint of Second Chances: A Novel by Christine Simon

Atria Book, $27.00 hardcover, 978-1982188771, 360 pages

Publication Date: April 12, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE