Her adoptive mother had committed suicide when she was 13, so at 31, she is alone in the world. She is back in her childhood home after 3 miscarriages, a divorce, and her adoptive father’s death.

Before that, she was an oncology nurse, “but it got to be too much” so she had to step away. Libby has been a wedding photographer for 5 years. Carter did not trust Sadie, and he fired Sadie at the first suggestion of a transgression. Upon meeting Sadie, he offered to hire her to be Olivia’s driver. He met Olivia in London, after he finished a fellowship at Oxford, during the blitz when he was working at a hospital where she volunteered. Edward Carter lives in the home that has been in his family since it was built in the 18th century with his new bride. On Christmas Eve, she and Johnny take the annual honeysuckle moonshine order to the Carters at the Woodmont Estate. Running the farm and making the shine will fall to Sadie, but without Johnny’s occasional shifts at the furniture factory in Waynesboro, ready cash will be short. Now, just weeks after Pearl Harbor, her brother Johnny signed up as well. Her father died 2 years ago, and the older boy, Danny had joined the Army soon after. Sadie Thompson was a 15 year old from a family of moonshiners. Setting: Bluestone, VA 1940s and 2020- in Trenton, NJ Genre: women’s fiction This book switches times periods, mainly between the early 1940s and late June-August, 2020. Beneath the vines of the old greenhouse lie generations of secrets, and it's up to Libby to tend to the fruits born of long-buried seeds. There she discovers a letter that changes everything she knows about her parents, herself, and the estate. Libby is immediately drawn to the old greenhouse shrouded in honeysuckle vines.Īs Libby forms relationships and explores the overgrown - yet hauntingly beautiful - Woodmont estate, she finds the emotional courage to sort through her father's office. Hoping to open Woodmont to the public, Elaine has employed young widower Colton Reese to help restore the grounds and asks Libby to photograph the process. When asked to photograph a wedding at the historic Woodmont estate, Libby meets the owner, Elaine Grant. Though her new life as a wedding photographer provides a semblance of purpose, it's also a distraction from her profound pain. From best-selling author Mary Ellen Taylor comes a story about profound loss, hard truths, and an overgrown greenhouse full of old secrets.Īdrift in the wake of her father's death, a failed marriage, and multiple miscarriages, Libby McKenzie feels truly alone.

Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor