Akron Public Library

Jake Semple is a scary kid. Word has it that he burned down his old school and then was kicked out of every other school in his home state. Only weeks into September, the middle school in Traybridge, North Carolina, has thrown him out too.

"There was a time when the world was sweeter... when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats. Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister......

"In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She's been married to Roy Tupkin for fifteen days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being...

Noah Calhoun, recently returned from World War II in 1946, buys an old plantation home in rural North Carolina, where he contents himself with memories of his first love, a girl he met fourteen years earlier, but then she unexpectedly arrives at his door.

"Over the course of ten Mitford novels, fans have kept a special place in their hearts for Dooley Kavanagh, first seen in At Home in Mitford as a barefoot, freckle-faced boy in filthy overalls. Now, Father Tim Kavanagh's adopted son has graduated from vet school and opened his own animal clinic. Since money will be tight for a while, maybe he and Lace Harper, his once and future soul mate, should keep their wedding simple. So the plan is to eliminate...

The final volume in the "Mitford Years" series finds Father Tim contemplating the revival of a remote mountaintop church, a challenge he hopes will be his ultimate calling, but fears will be an impossible task.

Father Timothy Kavanagh, married for the first time at the age of sixty-something, struggles to deal with the upheaval and delight of having a wife, while also presiding over the triumphs and troubles of the people of the small town of Mitford, North Carolina.

Is there really such thing as a lucky charm? The hero of Nicholas Sparks's new novel believes he's found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he's never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories.

"When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake's longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she's warily drawn back to the town--and people--she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel's not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge...including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother's...

With more than 2 million copies of the Mitford Years titles in print, the endearing and eccentric residents of the little town with the big heart have become like family members to hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic readers. Fans just can't get enough--they swarm to Jan Karon's author appearances and flock to Mitford events hosted by bookstores. Annotation. First time in Viking hardcover--the second book in the popular Mitford series. "After you've...