By Susan Gooch
The Books
Southern romance, small-town secrets, and stories that linger long after the last page.
The Carrington Affairs
The Carrington Series
In March 2012, Bennett Carrington had the world on a string. A junior senator from Arkansas, he was being vetted for the vice-presidential position — until, by July, he'd resigned in disgrace with no marriage, no career, and a broken heart.
Eleven years later, Bennett has a chance to reclaim his political career — if he can convince the two women he loved most, Taylor and Poppy, to share their buried secrets. Set in the quaint town of Searcy, Arkansas, the book, like the town itself, is full of secrets just waiting to be discovered.
The Nonnegotiable
The Carrington Series
Ella Santiago, a nineteen-year-old with a MENSA-level IQ, is on her way to running a certified gold-level winery in Napa. Ben Carrington, a political science graduate student, is headed for law school and a career in politics like his father before him.
A chance encounter brings these two driven individuals together, deepening into something undeniable. As their whirlwind romance intensifies, life throws them a curveball that forces both to reconsider everything — career, family, and the dreams they've held for years.
The Dirty Birds' Short Stories
A Companion Book for The Dirty Birds' Book Club
What happens when eight opinionated women sit down to discuss a book? Nothing is off the table. This collection features the complete stories the ladies read and dissected over bottles of wine, fits of laughter, and the occasional tear.
Inside you'll find a WWII homefront drama, a harrowing survival story, a sun-drenched Italian romance, and a contemporary tale of a woman confronting old ghosts at her reunion. You don't have to be a Dirty Bird to love these stories — but by the time you finish, you'll wish you were.
The Reckoning
A White-Knuckle Thriller
At fourteen, Tori McDade was a genius with no friends, a missing mother, and a crush on the most popular boy in school. At fourteen, her life split in two. Twenty years later, Victoria McDade is a forensic psychologist built from discipline and the relentless study of predators.
Until the night a stranger's testimony cracks everything open. Now Victoria is driving through the Arkansas dark with a knife, a tranquilizer gun, and a plan she knows will destroy her. But the truth he tells is more devastating than anything she imagined.
Love, Italian Style
Eleanor Duncan thought she had it all: a dream job, a gorgeous fiancé, and a spring wedding just days away. Then Richard Holmes dropped a bombshell — he's gay, and the engagement was a business transaction. Guilt-ridden, he sends Eleanor to Italy with his best friend, Gabe Chance, a ruggedly handsome art teacher.
What starts as a no-strings agreement to indulge in a week of passion among the galleries and trattorias of Florence quickly becomes something neither of them expected: real, raw, and terrifying. Funny, steamy, and full of heart.
Tarnished
A Blue Star Love Story
During World War II, Billie Roberts watches the love of her life leave for war, never imagining a single telegram could change everything. Believing her husband, Drake, is gone forever, Billie struggles to survive the heartbreak, the whispers of a small Southern town, and the impossible choices that follow.
Years later, as she writes a letter to her daughter on her wedding day, Billie finally reveals the truth behind the scandal that labeled her "tarnished." A moving story about grief, survival, and the courage it takes to love again.
The Day I Became An Expert At Everything
Liz Morris' life looks nothing like she planned. Four years after her husband's arrest left her nearly destitute, she's a school secretary barely making ends meet — and the last thing she needs is her high school reunion dredging up old wounds. But when her best friend RSVPs for her, claiming she's an expert party planner, chef, and mixologist, saying no is no longer an option.
Now Liz is back in Golden, Arkansas, faking skills she doesn't have and trying not to think about the boy who shattered her heart years ago — until Matt Craft, the formerly geeky classmate turned tech mogul, shows up with a killer smile and an inexplicable determination to make her life easier.