Mary Alice Monroe

Late August is a beautiful time on the Southern coast--the peach trees are ripe, the ocean is warm, and the sweet tea is icy. A perfect time to enjoy the rocking chairs on the porch. But beneath the calm surface bubbles a threat: it's also peak hurricane season. When a hurricane threatens the coasts of Florida and South Carolina, an eclectic group of evacuees flees for the farm of their friends Grace and Charles Phillips in North Carolina: the Phillips's...

At Cara Rutledge's home on Isle of Palms, everything is comfortingly the same, yet rife with painful memories. Only through reconnecting with family, friends, and the rhythms of the lowcountry can Cara release the hold of the past and open herself to the possibility of a new love, career, and hope for the future. Meanwhile, her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate who doesn't know where her life will take her, leaves her historic home in Charleston,...

When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, it's a win-win by any standard: Cara's generating income necessary to keep her husband Brett's ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, a young artist who's been given a commission to paint shorebirds for postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted. It isn't long, however,...

"It is summer's end and Sea Breeze, the family's beloved estate on Sullivan's Island, must be sold. It is an emotional time of transition as Mamaw and the three sisters each must face loss and find a new place in the world. Harper, the youngest sister, arrived at Sea Breeze intending to stay only a weekend, but a rift with her wealthy, influential mother left her without direction or a home. During this remarkable summer, free from her mother's tyranny...

"This heartwarming women's fiction series from beloved New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe centers on Marietta Colson Muir, a dowager of Charleston society who has retired to her historic summer home on Sullivan's Island called Conquest, and her three granddaughters Carson, Eudora, and Harper. It's summer once again on idyllic Sullivan's Island, but Eudora, or Dora as she's affectionately called by her family, is feeling anything but...

"A wounded warrior and his younger brother discover the true meaning of Christmas in this timeless story of family bonds. A poignant continuation of the Lowcountry Summer series. As far as ten-year-old Miller McClellan is concerned, it's the worst Christmas ever. His father's shrimp boat is docked, his mother is working two jobs, and with finances strained, Miller is told they can't afford the dog he desperately wants. "Your brother's return from...

In this tale that explores the themes of class, women's rights and domestic abuse in the 1970s American South, the author returns to her classic Southern setting in the Isle of Palms with the sequel to her novel The Beach House. She weaves together issues of class, women's rights, and domestic abuse set in the tumultuous South during the 1970s as she tells the story of Olivia, "Lovie" Rutledge, the mother from The Beach House. As Lovie sits on the...

Discover this moving story of five remarkable friends as Mary Alice Monroe, the New York Times bestselling author of The Beach House explores the power of friendship with tenderness and honesty.
On the surface, it is a monthly book club. But for five women, it is so much more. For Eve Porter, whose husband's sudden death cheats her of every security she had planned on, the club is a place of sanctuary. For Annie Blake, a brilliant...

A South Carolina bird sanctuary is home to a single father, his ailing daughter and the caregiver who joins their family in this novel of love and healing.
Burned-out and unsure of her next step, E.R. nurse Ella Majors accepts a position as caregiver to Marion Henderson, a frightened five-year-old with juvenile diabetes. But Ella soon realizes there is more sorrow in the isolated home than the little girl's illness can account for. Harris...

Get swept up again in this heartfelt family drama from New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe.
They are the Season sisters, bound by blood, driven apart by a tragedy. Now they are about to embark on a bittersweet journey into the unknown—an odyssey of promise and forgiveness, of loss and rediscovery.
Jillian, Beatrice and Rose have gathered for the funeral of their younger...