Catherine Mann

A powerful story of healing, resilience, and the traditions that bring Southern families together by the USA Today bestselling author of Lightning in a Mason Jar. With her waterfront home on the market, marriage over, and teen daughter, Elsie, threatening emancipation, Rosalynn Yates finds her nerves well frayed, and that’s even before a Category Three hurricane approaches the Carolinas. Fortunately, Rosalynn’s mother, Lillian, arrives to help with the evacuation, going into full Mama Bear mode—whether Rosalynn likes it or not. The three women load a few belongings and Rosalynn’s mobility service dog, Dusty, into her van and start the slow journey to Lillian’s home in Virginia, where further heartache awaits them. As they hash out old betrayals and new crises, Lillian recalls another important road trip, when decades earlier the family joined the historic Capitol Crawl to fight for the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As secrets surface and accommodations become more difficult to find, the women are tested at every turn. But they know that finding hope and reconciliation takes care and patience—just like making the perfect pitcher of sweet tea. © 2026 by Catherine Mann, all rights reserved.

In South Carolina, a woman discovers her aunt’s profound secrets in an emotional novel spanning decades about trauma, survival, and the bonds of female friendship by a USA Today bestselling author.Since Bailey Rae Rigby’s adoptive aunt Winnie passed, Bent Oak, South Carolina, doesn’t have much of a hold on her anymore. So it seems.Bailey Rae aims to settle the small estate and, armed with her aunt’s inspiring personal cookbook, buy a food truck with an ocean view in Myrtle Beach. Everything goes awry when a distraught young mother arrives in town clutching a copy of that same cookbook. Embedded inside is a code that promises a safe place in Bent Oak for desperate women on the run. For Bailey Rae it opens up a world of questions. Who really was the beloved aunt she’s known most of her life?Winnie Ballard’s story reaches back fifty years—one of a Southern debutante’s harrowing marriage, of her escape and reinvention, and the galvanizing friendship of three resilient women who overcame their traumas, created a shelter, and found purpose. But there’s more to Winnie’s deliverance and long-held secrets than Bailey Rae imagines.With each revelation, Bailey Rae draws on her aunt’s courage to find purpose herself. For now, whatever threats may come, Bailey Rae isn’t going anywhere.