Carolina Moon / Nora Roberts / 438 pages / 5 Gold Rings December Challenge

Library Journal said this book was "essential for public libraries."  Although I would not say it is essential, I would definitely rank it a very good read.  As one would anticipate in a novel by Nora Roberts, we find multiple romances, true love, and immediate, overwhelming sexual attraction.  But in Carolina Moon we find much, much more!  Darker than her typical romances, Carolina Moon features Tory Bodeen returning to her childhood home town to open a specialty store and to attempt  put to rest her childhood demons.  Her best friend, Hope Lavelle, was murdered on a night the girls were to meet in the woods.  Tory couldn't make it because her father had delivered one of his many beatings.  Tory has held herself responsible for Hope's death all these years and desperately desires to discover who killed her friend.