The Summer Guests / 348 p. / Mary Alice Monroe

An ensemble of guests from the world of equestrian sports come together at a mutual friend's (Grace and Charles Phillips) N.C. mountain home to escape the ravages of Hurricane Noel that is posed to hit as a Category 5 along the Florida and South Carolina coasts.  They have come from the coasts with their precious prize horses that will be boarded at the large horse farm in North Carolina.
    The group includes highly accomplished winning horses and owners.  The evacuees are forced to confront the unresolved issues they have with themselves and with each other. Trust is not easily given and challenges are frequently thrown out to each other. As they ride out the storm together they realize that what really matters isn't what they brought with them to the mountains. Rather, it's what they'll take with them once they leave that really matters.

Every Breath / Nicholas Sparks / 321 p.

With the news that her father has recently been diagnosed with ALS, Hope Anderson decides to spend a week at the family cottage in Sunset Beach, N.C.  While there she wants to sort out her priorities of caring for her father and where her relationship of 7 years is going with an orthopedic surgeon.
    Tru Walls, a safari guide from Zimbawe, has also come to Sunset Beach to meet a man claiming to be his father.  He arrives with hopes of learning about his mother's early life now that she has passed away.
     Hope and Tru meet and there is an instant connection. Hope, however, needs to decide if love triumphs over loyalty and family duty triumphs over personal happiness. 

MIDNIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD CAFE / 336 p. / Heather Webber

Anna Kate has returned to her recently deceased mother's home of Wicklow, Alabama after her Granny Zee has also passed away.  Anna has now lost her mother and her grandmother and is forging ahead trying to fulfill her mother's wish to have her go to college to become a doctor AND her Granny's wish that Anna Kate takeover the family bakery in Wicklow.
   This is a story of Anna Kate's fractured family and her longing to find the truth behind her father's death before she was born. Anna Kate also needs to find what she wants to do in life. The story is full of Southern charm, kindness, forgiveness and love.

The Last Romantics / Tara Conklin / 368 p.

   

 In the spring of 1981, the young Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, dreamy Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona—lose their father to a heart attack and their mother to a paralyzing depression, events that thrust them into a period they will later call “the Pause.” (Goodreads)

   The narrator is Fiona who has become a renowned poet.  She recounts the story of her siblings and herself while participating in a reading of one of her poems in her later years.  This is a story of her family's interactions, betrayals, forgiveness and love throughout their lives.