End of August

A captivating,multigenerational debut novel of a young woman navigating the personal trauma that ties herselfher nomadic motherand her alcoholic grandmother togetherperfect for fans of Ask AgainYes and What the Fireflies Knew. 1979. Fifteen-year-old Aurora TaylorΓÇÖs single mother prefers to leave when things get hard. SheΓÇÖs spent years abandoning bad boyfriends and dead-end jobswithout so much as a glance in the rearview mirror. After fifteen years in the passenger seatAurora needs more than two hands to count the towns sheΓÇÖs lived in. SheΓÇÖs learned to live smallΓÇöitΓÇÖs easier to leave when you donΓÇÖt need to say goodbye. So when her motherLaineshows up at school with the car loadedAurora assumes her latest fling has run its course. InsteaditΓÇÖs her grandpa JayΓÇÖs death calling them back to the town Laine has spent fifteen years running from. Every visit to MonroeIndianaends in an explosive fight. Her mother and her Gran are oil and waterand it doesnΓÇÖt take Aurora long to realize Gran has fallen off the wagonΓÇöagain. With Gran drinking and LaineΓÇÖs discomfort in the little blue houseAurora gives their visit a weektops. But when Laine begins an affair with the townΓÇÖs married mailmaneverything changes. While her mom falls in love with a man she canΓÇÖt haveAurora has time to fall in love with the town. Her life begins to feel fullΓÇöshe has a friend to call her owna gran who loves herand a picture-perfect pastorΓÇÖs son who sees Aurora as more than ΓÇ£LaineΓÇÖs daughter.ΓÇ¥ ItΓÇÖs everything she never let herself dream about. As the summer months march onand her momΓÇÖs happiness becomes even more dependent on her unstable new relationshipAurora worries the dream she allowed herself will end in heartbreak. This isnΓÇÖt just another map dot on their endless journeyand Laine wonΓÇÖt just burn a bridge this time. Her choices threaten to light the town on fireburning GranΓÇÖs hopeAuroraΓÇÖs futureand her own chance at redemption to the ground with it.