A captivating, multigenerational debut novel of a young woman navigating the personal trauma that ties herself, her nomadic mother, and her alcoholic grandmother together, perfect for fans of Ask Again, Yes and What the Fireflies Knew.
1979. Fifteen-year-old Aurora Taylors single mother prefers to leave when things get hard. Shes spent years abandoning bad boyfriends and dead-end jobs, without so much as a glance in the rearview mirror. After fifteen years in the passenger seat, Aurora needs more than two hands to count the towns shes lived in. Shes learned to live smallits easier to leave when you dont need to say goodbye. So when her mother, Laine, shows up at school with the car loaded, Aurora assumes her latest fling has run its course. Instead, its her grandpa Jays death calling them back to the town Laine has spent fifteen years running from.
Every visit to Monroe, Indiana, ends in an explosive fight. Her mother and her Gran are oil and water, and it doesnt take Aurora long to realize Gran has fallen off the wagonagain. With Gran drinking and Laines discomfort in the little blue house, Aurora gives their visit a week, tops. But when Laine begins an affair with the towns married mailman, everything changes. While her mom falls in love with a man she cant have, Aurora has time to fall in love with the town. Her life begins to feel fullshe has a friend to call her own, a gran who loves her, and a picture-perfect pastors son who sees Aurora as more than Laines daughter. Its everything she never let herself dream about.
As the summer months march on, and her moms happiness becomes even more dependent on her unstable new relationship, Aurora worries the dream she allowed herself will end in heartbreak. This isnt just another map dot on their endless journey, and Laine wont just burn a bridge this time. Her choices threaten to light the town on fire, burning Grans hope, Auroras future, and her own chance at redemption to the ground with it.
