Dreams of Falling

June 11, 2018
White (The Night the Lights Went Out) transports readers to the South Carolina low country, where a storm gathering over the small town of Georgetown erupts into a whirlwind of tragedy, betrayal, and heartbreak. Larkin Lanier, a New York City copywriter seeking to escape her past, is forced back to her hometown when she receives a call that her mother, Ivy, is missing. Ivy has been looking for information surrounding the death of her estranged mother, Margaret Darlington, and the old ruined house that is her family’s legacy. At the heart of the mystery behind the burned-out house are the women who had been like family to Ivy and Larkin, Margaret’s two best friends, Ceecee and Bitty. When Larkin returns home, she picks up where her mother left off and works to untangle the secrets that had been plaguing Ivy. The narrative weaves together Larkin’s story with flashbacks to the summer that changed the lives and friendships of Margaret, Ceecee, and Bitty. Larkin’s nostalgia for Georgetown and the people she left behind manage to charm her into staying much longer than she anticipated as she digs up old secrets and learns to forgive. White’s lovely tale of enduring friendship brings coastal South Carolina to life and examines the redemptive powers of love and loss.

May 15, 2018
Ten years ago, Larkin ran as far away from Georgetown, South Carolina, as she could, but a call that her mother, Ivy, has gone missing forces her to return. Locating Ivy, fallen and hurt, in an old, abandoned house once owned by her family, raises more questions than it answers. While Ivy hovers between life and death in the hospital, Larkin presses Ceecee and Bitty, the women who raised her mother, for details behind their friendship with Margaret, Ivy's biological mother. What did Ivy find out about the high-school graduation trip Margaret took with Ceecee and Bitty 50 years ago? White's (The Night the Lights Went Out, 2017) expert description of small-town southern life, both in the 1950s and in current times, will have readers reaching for fans and mint juleps. Intricate storytelling across generations and time periods, using eloquent language, makes for deep characterization alongside a brisk-paced plot. Full of family secrets and southern charm, Dreams of Falling serves equal helpings of drama and comfort to fans of Dorothea Benton Frank, Mary Alice Monroe, and Barbara Claypole White.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2018

Back in Georgetown after escaping a past she'd tried to forget nine years earlier, Larkin Lanier is determined to locate her missing mother, Ivy, so she can quickly get back to her life in New York City. She reconnects with two close family friends, Ceecee and Bitty, and the three scour the old, fire-ruined Carrowmore Estate for Ivy, finding her injured and unconscious clutching a ribbon with the words, "I know about Margaret." Having no idea about this old family home that she is apparently going to inherit and vaguely knowing that "Margaret" refers to her grandmother, who died when her own mother was two, Larkin's questions keep mounting. Her mother is in a coma, and getting answers from Ceecee and Bitty is impossible. Meanwhile, she's trying to avoid her father and the persistent childhood friends she hasn't seen since that humiliating day back in high school. VERDICT With so many lies told and secrets kept, this Southern story from White (The Night the Lights Went Out; Flight Patterns) keeps readers guessing with all the twists and turns. Told through flashbacks and alternating voices, this entwined tale of love and forgiveness will please the author's many fans. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Melissa Keegan, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2018

After long avoiding her South Carolina hometown, Larkin returns when her mother goes missing, finally finding her at her family's tumbling-down ancestral rice plantation.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.