Cultured, graceful, feisty Shelby Collins is the epitome of a southern lady. She tries to prove her competence by looking after her siblings while her mother is away caring for an ailing relative. Shelby’s secure world is turned upside down when her father, in a drunken rage, attacks her. Fearing others will learn of his treachery, he kidnaps her, takes her to a reform school, and abandons her. In utter despair, Shelby is sure that her life is over—but sometimes life’s blessings come in the most unexpected ways.
Set against the rich tapestry of the South during the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, Livin’ in High Cotton was inspired by the life of Sandra’s grandmother. This heart-felt and poignant novel is a celebration of life and traditional family values. It is a story of love, betrayal, and the indomitable human spirit in the face of adversity. It is about a young girl, growing up, who realizes that life is full of second chances and that it’s never too late to learn how to live.
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On the surface, the sleepy town of Stoney Creek, Alabama looks a lot like Mayberry with its quirky characters like Hazel Finch who smells of magnolias and lives in a Hawaiian muu muu. But Sydney Lassiter knows better because she’s experienced enough tragedy in that tranquil town to last a lifetime.
Sydney Lassiter has the perfect life—glamour, wealth, and all the high society status to go with it, but something is telling her that she needs to return Stoney Creek, where she grew up. She hasn't been there since her father was killed in a boating accident—or was he murdered? She takes a job as a safety consultant at the local sawmill—the same place where her father worked.
In Stoney Creek, you don't ask the kinds of questions that Sydney is asking. There are too many secrets—secrets that someone will do anything to keep hidden. Tension mounts when she has the reoccurring feeling of being watched. But while her common sense is telling her to keep her mouth shut and get out while she still can, her heart is telling her that her father's death was no accident and that she needs to keep sifting through the past to find the answer.
To complicate matters, she becomes torn in a confusing love quadrangle—two men, and the other woman, who seems to want them both. And both men seem to have some connection to the death of her father.
Sydney’s inner demons come alive as she delves deeper into the past, trying to heal the shattered woman within. The closer she gets to the truth, the more she fears that it will destroy not only her, but the people and town she has come to love.
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