In this moving and insightful debut novel set along the breathtaking shores of the Great Lakes, a young woman must decide which dreams are worth fighting for, and which roots to keep firmly in place... Sensible and self-reliant, Shelby Meyers knows exactly what she wants. She'll never again depend on her errant mother, Jackie, who abandoned Shelby when she was a baby-and is forever searching for an elusive, glittering life. All Shelby needs is her beautiful, windswept Lake Superior, her loving grandparents, and the treasured-but-struggling family apple orchard she helps run-until a new love, Ryan Chambers, opens her heart to chance, and her eyes to a wider world than she ever imagined.
But just as Shelby is looking toward an exciting future, Jackie unexpectedly returns-determined to make up for the past and "help" her daughter get everything she never could. Her confidence shaken, Shelby finds herself at odds with Ryan, and with his wealthy family's overbearing expectations. Now, through wrenching change and sudden loss, Shelby must find a way to see herself, and her mother, in a new light, forge an all-too-fragile understanding-and risk the kind of freedom that brings its own unexpected, enduring rewards...