Elizabeth Sumner Wafler writes evocative women’s fiction and romance. The author of five novels, she is an active member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and a former Director of Craft Education for the organization. Elizabeth enjoys working with other writers through her side hustle, Four Eyes Editorial. She can be found working at her blue desk, at a farmers market, poking through a book or vintage furniture store, or enjoying a great read on her back porch. Elizabeth lives with her husband in Greenville, South Carolina.

When Mamie Morrow, a fledgling Charleston journalist, is offered an assignment covering the Grand Bohemian Lodge in Greenville, South Carolina, at Christmastime, she jumps at the chance. Her grandfather recently passed away and left her a mysterious box of objects from the time she spent with him in New Mexico when she was three. Mamie has zero recollection of her time with her grandfather, but she now knows that he was Navajo—and as the majestic Grand Bohemian is filled with Native American art, she hopes being there will help her regain those memories.

Robert Fitzpatrick is an upstart photographer from South Boston. Through equal parts inspiration and perspiration, he’s managed to compile a stunning portfolio, and he’s just relocated to slower-paced Charleston for its lush beauty and creative community. He’s also looking for the one—a girl to whom he can give his whole heart forever. But he harbors family secrets of his own.

Rob is smitten with Mamie’s energy and pluck, but to Mamie, career comes first. As Christmas Day approaches, the two grapple with the complications that arise when dreams confront reality—and witness the Christmas magic that can happen when you put your faith in love.

French professor Georgie Bricker hasn’t poked a toe outside Virginia’s Willa Cather College for women in two decades. She realizes the irony: she’s working to shape her students into world leaders even as PTSD-induced agoraphobia, a result of trauma she suffered as a girl, keeps her prisoner on a tiny college campus. She tells herself her life is fine. Yet on her forty-ninth birthday, she wishes for something extraordinary.

Georgie is shattered to learn that her sanctuary is heavily in debt. While she scrambles to rescue the French department, her first love, Truman Parker, arrives to serve as a financial consultant to the school. By day, Georgie works as faculty liaison to his committee. By night, she’s a moth to his porch light.

When the college announces it will shutter, Georgie and fiercely independent Laurel Cross, the student who’s closest to Georgie’s heart, organize a rally to save it. Between her rekindled love for Truman and Laurel becoming the daughter she never had, her wish for the extraordinary seems to have been granted. But the pivotal rally forces Georgie into the bigger, unsheltered world, where she must confront her final fears—or forfeit her chance for emotional freedom and a fulfilling new life.