In the war-torn London of 1939, 14-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Hazel distracts her young sister with a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own. When Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river, Hazel blames herself, and she carries that guilt into adulthood. Twenty years later, Hazel lives in an elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat with her charming boyfriend. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive?

Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank planned for her next book --- REUNION BEACH --- Elin Hilderbrand, Adriana Trigiani, Patti Callahan, Mary Alice Monroe and other bestselling authors and writers channeled their creativity, admiration and grief into stories and poems that celebrate this remarkable woman and her abiding love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina --- a land of beauty, history, charm and Gullah magic she so brilliantly brought to life in her acclaimed novels.

When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she's shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly's research leads her to the astounding history of a family of 11 who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family: a known survivor, Augusta Longstreet, and her niece, Lilly Forsyth, who was never found, along with her child. These aristocratic women were part of Savannah's society, but when the ship exploded, each was faced with difficult and heartbreaking decisions.

Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of solving the greatest mysteries of physics. She prefers the dependability of facts --- except for one: the younger brother she loves with all her heart doesn’t have long to live. When George becomes captivated by THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and begs her to find out where Narnia came from, there’s no way she can refuse. Despite her timidity about approaching the famous author, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with the Oxford don and his own brother, imploring them for answers. Why won’t Mr. Lewis just tell her plainly what George wants to know? The answer will reveal to Meg many truths that science and math cannot.

When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis --- known as Jack --- she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and --- against all odds --- finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home --- until she learns of her dad’s failing health. Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family’s Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters’ rift. While Alzheimer’s slowly steals their father’s memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena’s own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

Bonny Blankenship’s most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. They swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey’s mother disappeared. Now, in her early 50s, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor. With her troubled teenage daughter in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. They reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long-ago loves return like the tide.

Ella is young, beautiful and deeply in love --- until her husband dies in a tragic sailing accident while trying to save her. Or so she'll have everyone believe. Screenwriter Hunter needs a hit, but crippling writers' block and a serious lack of motivation are getting him nowhere. He's on the lookout for a love story. It doesn't matter who it belongs to. When Hunter and Ella meet in Watersend, South Carolina, it feels like the perfect match, something close to fate. But one lie leads to another, and soon they find themselves caught in a web of deceit.

Eve and Teddy Morrison are Savannah’s power couple, but things aren’t as good as they look. Their teenage daughter, Gwen, is rebelling, and Cooper is blaming this on Eve’s preoccupation with work. The Morrison marriage is taut with tension, but when Cooper is involved in a car accident with Eve’s sister, Willa, the questions surrounding the event bring the family close to breaking point. Sifting between the stories, Eve has to find out what really happened --- and just who she believes.

Katie Vaughan has a secret, something tucked away in her past. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend, Rowan, whom she wants to love with all her heart. But when she discovers a small velvet box hidden in Rowan's drawer, she panics. For the first time in her life, Katie knows that she won't fully love Rowan until she confronts the demons from her past, and it's time for her to act.

Jimmy Sullivan has been living on the road with his brother, Jack, and his band. Without a place to call home, Jimmy and Jack lead a nomadic life filled with music and anonymous cities.

After the sudden loss of her formidable mother, Lillian, Ellie discovers the late woman’s diary, which opens up a whole side to her mother she never knew. She decides to return to the summer house in coastal Alabama where Lillian spent the summer of 1961, in the hopes of learning more about her mother and, perhaps, find some closure for herself.

Garnering comparisons to Anne Rivers Siddons and Pat Conroy, Patti Callahan Henry has woven her lyrical Southern voice throughout the Lowcountry landscape. Now as tow women from opposite sides of the sea meet, a tale unfolds that will draw you into the heart’s remembrances and the compelling power of story.