An author's love letter to her North Carolina hometown becomes a hot read this summer

Veteran author Kristy Woodson Harvey writes a love letter to her hometown, Beaufort, North Carolina, in "A Happier Life," a novel that could be the beach read of the summer.

Woodson's heroine, Keaton Smith, thinks she has a perfect life in New York working for Allison, a motivational speaker and media influencer. (Allison's the sort of woman who Manifests Abundance.)

All this unravels, though, when Keaton finds out that Allison is pregnant -- and that Jonathan, her supposed boyfriend, is the father. (Well Jonathan IS Allison's ex-husband, but Keaton assumed that was all over.)

In a tailspin, Keaton returns home. As therapy, her parents send her down to Beaufort -- a town where Keaton's never been -- to sell, finally, the family homeplace.

The house, which has been in Keaton's family since it was built in 1769, has stood empty since the summer of 1976, when her grandparents disappeared. Keaton's mother was so traumatized, she's never gone back -- although Keaton's uncle has been paying to keep it in repair, at least on the outside.

Keaton's grandma, Rebecca St. James, was Beaufort's hostess with the mostest. Her weekly dinner parties were legendary. Her grandpa, Townsend, a former "Greatest Generation" combat pilot, was a courtly doctor.

Townsend was also a compulsive journaler -- which helps with the flashback chapters in "A Happier Life."

Keaton quickly falls in love with Beaufort, a little town where people still sit on porches and wave to you, even if they don't know you, and where dolphins leap in the sound offshore.

The house is another matter. Inside, everything is left the way it was in 1976. Townsend's cigars still sit, cut but unsmoked, in the ashtrays. The chargers from Rebecca's last dinner party are still out on the yellowing tablecloth.

Keaton sets to work to clean it all up -- discovering more and more about her grandparents, and about her mother as a young girl.

Out walking with her Goldendoodle, Salt, she meets the neighbors -- particularly the hunky real-estate agent who lives next door. (He's a single dad, and his 10-year-old son is adorable.)

Everyone in Beaufort seems to be a character -- like her handyman, who does his rounds dressed as a pirate. (He gives the downtown Pirate Tour later in the day.) Before long, Keaton has a new set of friends, in the "Dockhouse Dames," local ladies who gather for breakfast at the local coffee shop.

"A Happier Life" proceeds in chapters, alternately narrated by Keaton, Rebecca and Townsend. (Even the house, which has a soul of its own, gets a word in.)

There are two romances; in flashback, we see how Rebecca and Townsend came together. There's also a mystery: What happened to Keaton's grandparents? Keaton's mom could never, ever talk about it. Keaton thought they died in a car crash, but apparently that's not the whole story.

And there's comedy thrown in.

Readers will recognize that "A Happier Life" has the plot of a Lifetime Movie.

Woodson, however, is a veteran at this; her "Summer of Songbirds" was a "Buzz Pick" on "Good Morning, America," and her "Peachtree Bluff" books are reportedly being developed as a project for NBC. She's too experienced and sure at this ever to feel cliched.

Peachtree Bluff fans should be very please.

Book review

A Happier Life

By Kristy Woodson Harvey

Gallery Books, $28.99

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: An author's love letter to her North Carolina hometown becomes a hot read this summer