I’ll Stand by You

Bestselling author Sala returns to Blessings, Ga. (Curl Up and Dye), in this touching contemporary romance of underdogs working toward respectability. Orphan Dori Grant, an unwed mother at 17, refuses to tell her grandfather who fathered her baby. Her grandfather takes care of the six-month-old while she works as a dishwasher at the local cafe. A few blocks away on the wrong side of the tracks, 20-year-old Johnny Pine, head of his household now that his mom is dead of an overdose and his dad is in prison for life, gets his two young brothers ready for school and goes to work. When Dori loses her grandfather and her home in one terrible blow, her neighbors shun her, but Johnny steps in and invites her and her baby to live with him and his brothers. Neighbors and townsfolk are both devious and kind, showing the small town at its worst and its best. When the baby’s father returns, complications compound. Characterization is one of Sala’s strengths, but the repetitions and minutiae slow the pace. Agent: Meredith Bernstein, Meredith Bernstein Literary Agency. (June)