Under the Southern Sky

Harvey (Feels Like Falling) delivers a heart-wrenching tale of love and loss in this tearjerker. Journalist Amelia Paxton is ticking life goals off her list—including a New York Times “Modern Love” column about her perfect marriage—when she catches her husband in a tryst with her male hairdresser. Shocked, she flees to her North Carolina hometown to regroup. While there, her research for a story about frozen embryos leads her to discover her childhood friend Parker and his late wife Greer had frozen four embryos. Amelia was diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency at 14 and thought she’d come to terms with her infertility, but she changes her mind and determines to serve as a surrogate for Parker and Greer’s embryos. After she gets back in touch with Parker, the two eventually fall in love, despite Amelia’s fear that Parker won’t get over Greer. Harvey brings her characters to life, including Greer, whose heartbreaking journal entries reflect on scans of the embryos and imagine the family she and Parker would have. These passages are particularly wrenching, making the book’s happy ending all the more moving. Fans of women’s fiction will devour this. (Apr.)