The Magnolia Inn

Brown (The Lilac Bouquet) tugs hard at the heartstrings with an emotional contemporary about a grieving widower and a vulnerable bartender. Jolene Broussard may serve alcohol, but she doesn’t drink—especially since she lost her mother to an overdose of drugs and booze. When she inherits half of a charming East Texas B&B called the Magnolia Inn, she’s thrilled, but the other inheritor puts his half on the market immediately. Former Dallas police officer Tucker Malone is still mourning the sudden death of his wife, Melanie, and trying to chart a course forward when he decides to invest in the Magnolia Inn, becoming Jolene’s operating partner. As they fix up the rundown property, romance blossoms, but it may not flower, given Tucker’s guilty feelings about loving anyone other than Melanie. The author does a first-rate job of depicting the devastating stages of grief, provides a simple but appealing plot with a sympathetic hero and heroine and a cast of lovable supporting characters, and wraps it all up with a happily ever after to cheer for. Agent: Erin Niumata, Folio Literary. (Jan.)