Come Home to Me

Talley (the Morning Glory series) packs her latest Southern romantic drama with a satisfying plot and appealing characters. Fifteen years after their high school prom, Summer Valentine, Rhett Bryan, and Hunt McCroy return to Moonlight, S.C., for very different reasons, and discover that they must confront the consequences of their youthful imprudence. Rhett’s gleaming Hollywood life was disrupted when he accidentally ran over a young child. Summer has given up on a songwriting career and moved home so her teen son, David, can get to know his biological father, Hunt. An injury and subsequent painkiller addiction ended Hunt’s baseball dreams, and now he’s trying to make up for the years he spent ignoring David and hoping to make things right with Summer. Talley reveals detailed backstory by interweaving narratives from past and present. Themes of self-worth are examined through the lives of these complex characters as they reflect on their life experiences. Except for a few instances when the dialogue sounds a little too much like an authorial lecture, the prose is powerful in its understatedness, adding to the appeal of this alluring story. Agent: Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary. (Apr.)