The story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who ran her father's plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1700s and struck a bargain with the plantation's slaves: teach her how to make indigo and she would teach them to read.

Life can be full of surprises Helen Decatur spent a lifetime setting goals getting through college and law school, opening her own practice, becoming financially secure and establishing herself as one of the most highly respected matrimonial attorneys in the state of South Carolina. Achieving those goals was a breeze compared to the one she's faced with now. The most driven and cynical of the Sweet Magnolias, Helen is forty-two, single and suddenly...

"Wedding season has arrived in New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe's next novel in the "distinct, complex, and endearing" (Charleston Magazine) Lowcountry Summer series, set against the romantic, charming Charleston Lowcountry. Nothing could be more enchanting than a summer wedding--or two!--in Charleston's fabled lowcountry. A centuries-old plantation, an avenue of ancient oaks dripping moss, a storied ballroom, a sand dune at sunset......

"Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the...

"It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward's husband Cal, when she receives unexpected news--Cal's family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal's reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt. Charting the course of an uncertain life--and feeling guilt from her husband's tragic death--Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cals unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of...

"Summer is a hectic time of the year for Annie Darling. Sun and scorching temperatures never fail to bring swarms of tourists to her mystery bookstore, Death on Demand, for the latest beach reads. But Annie still finds time to enjoy herself. The Broward's Rock Fourth of July dance is just around the corner, and the island is buzzing with excitement--Shell Hurst included... Shell is the kind of woman wives hate--for good reason--and most of them wish...