Anne Rivers Siddons pens a sweet and sad coming-of-age story in her latest novel Sweetwater Creek. Emily Parmenter is a 12-year-old girl living on her family’s South Carolina plantation. Her mother has left the family, her favorite brother committed suicide, and her father keeps his distance. The only solace Emily finds is in the Boykin spaniels her father breeds in an amibtious attempt to join high society. When 20-year-old blueblood, troubled Lulu Foxworth comes to the plantation to stay for the summer, Emily’s lonely world is at first reluctantly interrupted, but soon the two emotionally-starved girls bond. Lulu has several dark secrets, including an alcohol addiction and a torrid affair with the smarmy Yancey Byrd. As the Parmenters gain entrance into South Carolina’s high society, Lulu sinks further and further into her own demons.

Publisher: HarperCollins.