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Author: Karen White | Website

Karen White is the author of eight previous books. She lives with her family near Atlanta, Georgia.



Published Works & Book Reviews

Sea Change

For as long as she can remember, Ava Whalen has struggled with a sense of not belonging, and now, at thirty-five, she still feels stymied by her family. Then she meets child psychologist Matthew Frazier and thinks her days of loneliness are behind her. After a whirlwind romance, they impulsively elope, and Ava moves to Matthew's ancestral home on St. Simons Island, off the coast of Georgia.

But after the initial excitement, Ava is surprised to discover that true happiness continues to elude her. There is much she doesn't know about Matthew, including the mysterious circumstances surrounding his first wife's death. And her new home seems to hold as many mysteries and secrets as her new husband. Feeling adrift, Ava throws herself into uncovering Matthew's family history and that of the island, not realizing that she has a connection of her own to this place--or that her obsession with the past could very well destroy her future.


Falling Home

Falling Home is a coming home story about forgiveness and acceptance, and of finding love in the most unexpected of places. Home is where the heart is, but Cassie Madison prefers to think of it as a place where one is born, then outgrows, along with skinned knees and childhood dreams. A humiliated Cassie left Walton, Georgia for Manhattan fifteen years before, vowing never to return.
And then her sister calls. Their father is dying and wants Cassie to come back home. When Cassie's father dies, saddling her with the family's antebellum home and letters hinting of an unknown sibling, Cassie finds herself sinking into the red Georgia clay like quicksand. Reluctantly, Cassie is pulled into the lives of her sister and family, and that of Sam Parker, the town doctor.

When tragedy strikes, Cassie is led to discover that home is a place that lives in one's heart, waiting with open arms to be rediscovered.

Reviewer: Terri
Review: Nov 11, 2010
Genre(s): Mainstream / General
Cassandra, Cassie, Madison left small town Walton, Georgia for New York City without a backward glance and with a broken heart. As she waited for her date and fiancé, Joe, her sister, Harriet was eloping with him. Unable to deal with this betrayal, Cassie carves a life out for herself and hasn’t been back to Walton for 15 years. Now, at 35, she’s engaged to her boss, Andrew, has a rewardi

On Folly Beach
The latest Southern novel from the acclaimed bestselling and award- winning author of The Memory of Water.
 
To most people, Folly Beach, South Carolina, is simply the last barrier island before the Atlantic. To some, it's a sanctuary, which is why Janie Hamilton's mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly's Finds, hoping it will distract Janie from the loss of her husband in Afghanistan.
 
Janie is at first resistant, but intrigued after finding love letters and an image of a beautiful bottle tree in a box of used books from Folly's Finds, and decides to take the plunge. The store's seller insists on one condition: Janie must allow Lulu, the late owner's elderly sister, to continue selling her bottle trees from its back yard. Historically, bottle trees were brought by African slaves to the American South, and Janie had grown up with one in her backyard, and it has always been a symbol of refuge to her.
 
Janie generally ignores Lulu as she sifts through the love letters, wanting to learn more. But the more she discovers of the letters' authors, the closer she feels to Lulu. As details of a possible murder and a mysterious disappearance during World War II are revealed, the two women discover that circumstances beyond their control, sixty years apart, have brought them together, here on Folly Beach. And it is here that their war-ravaged hearts can find hope for a second chance...
Reviewer: Terri
Review: Jun 19, 2010
Genre(s): Mainstream / General, Suspense
Emmy lives in Indiana. The life she planned comes to a halt when her beloved husband, Ben is killed in Afghanistan. After several months of mourning, her mother, Paige suggests Emmy buy a bookstore, Folly’s Finds, in the small community of Folly Beach where Paige grew up. Emmy has a degree in library science but does she want to move all the way to South Carolina? She’s not sur

The House on Tradd Street

A brilliant, chilling series debut, featuring a Charleston real estate agent who loves old houses—and the secret histories inside them.

Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog—and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.

Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one...

It turns out Jack's search has caught the attention of a malevolent ghost. Now, Jack and Melanie must unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak—and even murder.

Reviewer: Sherylyn
Review: Jan 23, 2010
Genre(s): Romantic Suspense
I loved this book. The House on Tradd Street had lots of suspense and drama along with the paranormal. You almost want to read this title all in one sitting as it is hard to put down. Melanie Middleton has been able to see spirits her whole life and has tried to keep that knowledge. She finds herself inheriting an old mansion and its ghosts. Now can she find the strength to help these spirits find som

The Girl on Legare Street

Acclaimed author Karen White returns with the sequel to the national bestseller The House on Tradd Street.

Melanie has grown accustomed to renovating old houses, but she never imagined she'd have to renovate her own life to include her estranged mother. Ginnette Prioleau Middleton left Charleston thirty-five years ago. She's returned wanting to protect the daughter she's never really known after receiving an ominous premonition.

Melanie never wanted to see her mother again, but with some prodding from her partner, Jack Trenholm, she agrees-and begins to rebuild their relationship. Together Melanie and Ginnette buy back their old home. With their combined psychic abilities they expect to unearth some ghosts. But what they find is a vengeful dark spirit whose strength has been growing for decades. It will take unearthing long buried secrets to beat this demon and save what's left of Melanie's family...

Reviewer: Sherylyn
Review: Dec 6, 2009
Genre(s): Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense
Melanie is a realtor, a pretty boring job but she loves it. She has worked really hard to put the past behind her, the past that included her mother leaving unexpectedly when she is a young child and her strange abilities that her father refuses to believe in and calls "hocus pocus." She strives to be ordinary. Then when her mother comes back into her life after almost 3 decades and tries to explain

The Lost Hours

The award-winning author of The Memory of Water delivers a gripping tale of family, fate, and forgiveness.

When Piper Mills was twelve, she helped her grandfather bury a box that belonged to her grandmother in the backyard. For twelve years, it remained untouched.

Now a near fatal riding accident has shattered Piper's dreams of Olympic glory. After her grandfather's death, she inherits the house and all its secrets, including a key to a room that doesn't exist-or does it? And after her grandmother is sent away to a nursing home, she remembers the box buried in the backyard. She remembers her grandmother's box buried in the backyard, after her grandmother was sent away to a nursing home. In it are torn pages from a scrapbook, a charm necklace-and a newspaper article from 1929 about the body of an infant found floating in the Savannah River. The necklace's charms tell the story of three friends during the 1920s- each charm added during the three months each friend had the necklace and recorded her life in the scrapbook. Piper always dismissed her grandmother as not having had a story to tell. And now, too late, Piper finds she might have been wrong.

Reviewer: Roza
Review: Feb 1, 2009
Genre(s): Mainstream / General
Similes! Similes! Save me from the similes and the metaphors! Which isn’t really all that big a deal as I still loved the book. The Lost Hours was an interesting look into the lives of past friendships and how people progress in life.   When Piper realizes that she really didn’t know her grandmother, despite living with her for several years she sets out to find out her grand

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