This night not only marked the end to the drought, but also the end to the long-held secret weâd kept hidden under the magnolias.
Magnolia, South Carolina, 1980
Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness.
Scratching out a living on the familyâs tobacco farm is as tough as it gets. When a few random acts of kindness help to ease the Fostersâ hardships, Austin finds herself relying upon some of Magnoliaâs most colorful citizens for friendship and more. But itâs next to impossible to hide the truth about the goings-on at Nolia Farms, and Austinâs desperate attempts to save face all but break her.
Just when it seems she might have something more waiting for herâwith the son of a wealthy local family who sheâs crushed on for yearsâher father makes a choice that will crack wide-open the familyâs secrets and lead to a public reckoning. There are consequences for loving a boy like Vance Cumberland, but there is also freedom in the truth.
Weaving together themes of hope, grief, mental health, and faith into a beautiful and moving novel, Under the Magnolias features: