"Down by the River" by Lin Stepp

A Smoky Mountain Novel- Book 6

Just because she’s middle-aged and widowed doesn’t mean Grace Conley should settle into a retirement village like her kids suggest. Instead, she decides on a new beginning and a second adulthood, buying an old bed and breakfast in the shadow of the Smoky Mountains, against her family’s wishes and even against the annoying advice of the philandering realtor she’s been dealing with, Jack Teague

While on a visit to east Tennessee, to pick up her youngest daughter at college, recently widowed Grace Conley impulsively decides to buy a beautiful old bed and breakfast nestled along the Little River in the quiet mountain town of Townsend, Tennessee. Her new plan to sell and leave her family home in Nashville and to renovate and reopen an old Victorian inn in the Smokies, simply shocks and scandalizes her family. She’d always been a homemaker, readily available to her children, hosting all the family gatherings, babysitting all the grandchildren when needed. How could she even consider moving away from them all, and what did she know about running a business? Was she crazy, they asked? After moving to Townsend, Grace starts to wonder if she isn’t a little crazy, when she begins to fall for Jack Teague, the local ladies man of the area. Then as if things are not complicated enough navigating her way around her attraction to Jack and setting up the new bed and breakfast, there is a stalker lurking around the neighborhood, frightening everyone. And to further complicate things, Grace’s difficult daughter, Margaret comes to live with her, and the young minister of the church next door seems to think he’s been given a sign from God that he’s to marry Margaret – who is not a Christian and has no intention of settling down in what she terms a podunk town like Townsend, Tennessee. As you might imagine, a lot of fun is in store in this warm-hearted story – and you will enjoy reading about how all the problems and aspects of Grace’s life work out and exactly what happens to everyone involved at the charming Mimosa Inn down by the river.

Local Interest/ Local Fiction