Book excerpt: 1885 Leaving behind a small, picturesque village, Poppy Townsend closes the doors of her dress shop and takes a riverboat south on the Mississippi to find out why her estranged maternal grandfather, on his deathbed, has summoned her. Finding her grandfather’s home filled with boarders who seem to care for him, Poppy gets to know each one while searching for answers to the scandalous rumor told about her father...and the sudden disappearance and death of her mother from a visit two years before. She falls for the handsome and mysterious Jack Stoneking, a younger friend and employee to her grandfather. Even as her mind has been clouded by the touch of Jack’s hand, she refuses to leave any stone unturned. Upon finding an obscure garden hidden on her grandfather’s vast estate, Poppy uncovers something more shocking than the vicious gossip told about her family. And her discovery shakes everyone’s world.