Sterling Road Blues — Ruth Perkinson

Carrie Tomlinson's life is short on rewards and long on challenges. Even she admits that she's probably not coping the best she can, but her still grieving heart over the death of her lover only leaves her so much energy for her special needs students and her own self-control. Audra Malone understands Carrie too well, but that doesn't stop her from hoping that her role as Best Friend will become something more.

Not much changes about life at Sterling Road High School until one of Audra's students, Elizabeth, decides to tell the school she wants to marry another student, Melissa. Suddenly, what ought to be a simple case of love is the center of attention in Charlottesville, then Virginia. Then everybody has an opinion about who gets to love whom.

While Audra struggles to protect her charges, Carrie likewise tries to climb above a seething flood of Biblical proportions, because it looks like they are all in the hot water together.

Ruth Perkinson weaves a romantic, tender story of real women and everyday America. From the author of Piper's Someday and Vera's Still Point.