Thirty-one-year-old author Nicka Jack Banks is better at writing romance than finding romance; she prefers penning stories about her family to participating in family, until she is pulled from the page and pushed into both.

No longer content with writing formulaic romance novels, Nicka produces a manuscript that’s anything but safe, predictable, or romantic—it’s based loosely on her family. Armed with her manuscript, she returns to her childhood home in Tennessee to prepare her family for the release of her upcoming book. Her father offers to give the novel his blessing—but only if it is written according to the truth, not just her truth. When her father begins to share stories about her deceased mother, buried truths within the family surface and dramatically edit the story Nicka has written.

Her return home also leads to a discovery that her father and three older brothers are building a fish camp on their lakeside property, a venture that introduces her to Parker, the project’s contractor who skillfully constructs for himself a place in Nicka’s heart.

Waters Gone By begins a women’s fiction series that powerfully explores family dynamics and the perils and pleasures of love.

Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 1 members.