Evocative of Catherine Cookson's fictional families, Garlock's Jones family is close-knit, loving, and hardworking. While Julie has looked after her five younger siblings since she dropped out of high school to nurse their mother through the last year of her life, Fertile, Missouri, has grown big enough as the 1920s roar to life to need a police presence. The town leaders hire Corbin Appleby, who has a hidden agenda. Evan Johnson, a decorated veteran of the Great War and son of the town's drunken bully, also comes to town, as does the scheming widow Birdie Stuart and her spoiled young daughter. As Julie begins to date Evan, Birdie creates big problems that could tear the family apart and send Evan to prison. And that's not all: a serial rapist is on the loose. With settings and characters so authentic the reader believes they have a past and a future, Garlock's heartwarming romantic historicals are Americana at its best.