Willows: A Novel

Sam never truly appreciated the perfect life she’d created for herself until it began to crumble. She knew that before she could find the strength to move forward, she had to move backward—back to Willows, the only home she’d ever known, a home that held sweet memories of her grandparents’ love and her childhood antics with cousins Fran, Sierra, and Cleo.

The thought of their all meeting at Willows filled Sam with joy. When she phoned them, she couldn’t know she was interrupting a tragic moment in each of their lives. How could she imagine talking with one cousin as a corpse was being removed from her house, or while another contemplated where in the world she could find a place to hide. Struggle, loss, and betrayal plagued all three young women as they tried to make sense of their lives, and like Sam, they too needed this gathering.

Sam soon realizes that her relationships with her cousins are far more complicated than she’d grasped when she was younger. Would they all finally understand the balancing act their grandparents had performed to protect them, right or wrong? Was it time to learn the answers to all the questions the girls hadn’t even known to ask? Were they ready for the truth?

Michele Katic was born in the Ozarks of Missouri, where the sound of crickets and bullfrogs fill the dark, and chasing lightning bugs is a nightly affair. Splitting her time between Sacramento and Fort Bragg, California, Michele lives with her husband, John, their feisty dog, Roxie, and a socially awkward cat named Mia. Willows is her first novel.