"The Southern Side of Paradise"

Kristy Woodson Harvey is a born-and-bred North Carolina girl who loves all four seasons—especially fall in Chapel Hill, where she attended college, and summer in Beaufort, where she and her family spend every free moment. The author of The Secret of Southern Charm, Slightly South of Simple, Dear Carolina, and Lies and Other Acts of Love, Harvey is also the founder of the popular interior design blog Design Chic.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Southern Side of Paradise, and reported the following:

From page 69:

I shook my head, incredulous. “Do you see this?” I asked, holding up my left hand. “This means that you have to learn to compromise a little. This means that sometimes you do what I want to do.”

“Moving to LA is not ‘sometimes doing what you want to do.’ “ Mark said, making air quotes.

The Page 69 test prevails again! Because this argument that Emerson, the youngest of the Murphy sisters and the protagonist of The Southern Side of Paradise, is having with her fiancé Mark is the crux of the problem in their relationship. While they love each other, Mark isn’t willing to give up his company in Peachtree Bluff, Georgia, where the Peachtree Bluff Series is set, and Emerson isn’t willing to give up her career as an actress in LA. It’s a hurdle that they can overcome, one that has a number of solutions, but it is the main issue facing the couple, the one that makes Emerson question whether they are right together. Throughout this novel, Emerson is making some hard decisions about her relationship and her career—and will have to decide what she is willing to give up to create the life she has always dreamed of.

Meanwhile, the Murphy women are facing their biggest challenge yet, the unraveling of a secret that Emerson’s mother Ansley has kept for decades, one she never thought would come to light. When it does, Ansley finds herself in jeopardy of losing the thing she thought was unshakable, the thing that means the very most to her: her connection with her girls.

Even still, if the town of Peachtree Bluff and the Murphy women know how to do anything, it’s come together when it matters most. And The Southern Side of Paradise puts that fact to the test.

Visit Kristy Woodson Harvey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue