Present Day: Keaton Smith is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort, North Carolina, on the market--the home that Keaton didn't know existed until now--she jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps foot inside the abandoned house, she's confronted with secrets about grandparents who died before she was born. And as she gets to know her charming next-door neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of endearingly feisty town busybodies, she soon finds she has more questions than answers.

1976: Rebecca "Becks" Saint James has made a name for herself as the best hostess North Carolina has ever seen. Her annual summer suppers have become the stuff of legend, and locals and out-of-towners alike clamor for an invitation to her stunning historic home. But she's struggling behind the façade. Becks strives to make the lives of those around her as easy as possible, but this summer she is facing a dilemma that even she can't solve. And as the end of the season looms, she is brought to a decision she never wanted to make.

As both Keaton and Becks face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the secrets, hopes, and dreams of the women in their family for generations. For fans of Summer of '69 and The Notebook, "A Happier Life is that wistful, sparkling summer song whose notes will long linger in readers' memories" (Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author).