Love's Inheritance — Jean Woodward

Sensible, predictable Laura Hunter couldn't believe she had suddenly quit her job at her father's hardware store, broken her engagement to the president of the local bank, and quickly packed her things. In all of her twenty-two years, and had never acted so impulsively.

Yet here she was, leaving the small town of Hunter's Corner and heading for Seattle, determined to change her life, to find excitement and meaning in the world. If she had stayed in Hunter's Corner, she would have been stifled forever. Still, is she had known what lay before her--the thrill of falling in love with Thomas MacKinley, the great pain he would bring her--would Laura ever have left home?