Junk Shop Girl — Susanna Ives

Kiki Keller wasn't always a sleek, urban graphic artist.

Teenaged Kittie, as she was known then, was awkward and wildly in love with the town bad-boy, Stephen Tellisford, who destroyed her romantic dreams, her reputation, and her life. Shamed and bullied by her classmates, Kittie fled to art school in Atlanta and tried to put what happened in that small southern town behind her. But her beloved grandfather's death summons her back home and to the antique store, locally known as the "Junk Shop", where she played and dreamed in as a child.

Russell Tellisford wasn't always a smooth, small-town developer.

Growing up, Russell only wanted to escape from his abusive, drug-addicted father and his brother, Stephen, who idolized their father. As a boy, that escape was to the town junk shop, where a young girl named Kittie made fantastical worlds out of cardboard, sequins, and glitter. Later, escape was college and a fast-paced life in Washington, DC. After his father's death and his job in DC collapses, Russell is called back to the family home he despised, a pile of debt, and a brother struggling with addiction. Russell, desperate and angry, transforms his family's crumbling mansion into a resort. Now he's aiming to renovate the town's historic square, which, for decades, had been trashed by the sprawling junk shop.

With Kiki as the store's new owner, he might get some traction on this project - and with her. But the open, trusting little girl he remembered has changed. The closer he tries to get to her, the more walls she erects between them. And he doesn't know why ...