The Book of Peach — Penelope J. Stokes

From the author of Heartbreak Cafe comes a heartwarming, hilarious new novel that takes us back to Chulahatchie, Mississippi, where a former beauty queen discovers that sometimes you do have to go home to find out who you really are...

Twenty-three years ago, beauty queen Peach Rondell sauntered out of her mama's antebellum home, shook the Mississippi dust off her pretty pumps, and vowed to never return. Now, God help her, she's back, divorced and heartbroken, trying to figure out how her life went so terribly wrong.

Peach blames her psychiatrist, who thought it would be a good idea for her to revisit the past. Now, to escape her mama's scrutinizing gaze, she spends her days in a little storefront diner called the Heartbreak Cafe, where, in the back booth, she scribbles away in her journal, waiting for enlightenment. Instead, Peach gets something even better: the unexpected friendship of an unlikely group of folks -- people who have their own secrets to hide and their own gifts to share, and who show Peach that finding out where you're going usually means embracing where you're from...