“Always remember, dear: some painful memories are good memories in disguise.”

FINDING CONTROL

Hanna Riley hates her past.

She was a young girl when tragedy struck. The event prompted ferocious panic attacks that limited her ability to cope with dark memories that brimmed beneath the surface. Tragedy struck again when she attended college. It seemed that no matter how Hanna cultivated her life, the result was always the same. Crippling anxiety over carefree fun. Isolation over community. Heartache over love.

She’d lost control of her life.

The only way to remedy this was to do something outside of her comfort zone. She moved.

Now an elementary teacher in the small southern town of Benbrook, she has decided that this job will be the first step in regaining control of her life. But memories have a way of not letting go. When Hanna meets Arthur Cash, the widowed father of one of her students, she learns that she isn’t the only one with a haunted past.

Hanna moved away from everything she knew to start over fresh but when romantic feelings become too powerful to ignore she is faced with a question: can two broken people heal together before dark memories tear them apart?

Are small towns reflections of their people or are people reflections of their small town? Here, in Benbrook, it’s a little of both. Families from all walks of life are here, some have been here for generations, others are merely passing through, but there is something about the quaint southern town that draws in people with inspiring and heartfelt stories. You never know what to expect when you hear a tale from Benbrook, but one thing is certain. You’ll never forget it.

Trigger warnings: traumatic event- car crash involving the loss of parents, abusive ex boyfriend, murder of a spouse, misogyny, anxiety/panic attacks, sexual content, language