Finding Franklin by Katie Shands

After a personal tragedy, Charlotte Clark returns to Franklin, Tennessee, the Southern town where her mother abandoned her as a newborn. Haunted by unanswered questions and an unrelenting desire for roots, Charlotte purchases a dilapidated Victorian near the historic downtown and sets out to solve the mystery of her birth.

Colin Hamilton, a skilled craftsman and house-flipper, sets his sights on Charlotte after she moves in down the street from the Craftsman bungalow he is restoring. Though Charlotte is a bit standoffish, he offers to help with some handyman projects at her house, and the pair forges an unlikely bond.

As they work together, they uncover another mystery behind a wall in Charlotte’s home—a diary penned by a woman who disappeared from the small town decades ago. Within the diary’s pages, Charlotte believes she has found answers to the lifelong questions about her own past. The only problem—someone wants those secrets to remain buried and would kill to keep it that way.

When Charlotte is faced with a reality much different than what she had envisioned, she must decide what the past means for her present. Finding Franklin explores the nature of family and demonstrates how God can transform our greatest tragedies into lessons of love and grace.