Michelle Huneven Books in Order

In a small California town, a recovering alcoholic lawyer runs a rehabilitation home while neighbors seek new directions of their own. Their tangled relationships reveal how addiction, disappointment and the community’s history complicate efforts to find stability and love.

An unsettled woman, a man recovering from psychiatric crisis and a minister facing a hostile congregation meet through midweek services in Los Feliz. Their unlikely friendship becomes a source of renewal as each struggles with faith and personal disappointment.

After an alcoholic blackout, historian Patsy MacLemoore learns that two people died beneath her car. Prison and recovery shape her efforts at lifelong atonement, until information emerging decades later forces her to reconsider the foundations of that rebuilt life.

Economics student Cressida retreats to her parents’ Sierra cabin to finish her dissertation, but becomes absorbed in the mountain community. Attraction to a married carpenter leads her into a consuming relationship that threatens her work and sense of independence.

Food writer Dana joins her congregation’s search for a new minister, secretly planning a book about the experience. Committee disagreements and competing visions for the church draw her into a struggle whose outcome matters far more than she anticipated.

The death of Ellis Samuelson at a California commune changes his family’s course for decades. When his pregnant girlfriend arrives, grief becomes intertwined with new responsibilities, as his parents and sisters seek different ways to endure and rebuild.