St. Simons Trilogy Books in Order

The St. Simons Trilogy grew out of Eugenia Price's first visit to the Georgia coast and her fascination with the grave of young minister Anson Dodge. In Lighthouse, New Moon Rising, and The Beloved Invader she turns that fascination into a three generation story of island life, spanning from the early republic through the aftermath of the Civil War.

Lighthouse begins in post Revolutionary New England, where James Gould dreams of heading south to build bridges and lighthouses of his own design. His work eventually brings him to St. Simons Island, then on to the rough edges of Spanish East Florida and back again. Along the way he meets Janie Harris, whose steady, practical love anchors his restless ambition and helps turn a distant dream into a home and family.

In New Moon Rising the focus shifts to James's son Horace, who reaches adulthood in the unsettled years before the Civil War. Returning to St. Simons, he chafes at prejudice and small mindedness among neighbors he has known all his life. His marriage to Deborah Abbott, a younger woman whose faith runs deeper than his own, forces him to face questions about belief, integrity, and what kind of legacy he wants to leave.

The Beloved Invader moves the story into the late nineteenth century, just after the war. Anson Dodge, a wealthy young northerner turned Anglican priest, arrives on the island carrying both grief and hope. His love for two very different women, Ellen and Anna, and his determination to rebuild Christ Church in memory of lost love, give the novel both its romance and its spiritual center.

Across the trilogy Price blends well researched Georgia history with the kind of character driven storytelling she first honed in radio and devotional writing. Real names from local cemeteries and ledgers sit side by side with invented neighbors, and the island itself feels as present as any person on the page.

Readers who enjoy slow unfolding family sagas, rich with place and touched by questions of faith, will find St. Simons a world worth visiting. The books can be read on their own, but taken together they trace how one small community weathered war, loss, and change over nearly a century.