Marcus Sumter is a 22 year old man with no family--not since his diner-waitress of a mother literally left him at a roadside truckstop diner shortly after his 18th birthday. She'd raised him on her own, always on the run from one angry landlord or another, and his father had died before he was even born. Marcus had been living with an older man, Robert, who wanted to keep him as a kept-boy, but Marcus didn't like that, and Robert's anger too the form of a black eye. While staying home out of sight, Marcus receives a certified letter--the fifth one--informing him that his unknown grandmother has passed and he needs to come to Marathon, Georgia to claim her estate. Marcus packed what little he owned and took off. 
 His arrival in Marathon is immediately upset by an accident of car-crushing proportions. But, the good ladies of Marathon, the "Do-Nothings" friends of his late grandmother take him under their wing. They want nothing more than to keep Marcus with them, and even arrange for him to get a job at their beloved Tammy Dinette. And, meet men that favor his, uh, persuasion. It's a heartwarming and adorable set of romantic schemes, actually. Marcus loves being a short-order cook, and only applied for culinary school because Robert wanted to "make something" of him, but being in Marathon, surrounded by loving friends and neighbors teaches Marcus that he's something already, and the slow-burn romance between Marcus and Hank the local mechanic is something pretty special, too. 
 I loved the setting, and quiet cadence of the book, easily felling transported to rural Georgia and loving every second of that. Marcus is a good guy, and he deserves a home. I kind of wished we'd learned what happened to his mother, but that's a small complaint. I really enjoyed how Marcus dealt with Robert, and the big and small eccentricities of life in small town Georgia. The collection of characters was a loving portrait of people I just wanted to know better! Don't expect any sheet-burning sexytimes though. This one's pretty-much fade-to-black, but the center of the story is love, and family, and making your own when you get the chance. Highly recommend.