When Emily's mother dies, she is sent to live with her grandfather, whom she knows nothing about. In fact, Emily's mother never shared anything about her family or life gowing up in Mullaby, North Carolina. But Emily quickly finds that secrets and mysteries abound in the small town where everyone supposedly knows everyone else. On her journey to discovery, she ends up helping several locals, including the son of the town's founders who shares a secret about why his family doesn't come outside at night and a lonely single woman struggling to keep her family buiness going and facing her own past in Mullaby. 
 The author did a nice job of rounding out her characters quickly and neatly without bogging the reader down with the sadder parts of their pasts. There was a sense of hopefulness throughout, which had you rooting for almost all of the characters to come to happy resolutions. 
 The sense of mysteries and secrets in a small town and the style of writing, reminded me a bit of Alice Hoffman books I had read, but less intense and with a less ambiguous outcome. 
 I would definitely read Sarah Addison Allen again.