Plot

A divorced writer goes to a picture-perfect small town to get over her writer's block and ends up falling in love with the town of Mitford, its inhabitants, and its most eligible bachelor, the handsome Episcopal priest who lives next door.

With a case of writer's block, a children's author escapes to small town Mitford for a change of scenery. She soon finds the heart and soul of the southern town in a priest as they work together to care for a young boy who's lost his family. With heartbreak in their pasts, each must find the courage and faith to grab an unexpected chance at true love.—AnonymousB

One year after the dissolution of her marriage, successful Boston-based children's book author and illustrator Cynthia Coppersmith, a big city girl at heart, is still suffering a case of writer's block in part because of the break-up. With a forty-five day deadline by her editor James for the manuscript, the next in the series about her cat Violet who Cynthia has given magical powers, she, with Violet in tow, decides to head to small-town Mitford, where she spent many a childhood summer visiting with her now deceased uncle, in whose closed-up cottage she will stay to gain some inspiration to write. The visit to Mitford is also to prepare the cottage for sale upon her departure back to Boston. She quickly learns that her reputation precedes her as it seems everyone in town knows who she is and about her arrival since her uncle talked endlessly about her, the townsfolk who have taken immediately to her. Able to get over the initial problem encounters they had, Cynthia becomes friends with her next door neighbor, Tim Kavanaugh, who she eventually learns is the town's scooter-driving episcopal minister, and according to many, the town's most eligible bachelor. Slowly, Tim and Cynthia start to fall for each other without each telling the other how they feel due to misunderstandings. Beyond not knowing if she is ready to move on from her last marriage let alone with a minister, Cynthia believes Tim already has a girlfriend in the woman she doesn't know but always sees at his house, this woman who Tim never mentions or introduces. And beyond Cynthia's statement that her time in Mitford is only until she finishes her book, Tim knows that Jack Emery, an Atlanta commercial real estate agent in town temporarily on business, has his own designs on Cynthia, Jack who has openly stated that he sees a future with her wherever that may be, Boston or Atlanta. Factoring into what happens between Tim and Cynthia are a large stray dog which has seemingly adopted Tim as his new owner, and Tim having agreed to sit long term for a ten year old boy named Dooley, who has become withdrawn as his military parents are on their next tour of duty leaving him under the guardianship of his grandfather, Russell Jacks.—Huggo