Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Althea hears her mother's words echoing in her life, "Wait for her. For the honeysuckle girl. She’ll find you, I think, but if she doesn’t, you find her." For twenty-five years Althea has been hearing those words, wondering what they mean and dreading her 30th birthday, coming up in a couple of weeks. She doesn't dread getting older, she dreads 30. All the women in her family have a history of disappearing on their 30th birthday. Althea would like to break that cycle but first she has to find out why they disappeared and how to stop it. Problem is, the men in her family aren't keen on her finding out the family secrets - they would rather lock her up in the local mental institution and keep their reputations intact. Althea decides to not follow their plan and instead pave a new path for herself and future women in her family.
Carpenter weaves a story of old southern misogyny, mental illness, and the strength required to fight for a new life. This story was disturbing to me - it was the asshole men that kept the women in the story oppressed. They made me angry and it made me angry that the women in the story kept picking such creeps. I read the story and I kept reading it because I wanted to find out the truth Althea was searching for but I'm not sure I was very connected to the story. I was glad to find out the beginning, middle, and end of the women in Althea's family but it was also an easy book to finish and put down. This tells me I wasn't totally bought in to the characters and the storyline itself. I really can't even say what seemed to be the missing ingredient in order for me to buy in 100% but being able to walk away from it so easily tells me there was something missing. It was well written and I would give other titles Carpenter's pens a chance.