Happy fall, everyone! Today is my son’s birthday, so we are doing a lot of celebrating this week! He has been nothing but joy and light every single day, and we are so grateful for him! I can’t believe how fast time flies. But I can believe that my beloved Beaufort, one of my favorite book settings, has spent a ton of time in the news lately!

Beaufort in the News!

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Beaufort, NC has been voted one of the “Most Romantic Small Towns in the U.S.” If you want to read my ultimate Beaufort book, check out A Happier Life, my dual timeline love story that spans generations. This one is basically my love letter to Beaufort!

Want to visit one of the best Christmas towns in the U.S. virtually? Check out Christmas in Peachtree Bluff! It begins right before Thanksgiving, and every tradition in the book—with the exception of the Starlite, Star Bright Festival—is a real Beaufort holiday tradition. It was so much fun to write!

All the Fall Things!

Have you read BEACH HOUSE RULES? If you have, and you missed the fun Substack Live I did on Monday, you can check out the replay here! This one is chock full of spoilers, a spoiler fest. So if you haven’t read the book, you might want to skip it!

I mentioned several books I was enjoying, so I thought I’d give you the rundown here. We chatted about: The Mad Wife by Meagan Church, The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and her daughter Shelby Cunningham, Twice by Mitch Albom, Queen Esther by John Irving, The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake by Rachel Linden, Remain by Nicholas Sparks, and Dog Person by Camille Pagan is coming this spring and Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel is coming this summer!

Special Feature on F&F this week:

We’re doing a fun new segment on Friends & Fiction each week about our founders!. This week is a spotlight on Peachtree Bluff! From the F&F crew:

Welcome to a new weekly feature here on F&F in which we will put the spotlight on one of our fearless leaders, founders, and hosts of this whole operation.
This week we are shining a light on Kristy’s NYT-bestselling Peach Tree Bluff series about three grown daughters who head back to the tiny coastal town where they were raised where a long-held family secret threatens to upend the very fabric of their family. With a quirky cast of characters, this one is like Gilmore Girls with a little more drama and a whole lot of Southern accent. Book 1, Slightly South of Simple, is Kristy’s bestselling book ever, and fans can’t seem to get enough of Peachtree Bluff. Could that be why she has a new fall addition to this series coming in 2026? We can neither confirm nor deny…So, stay tuned! (But, #protip: If you haven’t read the series yet, now would be a good time to start!)

This Week on Friends & Fiction:

Join us Wednesday, October 1st at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel as Kristy Woodson Harvey & Mary Kay Andrews welcome bestselling author Meagan Church to discuss The Mad Wife, an exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations which will leave you questioning the lives we build—and the lies we live.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next week!