Summer in a Bottle: An uplifting, second chance romance

Lyla Dune returns to her North Carolina hometown hoping for a fresh start, but instead finds history repeating itself—quite literally.

Recently dumped and with her career as an opinion columnist floundering, thirty-year-old Lyla retreats to Echo Cove to oversee the sale of her childhood home. But when she digs up a high school time capsule and finds her forgotten diary, the summer before college begins to eerily replay. The same flat tire on a country road. The same movie at the local theater. The same leaky roof in her parents' house. And the same boy-next-door, Travis, her childhood best friend, she’s always secretly loved.

As a dangerous hurricane looms again, Lyla must confront the fears that cost her Travis a decade ago—and the dream of becoming a fiction writer she abandoned. If history truly is repeating itself, this time, Lyla might just have the chance to rewrite her own ending.

Perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Rebecca Serle, and heartfelt, lightly speculative small-town romance.

"Rains expertly tugs at the heartstrings as these two pick up where they left off, giving Lyla the strength and happiness to overcome her heartbreak and career burnout." — Publishers Weekly

USA Today bestselling author Annie Rains writes hopeful, heart-filled contemporary fiction inspired by her small North Carolina town and family life.