Alligator Lake

For the past decade, Colorado has been Avery's home--the place where she found refuge as a pregnant teenager, full of anger and shame, and the place where she chose to practice nursing and raise her mixed-race daughter, Celi. Now an invitation to her brother's wedding offers her the chance to return to Greendale and seek the long-delayed reconciliation with her family that she wants for Celi's sake. But will introducing Celi to the independent-minded grandmother whom Avery adores bring solace or heartache? Will confronting her cold, class-conscious mother, whose cruelty almost cost a young man his life, allow for new beginnings or confirm old resentments? And where does Avery begin in asking for the forgiveness of her youthful lover, who has been denied his child all these years? Most of all, Avery arrives seeking the answer to how Celi inherited a genetic disease that occurs only when both mother and father have black ancestors--proving that someone is lying about Avery's own family history.

As the summer progresses, Avery's return releases a Pandora's box of shocking discoveries--of choices made and secrets kept...and of deceptions that lie closer than she ever expected.