Sarah Branson’s tender paranormal romance explores love, memory, sacrifice, and grief by examining what survives life and death.

Clara Donovan is grieving her divorce and failed book when she moves into her late grandmother’s house in Ridgefield, Connecticut. In the cemetery where she once played as a child, Clara meets Benjamin “Whit” Whitlock, the ghost of a man who died in the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777 during the Revolutionary War.

Whit shares the cemetery with Eliza Hartwell, who died in 1851. Through Whit, the grieving Eliza asks to share her story with Clara. Before long, Whit and Clara are in love, and Clara has the manuscript for a book her agent believes will be a huge success. As Clara’s writing opens a future she thought closed to her, both she and Whit wonder how their love can survive when one of them is moving forward and one is standing still.

Set in 2024 and 2025 amid the U.S. election and the increasing aggression of crackdowns on immigration, Clara’s storyline provides pointed commentary on debates about how borders are drawn, who belongs where, and what people will do to protect their home. Eliza’s story offers a parallel as she reveals how her wealthy father parted her from her beloved, a young Irish immigrant. Whit, too, conducts his own testing of boundaries as he learns more about the spirit world he inhabits and the fear that has constrained him for centuries.

Working in their own way to restore what was lost to Eliza, Clara and Whit each come to terms with their own losses while healing through their steady, nurturing connection. Branson’s superb prose and gentle tone hold readers gently while she probes heartbreak and loss. Although the twist at the end surprises, the resolution completes the theme of sacrifice and love that transcends time.

This rich and engrossing novel will appeal to readers of sweet romance, women’s fiction, and historical fiction alike.