From the bestselling author of We Were Strangers Once, a quirky, charming, and darkly comic historical novel set in the 1950s about three generations of women whose lives are changed when a mysterious stranger comes to town -- for fans of Fannie Flagg and Edward Kelsey Moore.
As a young woman, Geraldine Wingo was a fiery beauty, turning heads in her small upstate New York town where she and her husband, Earle, run a popular bakery. All that changed, however, once she became pregnant with Emilia Mae, a difficult baby Geraldine is convinced is marked by the devil's tongue. Emilia Mae spends her life seeking and losing love in all the wrong places, so she never expects it to come sailing into town one day on a breeze when she's a thirty-three-year-old single mother. But Dillard Fox is no ordinary stranger -- Emilia Mae and her daughter, Alice, are immediately drawn to his quiet friendliness, the brown tweed cap he never removes, his slow North Carolina drawl, and his talent for music. There's no question he's hiding a mysterious past, but will that stop them from building a new family together?
Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn is a love story about creating a family where there was none, and about the enduring power of the human spirit. It is about impossible love and building a self when you start out empty. With all the charm and brightness and wisdom that Carter is known for, Lost Souls at the Neptune Inn is an unforgettable, magical new book from a beloved author.

When an elusive stranger arrives in 1960s New Rochelle, three generations of women are forever changed.
When the heart finds its home, anything is possible.
Geraldine, Emilia Mae, and Alice Wingo couldn't be more different from each other. Geraldine is a fiery beauty, turning heads while running the local bakery with her devoted husband, Earle-but she never quite takes to motherhood. Her daughter, Emilia Mae, spends her life chasing her mother's affection and goes looking for love in all the wrong places. So when she gives birth to her own daughter, Alice-the girl with the quick laugh and music running through her veins-she vows to do things differently.
Then, Dillard Fox, a handsome stranger with a Southern drawl sails into town, bringing with him a gentle warmth that draws in all three of the Wingo women. Emilia Mae, never thinking she'd find true love, builds the kind of happy life with Dillard that neither of them ever expected. Geraldine slowly learns to be kinder to