Lin Stepp

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After twelve Smoky Mountain novels, a new stand-alone series, The Mountain Home Books, began in 2020 with Happy Valley, followed by Downsizing in 2021, Eight at the Lake in 2022, Seeking Ayita in 2023, and Shop on the Corner in 2024. The latest Mountain Home title, publishing on April 1st, 2025, is titled The Red Mill Bookstore and set on the quiet side of the Smoky Mountains in the Townsend and Walland area. I think you will enjoy meeting Ella Quinn and Jesse Helton, their friends and family, in this book… and perhaps running into a few past characters from other Townsend novels I’ve written. As always you’ll find this new story entertaining and full of interesting places, hikes in the mountains, festivals, and a host of surprises and adventures to keep you entertained until the end.

New for 2025…

A New Mountain Home Book, The Red Mill Bookstore:

Life is hard when too many of your plans and dreams crash to the ground at the same time, but often, with time, new beginnings and new opportunities come that bring fresh and unexpected joy and even surprising resolutions and answers to old sorrows.

As Ella Quinn stood at the door of the Chestnut Street Bookstore in Boston looking at the tearful faces of the children, disappointed there would be no Saturday morning Story Time today with the bookstore closing, she choked up with tears herself. How could this be happening? The owner Adelynn Lake, like a mother to her, had died unexpectedly and the store Ella hoped might be hers one day was closing, nearly bankrupt, and all of it a shock and surprise to her. It didn’t take much persuasion from her father for her to agree to head to the Smoky Mountains to Townsend to stay with her grandmother who’d broken her arm. Perhaps while there, Ella could figure out what to do with her life now that all her dreams lay shattered and broken.

Jesse Helton had graciously offered to drive from Townsend to the airport to pick up Hershel and Naomi Quinn’s granddaughter. He loved the Quinn family and had worked at the old mill with Hershel since a boy. He was glad, too, that their granddaughter, Ella, could come to be a help to them with Naomi’s arm broken. However, he hardly recognized Ella when she got off the plane, so different from the freckle-faced girl he remembered from childhood. His interest, that sparked up right away, he squelched down quickly. Hadn’t he had enough disillusion with women already and enough family sorrows to last a lifetime? He would work hard to keep his distance while Ella visited. Besides, she wouldn’t be here in the mountains for long.

Also new for 2025 …

A New Lighthouse Sisters Beach Book!

The first book in the new Lighthouse Sisters series, Light the Way, published in 2022, introducing readers to the. beautiful Deveaux Inn and Lighthouse on Watch Island at Edisto, South Carolina. The first novel published was Burke Deveaux’s story, the oldest of the four Lighthouse Sisters … and the next three introduced the other three Deveaux sisters, Gwen in Lighten My Heart, Celeste in Light in the Dark, and Lila in the final book in the series The Light Continues. I hope you will enjoy all the colorful Lowcountry characters who were a part of these novels.

A note from the author: “Because readers loved my Edisto Trilogy set on Edisto Island on the South Carolina coast – and begged for more books like these – I listened with a smile when the idea for another beach series slipped into my mind and heart.”

The fourth Lighthouse Sisters book The Light Continues:

The past and its hurts can be squelched down and hidden carefully away, but life has a way of bringing them back to the surface at the right time so healing and newness can come.

Lila Deveaux, the youngest of the Deveaux sisters, who grew up at the old lighthouse inn on the north end of Edisto Island, always walked to a different drummer. A creative soul, living close to God even as a child, she’d stepped away from the world for a time to become an Episcopal sister. However, when the life oddly didn’t seem to fit anymore, she returned home to the island to help at the family’s inn and lighthouse gift shop and to paint. In the last year she’d seen new, opportunities and directions occur for her sisters, and for herself with her art, but when Edward Calhoun comes back her quiet life and peaceful composure become abruptly challenged.

Edward Calhoun postponed returning home to Indigo Plantation after his father’s death, not wanting to face all the memories and pains there. As his father’s only son and heir, it fell to him, like it or not, to decide on the future of his old home and whether he would stay or leave again. Running into Lila Deveaux, his close childhood friend, fanned old feelings long tucked away. Hadn’t she joined that Community of St. Mary and become a sister? What was she doing back at Edisto and why? Ties between them had been broken, like so many other ties, but the spell and beauty of Edisto and its people soon began to work on Edward’s hardened heart.

Discover a new guide book, Traveling Georgia State Parks:

This diverse, colorful Georgia state parks guidebook takes readers traveling the entire state from coastline to mountains, providing informational and engaging descriptions of all the state’s sixty-six parks and historic sites. Additionally including over seven hundred color photos in illustration, this is the ideal travel guide for outdoor enthusiasts, campers, hikers, history buffs, anglers, and all who are eager to explore the beauty and diversity of Georgia.

Bestselling authors and native Tennesseans, J.L. and Lin Stepp, love exploring the beauty of the Southeast region near their home. After publishing four successful guide books, The Afternoon Hiker, spotlighting hiking trails in the Smoky Mountains, and three state parks guidebooks, Discovering Tennessee State Parks, Exploring South Carolina State Parks, and Visiting North Carolina State Parks, the Stepps headed next to Georgia, visiting all sixty-six state parks and historic sites. In a format similar to their previous guides, this guidebook introduces travelers to the diverse and beautiful parks of Georgia to enjoy. Clear directions to parks are provided, along with details about amenities, practical tips, local history, suggestions for interesting and fun things to do and see and a rich array of color photos. The Stepps have compiled a remarkable portrait of the amazing diversity of Georgia state parks, each one unique and fascinating in its own way. The book is organized into six regional sections so readers can easily locate and read about parks in the specific area they wish to visit. Indexes list the parks by state region and also alphabetically by name. Through the detailed and personal accounts described, the book offers a joyous celebration of a fun, colorful state.

Look for these and other books by Lin and J.L. Stepp online or in bookstores near you!