“Schitt's Creek” Meets “Hart of Dixie”: Read an Excerpt of“Sing Me Home to Carolina” (Exclusive)

Author Joy Callaway's first foray into contemporary romance takes readers back home

Joy Callaway is stepping out of her historical drama niche with her debut contemporary romance novel, Sing Me Home to Carolina — and PEOPLE has the first look at its cover, plus an exclusive sneak peek inside!

The Charlotte-based author, who is known for historical dramas like The Grand Design: A Novel of Dorothy Draper, bills her first foray into the contemporary romance genre as Schitt’s Creek meets Hart of Dixie.

The novel follows event planner Hattie Norwood, who returns to her small hometown of Mountain View, S.C. after learning that her family’s farm is in danger of going under.

“But then the town councilwoman begs Hattie to use her event planning prowess to help Mountain View put on a musical benefit to stop the construction of the new Carolina Panthers stadium — a project Hattie is actually in favor of, much to the dismay of the locals,” an official synopsis reads.

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Just one week later, Hattie “finds herself agreeing to stay until the town’s Founder’s Day just as her old flame, former MLB standout Leland 'Lee' Lockhardt, materializes in town after a career-ending injury.”

“When the hunky and mysterious new owner of Fox’s Hardware, Fox Ryan, suggests the Founder’s Day celebration be moved to the Norwoods’ barn in an attempt to reinvent the failing farm as a music and event venue, Hattie agrees, unaware this move will thrust the town, her love life and the brewing tension over the stadium into a very public spotlight,” per the synopsis.

If you are a fan of love triangles, Sweet Magnolias and “quirky casts of characters,” mark your calendar for the June 10, 2025 release of Callaway’s Sing Me Home to Carolina.

While you wait, read an exclusive excerpt below.

The hardware store was at the very end of town. Light poured from the expansive glass windows in alternating shades of yellows, pinks and greens indicating Sterling was now flailing in circles at the back of the store, his limbs barely avoiding jars of local honey and bins of nails.

I turned the corner to pull in a parking spot and my body froze. My ex-boyfriend Leland Lockhardt’s palomino quarter horse, Slugger, stood hitched to a railing bordering the sidewalk. Surely Lee wasn’t home. He was starting shortstop for the Atlanta Braves, and they were in San Diego playing the Padres this week. Maybe his dad or brother had taken to riding his horse to town as a sort of tribute to Lee when he left. Daddy and Mama hadn’t said he was back home either — but then again, they’d barely mentioned his name since our breakup.

I pulled into a parking spot between Slugger and Fox’s electric Ford F-150 that the whole town was buzzing about and got out of the car. The progression from horse to 1950s truck to 2024 electric truck appeared like a sort of transportation museum display.

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I eyed Slugger one more time, patted his neck, and then squinted toward the store’s windows, trying to figure if I needed to steel myself for the first in-person sighting of Lee in 11 years. The last time I’d seen him, we were in Mr. Robinson’s truck, making out the night before I left for college, when he’d stopped kissing me to say that we should take a break instead of staying together long-distance, that Wake Forest and South Carolina were too far apart. I’d unraveled in that moment, saying I regretted our four years together and hated him. Hours later, he was hooking up with my friend Willow.

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Although we’d followed each other on Instagram for a few years — until he’d deleted his account to focus more on the game — and I was mostly over what happened, the truth was that I wasn’t entirely. I knew it was childish to be hung up on a high school breakup, but my heart didn’t care. If I was honest, I’d never loved anyone else and that was probably the problem.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t moved on. I’d dated Austin, a Sigma Nu I’d met sophomore year of college at a frat party, for almost two years but had never been able to tell him I loved him back. Then, after college, I’d casually dated a few guys my friends called “The Jocks” — former running back turned nurse Kenny, and former point guard turned investor Harris. Although they were both fun, they weren’t relationship material. Then there was Hunter, a sweet attorney I met at a networking event and stayed with for almost a year before realizing, when he told me he loved me, that our relationship was Austin all over again.

Something crashed inside the store. I could hear the distant sound of glass shattering and then a collective groan. Fox would be in a mood. Despite having only met him a handful of times since he took over after the old Fox’s passing a few years back, it seemed he was always in a mood. Then again, he hadn’t initiated the whole your-store-turns-into-a-bar-on-Fridays thing and I guess it was probably annoying to have to babysit the town on your off hours.

I walked down the sidewalk toward the entrance. I caught my reflection in the swirly original glass windows and balked. I’d forgotten the state I was in — hair upswept for earlier farmwork, just-cried under-eye bags accentuating my makeup-free face. I was wearing cutoff jeans — not the sort from a trendy boutique, but actual jeans I’d cut the legs off earlier that day — and a 20-year-old T-shirt from my fifth-grade softball season.

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Sing Me Home to Carolina will be published June 10, 2025, and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

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