"Bestselling romance author Jacob Churcher hasn't been home for almost twenty years--not since his mentally ill mother kicked him out of the house when he was just sixteen. When a lawyer calls a few weeks before Christmas to inform him that his estranged mother has passed away and left her house to him, Jacob returns not just to settle the estate but to try to reconcile with the past and the pain and abuse he experienced as a child. Also, maybe cleaning out her house will be slightly less depressing than spending the holidays alone, watching reruns of Christmas classics. But as it turns out, the house holds more than just difficult memories. Jacob's mother had become a hoarder, and he must excavate through two decades' worth of clutter. As Jacob digs through the detritus like an archaeologist, he uncovers many puzzling items, including a diary left by someone named Noel, a young woman of whom he has no recollection who stayed with Jacob's family during her pregnancy. And that's not the only echo from the past. Jacob has an unexpected visitor: Rachel, a woman looking for the mother who put her up for adoption thirty years before"--Dust jacket flap.