Picture Perfect Autumn: A Novel

by Shelley Noble

Overview

A Manhattan photographer finds inspiration and new possibilities in a Gothic Rhode Island beach house in this uplifting fall-set read from New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble. 

Dani Campbell is the latest darling of the Manhattan art scene. As a self-taught photographer, Dani is loving every minute of her sudden popularity, but has no idea how she got there, or a clue as to how to stay. On a shoot at an antiques barn, she discovers an envelope of old photos and sees in them what her photos are missing. Her search for their source leads Dani to a small Rhode Island town, a dilapidated American Gothic beach house—and Lawrence Sinclair.

Reclusive and bitter, the last thing eighty-year-old Lawrence wants to think about is photography—the thing that inadvertently led to his son’s death and tore his family apart. But Dani is determined and persuasive, and Lawrence can’t help but be intrigued by the girl with spiky hair who wants to learn from him, when almost everyone else just wants to relieve him of his substantial fortune.

Dani and Lawrence’s mentorship blossoms unexpectedly, but everything is put in jeopardy by the appearance of Lawrence’s estranged grandson, Peter. Peter is determined to spend some time reconnecting with his grandfather and to get rid of the supposed fortune hunter after Lawrence’s money. But Dani is not what he was expecting, and he soon discovers that they have more things in common than not.

Brought together by fortune, fate, and the ties that bind, all three embark on journeys of discovery and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063141636
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	5,559
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Shelley Noble is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Whisper Beach, Beach Colors, and The Tiffany Girls, the story of the largely unknown women artists responsible for much of Tiffany’s legendary glasswork, as well as several historical mysteries. A former professor, professional dancer and choreographer, she now lives in New Jersey halfway between the shore, where she loves visiting lighthouses and vintage carousels, and New York City, where she delights in the architecture, the theatre, and ferreting out the old stories behind the new. Shelley is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Historical Novel Society.

Editorial Reviews

07/17/2023

An up-and-coming Manhattan photographer finds inspiration from an aging recluse in this cozy contemporary from Noble (The Tiffany Girls). When 28-year-old Dani Campbell, a rising star of the art world, discovers some profoundly moving photographs at an antique barn, she becomes determined to track down the man who took them, hoping he’ll teach her how to capture the spark she feels is missing from her own work. Her search leads her to Lawrence Sinclair, who blames the dissolution of his family on his long-since abandoned art career and now lives alone in a ramshackle Rhode Island mansion. Dani becomes a temporary boarder in Lawrence’s crumbling home, cleaning and cooking in exchange for his reluctant tutelage. Improving her photography skills isn’t the only advantage to this setup: it also introduces her to Lawrence’s estranged grandson, Peter, a lawyer for the family business whose arrival at Lawrence’s house is complicated by past tensions and Peter’s unhappiness with the career path his mother has picked for him. Dani faces her own career choices, conflicted in her desire to succeed in the New York art world and the sense of belonging she’s found in small-town life. All three protagonists feel emotionally authentic and their search for happiness despite past mistakes rings true. The result is utterly heartwarming. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

This heartwarming novel about love, friendship, and family will have Noble’s readers looking for more. Share this with fans of Hannah McKinnon and Nancy Thayer.” — Booklist

“Noble tells the tumultuous story of a daughter caught in the middle of pain and family strife. Readers will appreciate the uplifting end to a complicated, heartrending story of love lost and anger relinquished at last.” — Publishers Weekly on Beach Wish

“Shelley Noble has penned a big, engaging family saga, filled with a memorable ensemble cast, spanning four generations. Noble’s expert storytelling, combined with her beautiful writing makes this a novel that keeps you turning pages.” — Renee Rosen, author of Windy City Blues, on Lighthouse Beach

“A heartfelt and witty celebration of friendship and love, Shelley Noble takes readers on an unforgettable journey as she provides the ultimate beach escape. Lighthouse Beach is the perfect read for summer!” — Chanel Cleeton, author of Next Year in Havana

“Shelley Noble effortlessly balances drama and intrigue in a story that ultimately reveals the love and sacrifice extant in even the most dysfunctional families.”  — Jamie Beck, author of Worth the Wait, on The Beach at Painter's Cove

From the Publisher

2023-08-10
An up-and-coming New York photographer seeks out a mentor who had his heyday decades before.

Twenty-eight-year-old Dani Campbell has it made as a photographer. With an agent who finds her ever-more-lucrative projects to work on, she's raking in the money, but she feels that something is missing from her art. When, in an antiques shop, she stumbles across an envelope of forgotten photos taken by a man named Lawrence Sinclair, she realizes that he has exactly what she's missing, even if she doesn't know what it is. And as the daughter of a couple who run a bar in Brooklyn, she doesn't take her position—or income—for granted. She decides to seek Lawrence out to help her discover what's missing in her art. When she tracks him down in Old Murphy Beach, Rhode Island, she finds a grumpy, bitter old man living in a ramshackle, dilapidated monster of a house. She convinces him to take her money for room and board—$800 dollars a week is what they settle on—and to mentor her. While she thinks he's poor, what she doesn’t know is that he's let everything fall down around him because of his bitterness at losing everything that mattered to him—his wife, Krista; his son, Elliott; and his grandson, Peter. She also doesn’t know that he's an extremely wealthy man from an extremely wealthy family. As the days pass and he helps her rediscover her eye, a number of events transpire: The nuns next door are losing their convent and must find a new location to run their arts school; Peter reappears after a long estrangement, struggling with his place in the family empire, and Dani becomes enmeshed in helping everyone as she seeks to rediscover her art. The book is well written, though some of the characterizations are a bit clichéd—the nuns are beatific, for instance, while Lawrence, though cantankerous, finds joy in helping the community rather than in his wealth.

An uplifting story that offers clear signposts about how it will unfold, bringing comfort and closure to the reader.

Kirkus Reviews