Available May 1, 2024

Pressed Together

Book One in the Buckeye Lake "Together" Series

World War II is over at last, and the pier amusement park at Buckeye Lake, the “Playground of Ohio,” is lit up, loud, and ready to welcome a summer of better days. The energy of dance hall and roller coaster, though, is disorienting for Sgt. Drew Mathison, weary from battle and trying to track down the one man who can testify in his brother’s murder trial.

He’s not in the mood to celebrate when he simply cannot find that witness. Especially when he suspects Emily Graham, publisher of the Buckeye Lake Beacon, is hiding him. Doesn’t she understand the danger the fugitive has brought to Buckeye Lake?

Determined to save her childhood friend, the beautiful and quirky young woman manages to frustrate not just Drew but her family and community as she tries to fix a whole host of problems by herself.

As Drew and Emily square off amidst secrets and a dangerous game of hide-and-seek, falling in love might be the only way to save the summer … and another life.

Next in the "Together" series ...

Packed Together

Book Two in the "Together" Series

The holiday blizzard of 1946 has an alarming set of wedding guests snowed-in near Towpath Island, so now they’ll have to spend Christmas unraveling long-kept secrets and ambitions for the sake of love.

It’s been a decade since Rosie Graham allowed herself to be talked into the biggest compromise of her life by the wealthy heir to the Fairchild Resorts at Buckeye Lake, but she refuses to call that compromise a mistake because it brought her little Charlie. When a Christmas blizzard drives her sister’s wedding ensemble into the resort for shelter, the secrets Rosie has kept since she was just sixteen and the stigma she’s lived under as a result are brought into shocking relief.

But don’t expect a holiday romance that reunites former sweethearts.

The Fairchild’s business manager, Gabe Adams, has come to the lake with a proposal of his own in mind: a power match that has nothing to do with a single mother who makes an uncertain living as an artist and who seems to be trying to bring an orphan into her already unorthodox family. The chaos of God moving in his life is not something Gabe welcomes. Besides, he’s the first to figure out that Rosie and her son “belong” to his boss and long-time friend, though that friend has no idea.

The whole mess may simply stem from the unpredictability of the weather or the sentimentality of the holidays, Rosie and Gabe tell themselves, but regardless, it will take a great deal of discernment on both of their parts to step out in faith for this kind of love.

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2024

RELEASE DATE: September 1, 2025

Patched Together

Book Three in the "Together" Series

Harvest hayrides and evergreen fields can often point toward healing, but after a local tragedy in 1947, Festival Farms just west of Buckeye Lake meets its match against staggering shame during more than one season of grace and love.

As a powerful, educated businesswoman (and occasional drag race winner), Dot Berkeley has never minded standing out at Buckeye Lake. After all, by 1947, she’s been helping her father run the amusement park since she was a girl. Yet, when she is accidentally involved in the tragic death of a beloved local icon, she finds herself unable to handle both the wrath of the community and her own trauma.

She ends up in full runaway-and-retreat mode out at Festival Farms. After all, the same accident left war hero Levi “Smokey” Black needing a hand with pumpkins and Christmas trees. His idealism in a hurting post-war world turns out to be what Dottie needs, too, as she buries her pain in labor and marketing ploys.

The problem is, Smokey’s holiday wonderland is far from where she knows her own path ultimately lies, and Dottie is just as far from the sweet, domestic wife Smokey had planned to seek when he returned from battle. Having grown up competing, they butt heads over everything from flirtation to religion.

When their personal projects both bend to accommodate others who also need healing, though, they find themselves accidentally bending toward one another, as well.

Obedience based on faith comes at a cost - but also comes with joy - as Dottie and Smokey find their way from shame and guilt to purpose and love throughout the growing season, the harvest, and the holidays.

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Here's my very own version of a map that covers the action of the series that takes place at Buckeye Lake just after WW2. It's pretty accurate still except, of course, that the amusement park is gone (and I invented the farm and the resort).

“Kim Garee’s breakout novel, Pressed Together, doesn’t disappoint. She has constructed a rich setting using historical research and possesses a distinct author voice. Her story’s spiritual arc is deep and flows organically. Her characters are likable, and her characterization is strong. I look forward to reading more books by this author.”

—Heidi Glick, author of Dog Tags and Hold for Release