From the author of the New York Times bestsellers Holding Up the Universe and All the Bright Places (soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning), a spellbinding coming-of-age debut about ill-fated love during the Great Depression-and what it means to be a woman with ambition.Velva Jean's mother urged her to "live out there in the great wide world, " and growing up in Appalachia in the years before World War II, Velva Jean dreams of becoming a big-time singer in Nashville. Then she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome juvenile delinquent turned revival preacher. As their tumultuous love story unfolds, Velva Jean must choose between keeping her hard-won home and pursuing her dream of singing in the Grand Ole Opry. Like All the Bright Places, hailed as a "charming love story about [an] unlikely and endearing pair" (New York Times Book Review), Jennifer Niven's debut novel is a big-hearted story about the struggle to find happiness."A touching read, funny and wise, like a crazy blend of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, a less morose Flannery O'Connor, and maybe a shot of Hank Williams...Niven makes some memorable moon-spun magic in her rich fiction debut."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)