No Secrets in This House
Buy the Book:Beach Glass Books
Published by: Beach Glass Books
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Pages: 312
ISBN13: 979-8999712110
Synopsis
Late matriarch Avila was twenty years old, pregnant, and living on Ocracoke at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. Now her 1942-born daughter Clare, millennial granddaughter Maddie, and goddaughter Trish form a present-day family in Home Waters cottage, haunted and scarred by war’s fallout—including secrets uncovered via a hidden stash of World War II letters. This history infuses their present-day losses and life-enigmas. Can the island’s magic heal these women from their pasts, and shepherd them into promising futures?
Ocracoke Island, accessible only by ferry and protected by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, keeps its smalltown ways as a refuge against the hardships of a distant mainland. It is the perfect setting for this engaging beach read. The cleansing presence of Ocracoke’s watery world offers a sweeping yet intimate setting for reconciling secrets with truths, and old ways with the new.
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Praise
“A heartwarming story. Just the sort so many readers love, full of nurturing friendships among women, angry relationships with men, old letters — and island days and nights 30 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean!”
–DIANE CHAMBERLAIN, New York Times Bestselling Author of Big Lies in a Small Town and The Last House on the Street
"NO SECRETS IN THIS HOUSE is a big-hearted book that lingers sweetly long after the last page is turned. As multiple generations of strong women investigate a hidden stash of WWII-era letters, they are reminded that life's ups and downs are best shared with loved ones. I connected with each of the protagonists, whose lives are rendered with honesty and intimacy. The Ocracoke cottage named Home Waters offers much-needed refuge, almost becoming a character of its own. Romantic and celebratory, this uplifting drama plays out beautifully alongside the healing waters of the Atlantic."
—Heather Bell Adams, South Carolina 2023 Pat Conroy Writer in Residence, North Carolina 2022 Piedmont Laureate, Gold Medal Winner (Southeast Region) Independent Publishers Book Awards, Maranatha Road
“If you’ve never visited Ocracoke, Sheryl Cornett’s novel No Secrets in This House will transport you to this magical island. There you’ll meet people struggling with secrets whose revelation they both dread and desire. She has an eye for detail, dialogue, and character that will stay with you long after you’ve finished this extraordinary tale."
—JAMES VESCOVI, Eat Now, Talk Later: 52 Tales of Family, Feasting, and the American Experience
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
September 1941
Avila, Ma Vie
As I write, I’m crossing over to your island from the mainland, near (I believe) Morehead City. It’s as if I were being carried via magic carpet home to you, under cover of darkness into your world. Perhaps I’ve been reading too much Louis MacNeice, but I do feel a poem coming on. “Island Embrace” it wants to be called. Dead giveaway I should think. I’ll scratch it out in a bit and enclose with this letter which you will not see just yet.
I’ve been so anxious, Ma Vie, to get to you. It’s taken a week, what with the official purpose of the trip being in Washington. I’ve thought my pulse would explode with the pacing of the journey, all this waiting for the real reason I agreed to this strenuous travel for as far as we’re concerned.
