in This House
No Secrets in This House
The Eagerly Awaited New Novel
from Sheryl Cornett
NOW AVAILABLE
Published May 12, 2026
$19.95 including shipping
“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.
PRE-ORDER NOW FOR JUST $19.95, INCLUDING FREE SHIPPING.
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| Publication May 12, 2026. $19.95 paperback. 5-1/2×8-1/4 in., 312 pages. ISBN: 979-8-9997121-1-0. |
Historical Fiction * Mystery * Love & Romance * The Generations * Island Life
ALL THE BOXES ARE CHECKED in this compelling new romance/ historical fiction novel from Author Sheryl Cornett. No Secrets in This House spans four wars, three generations, two continents, two continents, and one remote Outer Banks island.
Cornett’s debut novel, which publishes May 12, uncovers a dual-timeline tale of women on different home fronts nearly a century apart, though tied to the same home in an iconic village on the island thirty miles out to sea.
The 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 the 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 help these women heal from their pasts, and walk boldly into promising futures?
Ocracoke Island, accessible only by ferry and protected by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, keeps its small-town 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 the old way with the new.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sheryl Cornett taught English and Creative Writing at North Carolina State University for many years before turning to writing full-time. Her poems, stories, critical essays, and creative nonfiction appear in numerous publications, including North Carolina Literary Review, Image, Pembroke Magazine, Mars Hill Review, The Independent Weekly, and Art House America, among others. This is her first novel.
VISIT SHERYL CORNETT’S AUTHOR PAGE
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