The Stories We Carry

By: Robin W. Pearson

Narrated by: Megan Tusing

A small-town bookstore owner finds herself at odds with a newcomer bent on disrupting her quiet life in this Southern women’s fiction novel by award-winning author Robin W. Pearson.

Glory Pryor has carved out a life for herself in Gilmore, North Carolina, cultivating a community around her bookstore, By the Book. While her business is a success, she carries the weight of stories of her own she’s never told anyone. She holds out hope that one day her estranged brother will turn up on her doorstep so she can finally learn where he’s been all these years. Glory’s husband Eli thinks she has her arms wrapped too tightly around the could-have-beens, and that it’s time for them to let go of the store as they head into their retirement years. Glory has different opinions on that―she’s not ready to give up the dream she’s built just yet. Then Adelle Simonette shows up with her young son, Bennett, and Glory’s carefully controlled life begins to crumble.

Newly widowed Adelle Simonette is a single mother trying to find her footing and navigate parenting her young son. Lost in her grief, one thing she’s certain of is that she needs to confront Glory Pryor and everybody who knows her because the woman’s been living a lie. Adelle thinks it’s high time Glory made things right. But Adelle’s finding it hard to tell the truth . . . and there will be no going back once she does.

In the wake of deeply personal grief and loss, two women reckon with a lifetime of silence and secrets to find a path forward toward healing, hope, and restoration.

• Contemporary women’s fiction for fans of Denise Hunter, Vanessa Miller, Rachel Hauck, and Rhonda McKnight
• A small-town Southern saga that features bookish heroines and themes of family, forgiveness, and reconciliation
• Includes discussion questions for book clubs

©2025 Robin W. Pearson (P)2025 Tyndale House Publishers

Love and Grace Endures!

As a woman of a particular age who is still married for the past 53 years to my college sweetheart, it was refreshing to see enduring romantic love represented in my age group!

I purchased this story as an audio book and thoroughly enjoyed listening to the complex layers of the main character Glory Pryor and her relationships with her husband, friends, and the customers that she called her guests to her bookstore. Set in a small town in North Carolina, The Stories We Carry, explored themes of faith, forgiveness, grief, and resilience. This author is a gifted wordsmith and skillful writer who cleverly built a sense of intrigue concerning secrets, deception, and speculation about who can be trusted. This book held my attention to the very end, and I would give it my highest recommendation to those who love to curl up with a book that allows one to become immersed in the ethos of the book’s setting!

All Warm Feelings & Magical Feels of Nostigalia.

Oh my!
I felt like Robin was writing about my childhood & I was reliving it!
This book made me feel so nostalgic, & it gave me so much peace & comfort listening to it.

My childhood was taken from me way too young; I had to grow up way too young.
From the age of ten I no longer thought of my life as magical.
I thought of my life as dreadful.

Thank you, Robin, for bringing back memories of my childhood. Before my childhood slipped away.
Where I loved nature, and spending time with my friends from school & my family, and memories of my mom who is now in Heaven.
Where I had no access to electronics in my childhood, such as phones, computers, or even television.
When all these things we all use in life were foreign to me.
When life was SIMPLE.

THANK YOU AGAIN!

God bless you, Robin!

A book for a book lover!

I just finished listening to The Stories We Carry by Robin W. Pearson. I love the cozy setting of a bookseller living above her bookstore in a small NC mountain town. Robin is a master wordsmith, her imagery leading you to see, hear, taste, touch and smell this inviting story. The references to beloved books add depth and character to the story. No spoilers here, but as you get to know Glory and Eli and their neighbors (aka family), you will root for them to resolve painful personal battles and relational challenges as they deepen their community and faith.