Backwater: A Love Story

Sweet Home Alabama meets The Notebook in this captivating coming-of-age love story about trading worldly success for the unexpected joy of the path less traveled. Featuring a colorful cast of characters, Backwater combines Southern humor with engaging storytelling to bring the river bottoms of East Texas to life. This sweeping novel stunningly portrays the rarely seen and often misunderstood culture of river people and their deep connection to the backwater they call home through atmospheric prose, authenticity, and grit perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and Yellowstone , alike. Naturopathic Doctor Sunday Frederick can’t seem to shake her backwater roots. After years of rubbing elbows with Austin’s elite, she jumps at the chance to practice natural medicine in her beloved hometown and escape the concrete jungle in favor of a simpler life with fiancé Jeffrey Frost. But returning to the sleepy East Texas community of Old Salem with a fast-talking fiancé in tow proves more of a challenge than Sunday ever expected. After one look at the Frederick family’s twenty-thousand-acre estate, Jeffrey has big dreams of converting the historic property into a prosperous game ranch. But when his ambitions drive threaten to drive a wedge between Sunday and her close-knit kin, she struggles to balance his desires for their future with the best interests of her family and the surrounding community—a fight that is further complicated when she is called away on a special wildcrafting assignment in the swampy, mosquito-infested river bottom of her youth. To her dismay, hometown rebel, Eli LeBlanc, is tasked to serve as Sunday’s guide while hosting her at his dilapidated houseboat. With his crude manners and outlaw ways, Eli hasn’t changed a bit since high school, and Sunday has better things to do than answer his prying questions about her personal affairs. But as the days pass and the balmy night air is filled with the sound of crickets and softly rushing water, there’s a freedom and hospitality to river life that can alter a girl’s priorities and open her heart. With her wedding to Jeffrey only weeks away, and the future of her family’s estate resting on her shoulders, Sunday finds herself torn between everything she thought she wanted and the surprising new path she feels destined to take. Told in an authentic Southern voice, Backwater seamlessly blends a charming, feel-good love story with the blunt honestly of Hillbilly Elegy to illuminate the struggle of rural communities to retain not only their cultural identity, but the environment on which it depends. Perfect for fans of Virgin River , Fried Green Tomatoes , and Steel Magnolias , this enemies-to-lovers adventure is the book you’ve been waiting for! PRAISE FOR BACKWATER: “No matter where you are from, this book will make you long for a place where roots run deep and adventure grows wild at every turn. This isn’t just a book, it’s an experience!” – Ally (Amazon reviewer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Imagine sitting out by a campfire next to a river or lake with the feeling of complete peace. That is how this book will make you feel…a perfect example of southern hospitality and how home isn’t just a place…” – Heather (Goodreads Reviewer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “It almost feels wrong to call this a romance because the dedication to character and environment is exceptional and unlike anything I have read in a romance before.” – Josh and Liz (Amazon Reviewer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “What sets Backwater apart from every other novel of its genre is its rich characters and detailed setting. Kate Boudreaux deftly avoids the pitfall of stereotypes and develops her characters into real three-dimensional people …” – Mstanley (Amazon Reviewer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐