The Curse of Leaving

By S.L. McDonald

"In Kettering Parish, nothing ever really leaves-especially not the people."

For generations, the Grasby women have carried the weight of their family's land, bloodline, and burden. Pat is the dutiful daughter who stayed, trapped in a cycle of sacrifice. Evelyn is the one who left, only to find herself pulled back into the life she thought she'd escaped. And Bea-the matriarch-has watched them all wrestle with the same quiet curse: when you leave Kettering, something in you never makes it out.

When Pat is arrested in a drug bust she never saw coming, the cost of freedom becomes literal-$15,000 or everything the family owns. As the Grasby's scramble to save their house and hold their secrets together, buried wounds rise to the surface: betrayal, addiction, abuse, and the aching guilt of what's been passed down and left unsaid.

Set in a Southern town brimming with memory, The Curse of Leaving is a stirring novel about the things that tie us to a place-land, love, legacy-and what it means to break free when doing so comes at the highest price.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F5RJFN6W
• ISBN13: 9798280641433
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"