The Memory Garden: A Contemporary Small-Town Christian Novel

by Jessica Brodie, Nicole Halton (Narrator)

Sometimes hope blooms in the most unexpected places.

Rock-bottom has a name for Rebecca Chastain, and it’s Dahlia, South Carolina.

Once a celebrated big-city journalist with a promising future, Rebecca now finds herself shattered—jobless, abandoned by her fiancé, and haunted by her own desperate attempt to escape it all. The small-town newspaper job in her granny’s hometown isn’t just a step down but a humiliating reminder of everything she’s tried to outrun. If not for reconnecting with her childhood friend, Josh, she’d already be gone.

Then there’s Devon—an eleven-year-old boy with eyes too old for his years, caring for his ailing Memaw while hiding stories he’s terrified to share.

When Rebecca’s reporting brings their lives together, something unexpected begins to take root in the barren soil of her heart. But Devon’s dangerous uncle is closing in, and time is running out for Rebecca to open her eyes and see what’s going on before it’s too late. As shadows lengthen over Dahlia, Rebecca must decide if she’ll retreat to safety or stand her ground for a boy who’s fighting his own battles—and perhaps find healing for herself in what she once called the last place on earth she’d ever return to.

Some gardens only bloom after the harshest storms.

Buy Book One in the Dahlia Series today, where grace meets grit in a small Southern town where faith is tested, hearts are mended, and hope refuses to stay buried.

Audible Audio

Published August 28, 2025

About the author

Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist, author, blogger, editor, writing coach, and devotional writer with thousands of articles to her name. Since 2010, she has served as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism, which has won 123 journalism awards during her tenure. Her latest book is Preparing Our Hearts: An Advent Devotional to Draw Closer to God at Christmas.

She has won more than 100 writing awards and is a seasoned speaker and frequent contributor to Christianity.com, BibleStudyTools.com, and Crosswalk.com, among many others. She has a weekly faith blog at https://www.jessicabrodie.com/ and is part of the team at Wholly Loved Ministries, with her work included in many of their devotionals and Bible studies.

You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more. She’s also produced a free eBook, A God-Centered Life: 10 Faith-Based Practices When You’re Feeling Anxious, Grumpy, or Stressed. It is available on her website.

Brodie holds a Master of Arts in English, and she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in communications/print journalism from Florida International University. Born and raised in Miami, Brodie now lives in Lexington, South Carolina, just outside Columbia. She has also lived in Ohio and in the mountains of western North Carolina. She and her husband, Matt Brodie, have a blended family of four teenage children and stepchildren.

Brodie has written several novels and is actively seeking publication through her agent Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the 2018 Genesis contest for Contemporary Fiction from American Christian Fiction Writers, and her novel Tangled Roots won a third place Foundation Award in Contemporary Romance at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in 2019.