Something Old, Something New

Christine Sawyer has finally built the life she dreamed of. She left a stressful paralegal job, bought a modest little house, and turned her love of antiquing with her nana into the Treasure Hunting Antique Mall on Main Street. She’s the steady twin: reliable, hardworking, and forever known as the ‘other one’ beside her dazzling sister, Britney. Christine tells herself she’s content with her store, her cats, and her beloved nieces. But late at night, she can’t deny a quiet ache for a partner who sees her as more than someone’s twin or someone’s daughter.

Then Brent Nicholson limps back into Flowering Grove. Once the hometown hero quarterback with a full-ride scholarship and a golden future, Brent’s life went off the rails after a brutal injury destroyed his football career. He dropped out of college, tried to rebuild himself as a home remodeler, and then watched that business fall apart too. When his fiercely independent great-aunt Midge calls asking for help fixing up her house to sell, Brent returns home feeling like a failure, determined to slip in and out of town without anyone looking too closely.

Of course, Flowering Grove doesn’t work that way. Brent’s first good deed—saving a bookcase from crashing onto a customer—puts him face-to-face with Christine, the twin sister of the girl everyone assumes broke his heart. As he tackles roofs, leaky bathrooms, and decades of clutter for Aunt Midge, Christine steps in to turn those forgotten treasures into a new booth that quickly becomes the star of her shop. They fall into an easy rhythm: joking over paint colors, pricing teacups and toy dolls, and dodging Christine’s extremely affectionate cats.

But there’s nothing simple about their growing connection. Britney is convinced Brent cheated on her in college and warns Christine not to trust him. Brent is haunted by his father’s constant disappointment and the wreckage of his failed business and relationship in Virginia. Christine can’t shake the feeling that she’ll never measure up to her ‘perfect’ twin. And Brent is certain he has nothing to offer a woman like Christine—no degree, no house, and no clear future.

As town traditions pull them together—the Fourth of July fireworks, Friday-night football games, family dinners, and little-girl birthday parties—Brent starts volunteering as an assistant coach and remembers what it feels like to lead and belong. Christine’s store faces a crisis when her building rent is suddenly raised, threatening the dream she built in her grandmother’s honor. In the middle of all this, the truth about Brent and Britney’s breakup finally comes out, upending a decade of resentment and rewriting the story everyone thought they knew.

Something Old, Something New follows two people who feel like they’ve already ruined their chances, learning to rewrite the scripts they’ve lived under for years. It’s about a man who has to stop seeing himself as damaged goods, a woman who has to step out of her sister’s shadow, and the small-town aunt who refuses to let either of them give up. As Brent and Christine work side by side—repairing houses, rescuing antiques, and coaching nervous quarterbacks—they have to decide whether they will keep protecting themselves with old hurts or finally risk their hearts on something new.

• Listeners who enjoy small-town contemporary romances with slow-burn relationships and strong family dynamics
• Fans of second-chance stories where characters rebuild their lives and identities after failure
• Anyone who relates to sibling comparisons, parental pressure, or feeling defined by a past version of themselves
• People who like practical, grounded love stories with home renovation, antiques, and Friday-night football as the backdrop

Amy Clipston has been telling stories since childhood, when she and a friend would trade homemade tales for fun. She went on to earn a communications degree from Virginia Wesleyan University and has since sold more than a million books. Known for her heartfelt Amish fiction and small-town contemporary romances, she writes about ordinary people wrestling with faith, family, and second chances. Amy works full-time for the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, and lives there with her husband, two sons, her mother, and a house full of cats. When she isn’t writing or working, she’s often reading, baking, or brainstorming new stories about people finding hope in the middle of real-life messes.