In a small town swollen with secrets, a young boy puzzles his way through a minefield of societal expectations and Southern Baptist status quo.

Ben Bramley has been granted an idyllic upbringing in a scenic mountain hamlet. With one set of grandparents living next door, and the other a mile away, both family lines are involved in the area’s widespread apple-growing heritage. But within this close-knit, community, privacy is an illusion.

When the promises of his faith fail him, Ben struggles alone with an unrecognizable life and becomes the unwitting repository of weighty secrets. Complex relationships fuel a story in which hypocrisy is an art form, change is impossible, and love is destructive.

AUTHOR BIO: Evan Williams entered his first writing competition in sixth grade, a county-wide agricultural conservation essay contest, and won second place along with a nifty plaque. For Evan, writing is his repayment of gratitude to every author who has inspired him to dream beyond what his eyes can see. His memoir, One Apple at a Time, received the Willie Parker Peace Award for state history from the North Carolina Historical Society. Prior to America’s Revolutionary War, Evan’s ancestors settled in the Blue Ridge range of the Appalachians, where he remains today. RIPPLES draws heavily on his family’s multi-generational apple-growing business. Surrounded by orchard, Evan writes from within a former apple storage shed—the same shed where he would steal away as a boy to enjoy quality reading time.