Cat Hood and Lily Cameron have been best friends since kindergarten, when Lily rescued Cat from a schoolyard bully. In the 30 years since, the pair has grown into Girls With Hammers, making a modest living as small-town carpenters in the mountains of western North Carolina.

But things are changing for Cat. Her first book has been published, her agent's making big plans, and the whole town thinks she's a celebrity. She's got a long-lost brother who turns up out of nowhere with a wife who's pregnant with twins, a '59 Harley Duo Glide that makes a funny noise, a busted-up hand that puts her out of commission, and a German Shepherd named Mike who won't get off the couch.

No wonder Cat just wants to be left alone! Or does she?

This time though, she thought, she'd fall in love carefully, slowly, with somebody smart. No more desperate affairs with crazed chicks or dates with kooky clowns. She'd be very specific. There would be depth and commitment and loyalty. This time, she would be discerning. Number One—Green eyes, she typed. The ribbon was still good.

Enter Melissa McHeaney—doctor, painter, green-eyed Irish lass. The one. And when the pair finally connects, it clicks so loud everybody close to Cat hears it.

This is the relationship she's been waiting for! So what is she waiting for?

Cat drags her feet, driving Lily crazy (“…for the first time in your sorry little life you've met the woman of your dreams and you could have everything but you're too scared and so you wreck everything rather than making it right.”), but the problem runs deeper than that. There's a ghost in Cat's head and heart and a story waiting to be told—the story of her grandmother Kate, who raised Cat and her brother after the death of their parents. The Hoods had emigrated from Scotland in the late 30s, leaving home under mysterious circumstances that Cat was certain were the cause of Kate's cold, harsh brand of mothering that sent her brother Will running for his freedom—and Cat running from herself.

She blew smoke toward the inky sky and thought about her other recent imaginings—the ones where she was traveling back to her beginnings—to where Kate began. Scotland. She hungered to know more about her grandmother—her story, her family, and the fate that had brought her here. Scotland, Cat imagined, was cold and stony and laced with a kind of mystery. It spoke of heaths and glens and misty highlands; and of a young woman sent away, into exile. More—it called to her, at night, in a voice familiar, like home.

Cat Rising is the richly drawn tale of one woman's quest to build a future through the discoveries of her past. Author Cynn Chadwick paints a vibrant portrait of community—friends and family together for the long haul, no matter how bumpy the ride.

“It's never too late to be what you might have been” - George Eliot.

Carpenter Lily Cameron first read the quote when her lover of 18 years, Hannah, left after a fight. Her best friend, Cat, had already moved to Scotland, leaving her no one to talk to about her churning emotions. Then the person she looked up to the most, her father, died—leaving her in charge of the family construction business and forcing her to put aside her own business, Girls With Hammers. Soon after, Hannah decided to take a position in Amsterdam. Lily was alone.

It's never too late to be what you might have been.

What might she have been that she wasn't already? Ever since she could walk, following her daddy around in a pair of overalls and a mini-hard hat, she'd wanted to be a carpenter. Since she was seventeen she'd wanted to be Hannah's girlfriend. From the age of twenty-two she'd wanted to be her own boss. She was already, at thirty-five, everything she might have wanted to be. True?

Lily's difficulties increased with the pressures of the new job and the expectations of her family. Feeling the approach of middle age, she found herself disconnected from her much younger crew. With Hannah across the ocean and sexual frustration setting in, the appearance of a good-looking, interested stranger didn't help matters any. Even her newly widowed mother was no longer recognizable.

At times she was no surer of the people she'd known forever than she was of all the strangers who'd infiltrated her life. Everyone, from her mother to her most recent elusive hireling, felt like a foreigner. And those she loved and needed most were among strangers in other lands.

“There better be a big lesson in this for me,” she said to no one. The tears wetting her whole face now. “I ain't goin' through all this shit for nothin'.”

It is said things happen for a reason. Lily really wanted to believe that. At thirty-five, a woman shold know who she is and what she wants. So, why did everything seem so unstable now? Then she realized:

It is never too late to believe in what you have already become.

Girls with Hammers is a lovingly crafted novel of an independent woman's struggle to overcome obstacles and build the life she's always wanted. Author Cynn Chadwick works her literary magic again with this charming tale of family, love, human courage and strength, and Southern hospitality.