Rhonda McKnight joins the Romance panel with her award-winning The Thing About Home (contemporary romance). She will also appear on the lowcountry stars stage to talk about Bitter and Sweet.

In Bitter and Sweet, a grandmother reunites two estranged sisters at the site of their family’s eighty-seven year old restaurant in Georgetown, South Carolina, where they must face complicated truths about themselves and their family history; and their great-great grandmother Tabitha “Bitta” Cooper as she attempts to survive as a single mother in Charleston using the only skill she has…cooking Southern comfort foods. Tabitha’s story spans the years 1915-1938.

The story is told in dual timelines moving from 1867 Georgetown, South Carolina to 2019, featuring three generations of women.  The great-grandmother’s story is highlighted during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. The Thing About Home was a finalist for the 2024 Christy Award in the category of Contemporary Romance. 

The Thing About Home is the story of a disgraced social media influencer who flees to South Carolina’s Lowcountry in search of refuge and connection to a family she’s never met.

PHOTO BY ALEX J III

Rhonda McKnight is the author of 29 books. Bitter and Sweet and the 2024 Christy Award Finalist and Emma Award winner, The Thing About Home, are her latest releases. She has also written several other award-winning bestsellers, including An Inconvenient Friend. She is the winner of the 2015 Emma Award for Inspirational Romance of the Year for her title, Unbreak My Heart.

She has been nominated thrice for the African American Literary Award. She writes inspirational book club fiction and Christian romance stories about complex characters in crisis. Her goal is to touch the heart of women with the themes of faith, forgiveness, and hope. Originally from a small coastal town in New Jersey, she writes from the comfort of her South Carolina home.