If You Like Dorothea Benton Frank...

Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews
Calling off her high-society wedding after discovering her fiancé's infidelity, Keely Murdock faces financial ruin before receiving assistance--and an opportunity for revenge--from the new owner of a local bra company.

Beach Music by Pat Conroy
Living in Rome with his daughter, Jack McCall finds his grief following his wife's suicide interrupted by the arrival of his sister-in-law and two friends seeking his help in tracking down a classmate who went underground as a Vietnam protestor.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fanny Flagg
Mrs. Threadgoode's tale of two high-spirited women of the 1930s, Idgie and Ruth, helps Evelyn, a 1980s woman in a sad slump of middle age, to begin to rejuvenate her own life.

Queen of Broken Hearts by Cassandra King
Divorce therapist Clare Ballenger helps women cope from her office, affectionately know as Casa Loco, in the quaint town of Fairhope, Alabama, but her own life, and those of loved ones, havent benefited.

Superstition by Karen Robards
When Nicky Sullivan starts looking for a story for her failing investigative news program, she thinks about her childhood home on Pawleys Island, South Carolina, remembering the unsolved deaths of three teenagers that occurred there 15 years ago, and turns to the local psychic, her mother Leonora James, for help. Check out also Ghost Moon and Vanished.

Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
Victoria Bodeen finally has enough money to open her own store in the town she grew up in, Progress, South Carolina. Not only is she returning home but Tory is back to come to terms with her past and lay some ghost to rest. It's taken her a long time to understand and accept her visions but using them is the only way she can help herself and Hope. Hope was her best friend who was raped and murdered at eight years old and the killer is still at large. The murderer was never sure Tory would return but now that she has he intends to have some fun.

Low County by Anne Rivers Siddons
Fans will find some familiar elements here: a sympathetic Southern heroine, an unlikely love interest, and a South Carolina low country setting fragrant with salt air. Caro Venable is a captivating mix of beauty queen, drunk, artist, dutiful corporate wife, and mother still grieving her daughter's drowning. Her love of Peacock's Island clashes with her developer husband's plans to subdivide her grandfather's land and turn its native tribal settlement into a "theme park." Many books with a southern setting by this author.

Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells
Siddalee Walker, a successful New York theater director, takes turns with her family in telling the story of their Louisiana upbringing, their experiences in the classrooms of the Penguins of Our Lady of the Divine Compassion, and the anguishes of childhood. Sequel is: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Other authors that write in a similar style, but not with a Low Country setting. Try these:

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Inseparable best friends Kate and Tully, two young women who, despite their very different lives, have vowed to be there for each other forever, have been true to their promise for thirty years, until events and choices in their lives tear them apart. Many books by this author.

The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
Having worked for six years in the hotels of exotic resort towns, Adrienne Dealey relocates to Nantucket in the hopes of recouping her finances and gets a crash course in restaurant management at a popular locale that is preparing to close, an endeavor that is compromised by her budding relationship with her boss. Many books by this author.

The Edge of Winter by Luann Rice
Neve Halloran is a divorced mother running a tiny seaside gallery. Neve was badly bruised by her divorce from Richard, a drinking rogue who made empty promises. Her teenage daughter, Mickey, is the lone source of vibrancy in Neve's life.