While renovating an old beach house, Ivy and her sister, Shelly, suddenly have full occupancy after wildfires force Summer Beach residents from their homes. Even the mayor, Bennett Dylan, who was Ivy's high school crush, moves in. As the summer heats up, attractions simmer and feuds erupt. Living in the house Bennett had hoped could be a community center, he finds himself at odds with Ivy's campaign for a bed-and-breakfast zoning change. And when...

Lead guitarist of the Dark Troubadours, Dayan was renowned for his mesmerizing performances. His melodies stilled crowds, beckoned, seduced. And always, he called to her to complete him. Corinne Wentworth stood at the vortex of a gathering storm. Pursued by the fanatics who'd murdered her husband, she was risking her life by keeping more than one secret. Fragile, delicate, vulnerable, she had an indomitable faith that made her fiery surrender to Dayan...

When Clara Vesper's husband, Adolph, dies suddenly, Clara is stunned--but not grief-stricken. Her marriage to Adolph had been arranged, their primary interaction revolving around the sapphire jewelry Clara designed and Adolph produced and sold. Widowed and penniless, with two small children, Clara decides to return to her aunt and uncle's ranch in Montana, the only place she has ever been happy. Curtis Billingham, injured in a sapphire mine collapse,...

The Dunnes have set off on a ten day boat trip, a trip that hopefully will bring them closer together, despite the fact that the father, Stuart is staying behind on land. But only an hour into the trip they're already falling apart. The teenage daughter plans to drown herself, and the teenage boy is high on drugs. Ten-year-old Ernie is near catatonic. But their mother Anne, with the help of her brother-in-law Jeff, is insistent on pulling everyone...

When her step-daughter steals money belonging to Amber, a woman who has since been evicted along with her teenage son, Cassie invites them to move in with her and as they each form friendships, Cassie discovers that Amber is trying to outrun her dark past.

"Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves--lines...

Entrusted with her late husband's discovery of extraterrestrial life and enlisted by her dead husband's friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt -- an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis -- Lucy Bergmann crash lands her plane on a slip of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Burned in the crash landing, she is rescued by Adam, a delusional...

Book 1 in The Gresham Chronicles. A young widow determines to overcome her great loss, then discovers unforgettable characters and romance in a quaint English village in the late 1860s. Julia Hollis had enjoyed an easy life in her London townhouse, with servants to attend her every need and a nanny to help raise her three children. But when her husband passes away, she is told by his bankers that he gambled away their fortune, and that the only remaining...

Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years--ever since her husband died in a car accident. One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she's just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. The only problem is she's becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed. At least her textbook illustrating job has some perks--like actually being called upon to draw whale genitalia. Oh, and there's that vegetable-gardening class...

Irene Steele's idyllic life--house, husband, family--is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband's death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John...