Thirty-year-old Lillie Turner grew up with maple syrup stuck to her skin and bacon grease splattered on her clothes, courtesy of working in the family diner. Thank goodness she escaped all that when she moved to Chicago five years ago. Now a successful strategy consultant and newly engaged to a man who complements her like biscuits and gravy, she has everything she wants. When an urgent phone call about her father's health pulls Lillie back to Dallas, she soon learns it was a ruse to bring her home.

Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn’t solve or save everything. It couldn’t save their marriage. Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other, and now they’re beginning to wonder if they’re truly ready to let go of everything they once had.

Kendall Clark has always dreamed of anchoring the national news. The dedicated Denver journalist has worked hard to earn more than her fluff-piece reporting job. When she's asked to star in an on-air dating show to increase her station's ratings, she initially refuses...until she learns that participating will give her a shot at a national news desk position in New York.

Rick Chapman is climbing to the top rung of his father's corporate ladder. Fulfilling Chapman Financial's contract at Cypress Corners, Florida will finally prove his value to the company. And to his father. But one endangered weed, and the pretty plant girl trying to save it, could really screw up his plans. Harmony Brooks loves her job as a plant conservationist at Cypress Corners, and the money she earns allows her to make up for a former boyfriend's betrayal.

Magnolia, South Carolina, 1980: Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness.

Born and raised in the quaint mountain town of Saratoga Falls where everyone knows everything, Samantha struggles to escape the harrowing night that changed her life three years ago. While she finds solace in the hard work that keeps her father's ranch afloat, her guilt and heartbreak makes it impossible to completely move on or forget. But when Sam's past comes rumbling back in a lifted, cherry red pickup truck, it's all Sam can do to keep her wits about her.

Sometimes in life you need a little breathing room, especially when your life has just fallen apart. Dr. Isabel Favor, America's diva of self help, knows this all too well. She's lost her fiancé to an earth mother, her accountant has absconded with her money, and her self-help empire is in shambles. She flees the country to Tuscany, waiting for life to settle down, but the biggest disaster lies just ahead. On one unforgettable night, she's about to meet Lorenzo Gage, Hollywood's favorite villain.

I never finish a project late. Ever. So, when sassy, stilettoed Vivian Vandemark swaggers in with a roll of red tape to shut down my construction site, you can imagine my reaction. Although, it involves a sledgehammer and perfectly good drywall, so maybe you can’t. She doesn’t look or act like any government employee I’ve met, and I’m determined to uncover her secrets. When I lean in, I lean in hard. But so does Vivian. Now that we’re incinerating the bedsheets, we’re in way over our heads. What started out as physical infatuation quickly morphs into more.

Madeline, Avery, and Nikki are strangers to each other, but they have one thing in common. They each wake up one morning to discover their life savings have vanished, along with their trusted financial manager - leaving them with nothing but co-ownership of a ramshackle beachfront house. Throwing their lots in together, they take on the challenge of restoring the historic property. But just as they begin to reinvent themselves and discover the power of friendship, secrets threaten to tear down their trust.

Four years ago, I decided to get over one man, by getting under another. A single night and nothing more. I found my handsome stranger with a shot glass and charming but devilish smile at the end of the bar. The desire that hit his eyes the second they landed on me ignited a spark inside me, instant and hot. He was perfect and everything I didn’t know I needed. That one night may have ended, but I left with much more than a memory.

Successful but suffocated by the demands of her corporate career, Shaw Daily walks out on it all. She returns to her grandparents’ rural property in Cooper’s Creek, North Carolina, with a plan to hide out and reboot her life to be simple and stress-free. But escapism eludes her when her attentions are captured by small-town beauty Kate Elkins.

Five years ago, marine biologist Abby Fisher made a mistake that cost her everything. Rather than face the consequences, she fled home to start anew--and built the career she’d always dreamed of. But when her research program runs out of funding, she’s adrift once again and decides to return to the safe harbor of her family and friends. Except nothing at home is how she remembered. Her friendships are strained, her normally affectionate parents seem distant, and her once-great love story is now just a painful memory.

One sexy fire captain. One Cajun chef. One combustible kitchen. When chef Colby Robicheaux returned home to New Orleans to save her family restaurant, the last person she expected to reconnect with was her brother's best friend and her childhood crush. As tempting as a sugar-coated beignet, Jason is one dish she can't afford to taste. Colby can't wait to leave the place where her distrust of love and commitment originated and go back to Vegas.

Nailah Grant only dates studs, races her Camaro for therapy, and believes in leaving her exes in the past where they belong. But with a layoff looming and her retired parents about to take a life-changing step Nailah isn’t ready for, her world becomes far from stable. Enter Scottie, the only femme she’s ever allowed close enough to touch her heart. They say trouble comes in threes, and this femme is one with a capital T.

When I was 17, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back. I left the life of Cora Mitchell behind, seeking freedom from my real-life nightmare. But my freedom came with a cost. I lived a fictitious life for the next six years, never letting anyone close enough to see underneath the façade that was Andra Walker. I was content with my simple little life. Until I met Julian.

I never finish a project late. Ever. So, when sassy, stilettoed Vivian Vandemark swaggers in with a roll of red tape to shut down my construction site, you can imagine my reaction. Although, it involves a sledgehammer and perfectly good drywall, so maybe you can’t. She doesn’t look or act like any government employee I’ve met, and I’m determined to uncover her secrets. When I lean in, I lean in hard. But so does Vivian. Now that we’re incinerating the bedsheets, we’re in way over our heads. What started out as physical infatuation quickly morphs into more.

One sexy fire captain. One Cajun chef. One combustible kitchen. When chef Colby Robicheaux returned home to New Orleans to save her family restaurant, the last person she expected to reconnect with was her brother's best friend and her childhood crush. As tempting as a sugar-coated beignet, Jason is one dish she can't afford to taste. Colby can't wait to leave the place where her distrust of love and commitment originated and go back to Vegas.

Sylvie Campos and Lauren Machado have hated each other since before they were born. For generations, the Campos and Machado families have blamed each other for stealing pastry recipes they claim their great-grandfathers originated before fleeing Castro's Cuba. Having spent their lives as rivals, Lauren and Sylvie are now in their early thirties and primed to take over their respective family bakeries. That means working long, hot, seasons of outdoor food festivals where they are forced to endure each other—albeit with a lot of bantering and barb-trading.

Isabel Buchanan is fiery, funny, and never at a loss for words. But she is struck speechless when her mother returns from a trip to Scotland with a six-foot-tall, very handsome souvenir. Izzy’s mother is so infatuated by the fellow that Izzy has to plan their annual Highland Games all by herself. Well, not completely by herself. The Highlander’s strapping young nephew has come looking for his uncle.

Sometimes in life you need a little breathing room, especially when your life has just fallen apart. Dr. Isabel Favor, America's diva of self help, knows this all too well. She's lost her fiancé to an earth mother, her accountant has absconded with her money, and her self-help empire is in shambles. She flees the country to Tuscany, waiting for life to settle down, but the biggest disaster lies just ahead. On one unforgettable night, she's about to meet Lorenzo Gage, Hollywood's favorite villain.

Logan Phillips didn't expect to like his nurse, let alone find himself attracted to her. But Melissa VanFleet's gentle humor and sweet spirit soothes the architect's frustration at his temporary blindness. He finds she's tempting him down a road he's sworn never again to travel. But a little TLC can go a long way.

Home to the Fletcher family for generations, Dare Island is a fishing village rocked by changing times - its traditions slipping away like sands of the North Carolina coast. Single dad and fishing boat captain Matt Fletcher deferred his own dreams to support his innkeeper parents and build a future for his sixteen-year-old son. Matt has learned to weather life's storms by steering a steady emotional course...and keeping a commitment-free approach to love.

Scarlet Reed has returned to Polson Falls, convinced that 12 years away is long enough to shed her humiliating childhood identity as the town harlot’s daughter. With a teaching job secured and an adorable fixer-upper to call home, things in her life are finally looking up. That is, until she finds out that Shane Beckett lives next door.

When Kaitlin Saville and wealthy executive Zach Harper get hitched in Vegas, they think it’s a joke. But when Zach learns their marriage is real, he offers Kaitlin a job and figures everything’s settled. He vows never to consummate their marriage - but things don’t always go as planned.

Sharon Harrison and Tony Morelli were never able to control the powerful chemistry between them. It led first to heart-stopping passion, then to marriage and children. They thought they had it all, but under pressure their happy home became an explosive battleground. Even divorce, however, can't completely separate them. Spending alternate days in their home with their children, they have an unorthodox arrangement that keeps them in close contact. And keeps the desire alive...

When some pretty little thing shows up at my doorstep with a suitcase, claiming she rented my house for the summer, I waste no time informing her that my house isn't for rent. Some Internet jack*ss scammed her out of all her money, but that's not my problem. Only when I find her sleeping in her car a couple days later, I can't turn my back. I make her an offer: room and board in exchange for working on my ranch. She agrees, and I open my doors to a girl who sings too loud, sticks her nose where it doesn't belong, and distracts me with her tight jeans and those full lips.

Discover this moving story of five remarkable friends as Mary Alice Monroe, the New York Times bestselling author of The Beach House, explores the power of friendship with tenderness and honesty.

This winter, let four tales of mistletoe magic and the spirit of the season cast a special glow as some of your favorite authors introduce stories of hope, happiness, and holiday hearts.

One of the wealthiest Russian oligarchs, Alex Volkov is as ruthless as he is magnetic. He always gets what he wants, and what he wants is me, in his bed. He’s the kind of trouble every woman should run from. The bullet his bodyguard took for him proves that. I should stay far away, but for one night, I give in to temptation. Before I know it, he’s pulling me deeper into his world of excess and violence, invading not only my life but my heart. How much trust can I place in a man so dangerous? How much do I dare risk for his love?

She was the most beautiful British bauble in Europe’s jet-set playgrounds. Now she’s broke, furious, and limping down a backwoods road in an ugly pink southern belle gown. He’s a tall, lean Texan who’s sure to regret stopping his car for this woebegone, surly Scarlett. Meet Francesca Day and Dallie Beaudine, two incredible characters whose tangled love affair is at the heart of this ravishing New York Times best seller from award-winning author Susan Elizabeth Phillips.