Wishes On The Waves By Catherine Michaels
She’s convinced love belongs in her memories.
He’s certain his second chance already came and went.
But Gull Island has other plans.
Widowed business owner Annie Lawson lives a full life running her shop, raising her young son, and keeping her heart carefully guarded. Letting someone in again isn’t on her to-do list. But when the cottage next door fills with a bestselling author and single dad carrying more regret than momentum, the rhythms of her predictable life begin to shift.
Cal Carter comes to Gull Island to escape a painful divorce, rediscover his writing voice, and rebuild trust with his teenage daughter. What he doesn’t expect is a neighbor whose warmth slips past his defenses and makes him question the future he thought was settled.
Between sea turtle nests, summer storms, and twilight talks, Annie and Cal drift closer than either intended until a long-buried truth from Cal’s past asks them to risk what they’ve worked hard to protect.
Forty Love By Jane Costello
It’s never too late for a comeback!
Single mum Jules lives next to a tennis club, but has no plans to play. Especially when her old school crush, handsome doctor Sam Delaney, returns thirty years after he left and is now displaying a killer forehand in direct view of her bedroom window.
But when she’s hit by an unprecedented wave of anxiety – brought on by her 19-year-old daughter’s solo trip around the world – she’s in urgent need of a distraction and rashly agrees to join an amateur women’s tennis team. They are desperate for players. The fact that she doesn’t really play doesn’t seem to matter . . .
As rallies are hit and friendships are formed, Jules is astonished to find herself in the grip of a passionate, all-consuming relationship . . . and not only with the tennis. But will these sexy encounters she keeps stumbling into with Sam put her on course to a devastating double fault?
A Brewed Awakening By Pepper Basham
In the charming mountain town of Wisteria, North Carolina, Daphne Austen clings to tradition like cream to a scone. She’s built her life–and her late grandmother’s tearoom, Tea Thyme–around all things English: delicate china, Jane Austen novels, and the comforting predictability of routine. The only thing threatening her perfectly ordered world? The loud, aggravatingly handsome Brit opening a pub next door.
After his ex-wife broke his heart and his business partner nearly destroyed his career, Finn Dashwood packed up his six-year-old daughter and left England behind. He’s looking for a fresh start, and the last thing he needs is a fussy, tea-obsessed neighbor criticizing his every pint and playlist. It doesn’t matter that she’s ridiculously kind (to everyone else) and that his daughter is utterly fascinated by her. Finn’s heart is not open to being broken again.
But disagreements turn into prank wars and then a competition when a high-profile wedding needs a last-minute caterer. The townsfolk are thrilled–Wisteria hasn’t seen this much excitement since the county fair lost a goat.
When the wedding demands both sweet and savory fare, Daphne and Finn are forced to put down their swords and pick up their serving trays. Between burnt pastries, brewing tempers, trending hashtags (#SipsAndSpats, anyone?), and one very adorable little girl, rivalry soon gives way to reluctant friendship–and maybe something that feels suspiciously like chemistry.
Can a tea shop princess and a pub owner with a past mix their lives as seamlessly as clotted cream and jam . . . or will their differences keep them steeped in rivalry forever?
Home No Matter Where By Nancy Naigle
Nina is at her wit’s end with her teenage daughter, Kendra. Still dealing with her own wounds of divorce, Nina hopes a change of scenery will help. She and Kendra head to the serene coastal town of Whelk’s Island to spend a restorative summer with Nina’s mother, Rosemary—bringing three generations under one roof for the first time in years. Amid the island’s charm, old wounds begin to heal, and as new friendships bloom—especially with the steady and enigmatic Fisher—light begins to break through the cracks of Nina’s tightly controlled life.
Kendra’s reckless behavior continues but Fisher’s intervention during a critical moment for Kendra sparks a sense of hope in Nina that she thought was lost. Still, change is never easy.
As the women navigate the tides of forgiveness, growing up, and letting go, healing begins and new love brings surprises. While Whelk’s Island may not hold all the answers, it has a way of reminding people that moving forward doesn’t follow a set path—it requires the bravery to start anew.
Come Back To The World By Catherine Ryan Hyde
Amelia Booker, a journalist and expert in American literature, receives a photograph leading to the possible whereabouts of E. L. Swann, an author who vanished forty years ago after the success of her first and only novel. It’s too intriguing a literary mystery for Amelia not to follow.
In Santa Rosarita, Mexico, Amelia and her seven-year-old son, Jaden, meet the elderly and guarded Ella Steinbach, known to locals for riding her donkey to market, then retreating from the world again to her hilltop house. Prickly and defensive at first, Ella reluctantly concedes the truth about her identity. If not for Ella’s deep affection for the bright and introverted Jaden, she would have found the intrusion unforgivable. Instead, she grants an interview on the condition that Amelia tell no one where E. L. Swann has been found.
As days turn into weeks, and Ella reveals more than expected about her past, she and Amelia form a difficult but surprising bond. From it comes the realization that the personal struggles we endure determine the necessary choices we make to move forward. But no matter how much Amelia tries to convince her otherwise, E. L. Swann really does wish to be left alone. And only by accepting the author as she is can Amelia maintain the life-changing connection.
My Sanctuary 