The Shell Shop


Mia Alexander - 2020
    But when her husband dies in a tragic diving accident, that’s just where she finds herself. And now the Shell Shop is in danger, and along with it all of Julia’s precious family memories.Julia and her husband started the shell shop decades ago, before their now-grown children were born—he sold the rare shells he found on diving trips around the world and she got to raise their kids amongst the balmy breezes and waving palm trees. She left him to it—he had his own system and she knew nothing about shells. Her world was cooking, making sandcastles and snuggling with the kids. Their arrangement was perfect, until it wasn’t. Now that John’s gone, the bills are piling up and she can hardly bring herself to open the shop even though tourist season is fast approaching. Her eldest, Dillon, knows a bit about shells but doesn’t seem interested in stepping up to help. He prefers diving and surfing to having a proper job. Her daughter Aubrey is having an identity crisis and has her hands full with Julia’s beloved grandchildren. And the baby of the family, even in her mid-twenties, is struggling to make a go of it in a very difficult profession. With all of this on Julia’s mind, she has to dig deep to figure out a way to keep the shop—and her home—afloat. When a world-famous shell collector expects a rare shell that her husband promised to provide, can the Montgomery family rally and figure out the method to John’s madness and keep the shop in business? Escape into this feel-good beach series. You’ll fall in love with the Montgomery family while you visit the warm sunny beaches of the Florida Keys!

Getting the Important Things Right


Padgett Gerler - 2012
    While Colonel Tom physically and emotionally batters his family, Ma’am escapes the turmoil with alcohol. Their children, Percy, Sis and Oops, with no adult guidance, learn to sidestep their family minefields alone. Percy longs for a loving relationship with his father but is unwilling to compromise his aspirations of owning a motorcycle repair shop to win his father’s love. Sis wants a strong mother who will stand up to her abusive husband but finds herself in an abusive marriage, as well. Baby Oops escapes the chaos by teaching herself to read at three and retreating to her own world where abuse and parental neglect can’t reach her. Siblings Percy and Sis forge a loving bond that will sustain them through the most poignant and tragic of circumstances. Whether it’s eating an entire chocolate cake in one sitting, playing Cuss Scrabble, double dating to the drive-in movie, or stealing their father’s car to hotrod in the wee hours, the brother and sister find unbridled joy in their friendship, despite the dysfunction swirling around them. Told with captivating grit, humor, and insight, this tale of family discord carries the Albemarles through decades of turbulence until tragedy teaches them to forgive and understand by GETTING THE IMPORTANT THINGS RIGHT.

Mum’s the Word


Kate Lawson - 2008
    What do you do when: Mr Could Do Worse dumps you on the very night you think he's going to propose? Your twenty-something son turns up on your doorstep, with a broken heart and dirty washing in tow? You find out you're going to be a granny - at 45? Your son's maybe ex-girlfriend's father starts making wickedly naughty suggestions? Your ex's new bit of stuff wants to become your new best friend? Your 70-year-old father is dating someone young enough to be your sister? You make the same mistakes you made in your twenties two whole decades later? You can't get the one person you want out of your head? You grab the vodka and wonder if you're too old for all this crap!

The Diary of V: The Breakup


Debra Kent - 2001
    V has to live in a sham marriage as she seeks information on her husband, his financial affairs and proof of his sexual affairs.

The Story After Us


Fiona Perrin - 2018
    Now she has two children, a terrifyingly large mortgage, and no idea who she has become - or why she and her husband can't even be in the same room anymore. With life as she knew it in tatters around her, Ami is heartbroken, and in no way pulling off 'consciously uncoupling' like a celeb. But she's starting to wonder if she just might come out the other side and be... happier? As funny as Helen Fielding, as poignantly touching as Marian Keyes, Fiona Perrin's dazzling debut is a story that is as much about finding out who you really are again, as it is about the exhausting balancing act of motherhood. Unmissable for women everywhere.

Second Time Around


Erin Kaye - 2012
    But as her 45th birthday approaches and her children prepare to start their own lives, Jennifer is left feeling lonely in her empty nest.That’s when she meets Ben Crawford – a man 16 years her junior – as their attraction heightens, Jennifer realises what she’s been missing. But mindful that the small-town Ballyfergus residents would never approve, they conduct their affair in secret.But a secret is never a secret for long…As the affair surfaces, Jennifer encounters opposition from friends and family, especially her daughter Lucy. Enraged by her mother’s relationship, Lucy seeks comfort in the arms of charismatic but troubled, Oren. Jennifer knows that Oren is not the man he seems, but can she convince her daughter of that?And with everything going against them, can Jennifer and Ben’s love survive? Or will she risk losing her daughter to be with the man she loves?

The People in the Woods


Robert Brown - 2019
     PROFESSOR NICK UPTON’S DISCOVERY IN THE WOODS COULD BE HIS LAST. Anthropology Professor Nick Upton is tired of his life, tired of the redneck state he has to live in, tired of uninterested students, and most of all tired of his own laziness. Something has to change. But his grey existence gets violently shaken when he discovers during a run, signs of a sinister cult sacrificing animals in abandoned houses around his Upper Midwest college town. Soon he is plunged into a dark world where town and gown rivalries turn murderous and forces him to team up with the locals, he’s never trusted in order to face the growing evil in the hidden depths of the countryside. But can Nick and his band of locals prevail or will this be the challenge that finally breaks the bored Professor!

A Winter's Kill


J.K. Ellem - 2019
    During the fall he spent his months preparing, getting ready, making sure this season would be his best ever. And when winter finally comes…he’ll hunt.The winters in Willow Falls, Iowa are cold, brutal and unforgiving. And so is the town’s newest visitor. Except he’s not passing through. He’s here on vacation, for some fun and he’s going to stay for a while.They call him “Robin Hood”, a winter serial killer who has left a gruesome trail of horror and death across four Midwestern states. His grisly trademark is skewering his victims to tree trunks using a hunting crossbow.Now he’s here…For ex-FBI Special Agent Carolyn Ryder, winter is the season to reflect, to come home, to take stock and to grieve. Willow Falls for her is filled with sorrow and regret. She has returned to her hometown to bury her mother after a long battle with illness. Her sister blames Carolyn for not caring, for not being there for her and their mother, for being a cold, dispassionate person who was more interested in building her career than in the family.In the close-knit community of Willow Falls, Ryder has no reputation, no authority and no say with the townsfolk. To them she’s a stranger, an outsider, someone who can’t be trusted.Then the first body is discovered; a local, a teenage girl found almost crucified to a white pine deep in the forest. The local police aren’t equipped to deal with something like this, yet they stubbornly refuse Ryder’s help. With no support, Ryder decides to go it alone, to follow the clues herself, to trust her instincts. Slowly she starts to formulate a theory as to who the killer is. But no one will believe her. It’s too incredible to conceive.Lock the doors, check the windows, stoke the fire and keep the lights on. It’s winter, and a new kind of predator has just come out of hibernation.

Highlander's Daring Escape


Alisa Adams - 2019
    She wants to marry out of love or not at all.Bryan is the last decedent of what used to be a noble family. With his former glory forgotten, he is now a wanderer looking for a fresh start.Fate introduces them when Catherine finds Bryan wounded and exhausted and helps him.Little does she know that Bryan has just stopped her powerful uncle from raping a young girl!Now her uncle has a scarred face and insatiable rage to hunt down Bryan and take his head!When Catherine learns who is chasing Bryan, she has to pick who to trust. Her uncle or the stranger she can't forget?Unbeknownst to her, it's not only Bryan's life at stake."Highlander's Daring Escape" is a story of romance, betrayal, and redemption, set on the beautiful backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.

Just for the Summer (Willowbury #3)


Fay Keenan - 2021
    While her three sons spend the summer holiday with their father, Kate has an opportunity to prove to herself that there is a new life, after her divorce.Harry Sinclair is the owner of Vale Volumes book shop on Willowbury High Street. Content, if a little bored with his lot, his shop, as well as his life, could do with freshening up. When Kate offers to spruce up Vale Volumes ready for the visit of a famous author, they find they have a lot more in common than colour schemes.But both have secrets and responsibilities, and when the trials of family life threaten their burgeoning friendship, can they overcome the experiences of their pasts? Will Somerset’s most magical town cast its spell on them? Or will Kate and Harry have to concede that their friendship really is just for the summer?Let Fay Keenan transport you to the perfect British summertime, with beautiful countryside, an unforgettable romance, and just the right dose of escapism. Perfect for all fans of Debbie Macomber, Cathy Bramley and Katie Fforde.

Things I Want You to Know


Martina Reilly - 2014
    But on the day of her funeral, he discovers a book Kate left for him, Things I Want You to Know. Her instructions for raising Emma and Liam without her give him comfort, but her other plans for him seem much more daunting...Five dates with five different women. Nick isn't sure his heart is in it...but as he tries to follow Kate's careful instructions, he slowly realises that it's not romance Kate wanted him to find, but something far more important. Will Nick find the courage to take a second chance?

Jack Ryder Mystery #4-6


Willow Rose - 2019
     Mystery, love, suspense, and action these books have it all. The hit series from #1 Bestselling author Willow Rose is impossible to put down. - BLACK JACK:  Welcome to the Blackwood House. Enter if you dare. It is said about a house in Savannah that all who have ever lived there have gone insane. When Kimberly and Joseph inherit the house from an unknown aunt, they don’t know the house’s murderous history. They move in and soon a series of strange events occur. It’s like the house doesn’t want them there. Little by little, Joseph starts to change, and soon Kimberly begins to wonder: is the house haunted or is her husband just going mad? Jack Ryder and Shannon King have run away from the press and paparazzi to Savannah to get married. They are preparing for their wedding when they stumble upon a young girl sitting alone on the docks at the harbor at night. She doesn’t seem to have any parents, nor does she know where she lives. Her feet are bare, and she has nowhere to go. They take her in for the night, but as they try to pull out information from her, bizarre stories are revealed, and soon they start to speculate about the girl. Is she telling the truth or hiding unsettling secrets of her own? - THE GIRL NEXT DOOR: He came in the morning when they were still making lunches and getting ready for school and work. He killed them all. Mother, father, children. Brutally slaughtered them in the comfort of their own home. They called him the Monday Morning Killer. That was forty years ago, but now it is happening again. A mother and her daughter are brutally murdered in their house, on a peaceful Monday morning in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Home alone with six children while his wife - country superstar Shannon King - is on tour, Detective Jack Ryder gets the most terrifying case of his career, chasing a deranged serial killer, unlike anyone he has ever seen. No one feels safe, especially not the girl next door, who just bought the house where the first family was killed forty years ago. Who is capable of such cruelty? And why? Could one person be responsible for these brutal killings of entire families so many years apart? Or is Jack dealing with a copy-cat? You’ll never guess the shocking answer. - HER FINAL WORD: Ella Maria Chauncey walks home after a night out with her friends, hurrying to get back before her parents realize she's been out with the boy they don't want her to date. Living in the gated community of Lyford Cay, in one of the world's wealthiest neighborhoods, she believes it is safe. Ella Maria never makes it home. She is found the next day floating in her family's pool, her tongue cut out.. Seven months later Jack Ryder is visiting the Bahamas with his adopted daughter Emily. They're trying to find Emily's relatives, but it turns out to be easier said than done. The only living relative they can track down is a woman…in jail. She's doing time for murdering Ella Maria Chauncey, but as Jack digs into the case, he starts to wonder if she was wrongfully convicted and the murderer is still out there, hunting for his next prey. As the shocking investigation unfolds, and secrets are revealed, no one in in the lucrative Lyford Cay can be trusted.

The Harbour Girl


Val Wood - 2011
    Young Jeannie spends her days watching her mother and the other harbour girls sitting at the water's edge - mending nets, gutting herring - and waiting for her friend Ethan Wharton to come in on his father's fishing smack. As she was growing up, Jeannie always expected to marry Ethan, who is loyal and dependable. But then she meets Harry - a stranger who has come to visit from Hull for the day - and she falls for him. He is exciting and irresistible, and seems very keen on her. But he breaks his promise to come back for her, and Jeannie finds herself young, pregnant and feeling very isolated.Jeannie moves to the port town of Hull where her new, difficult life with a child - touched by illness, tragedy and poverty - is often made bearable by the kindness of others. But she finds herself wishing for the simpler times of her past, wondering if she will ever find someone who will truly love her - and if Ethan will ever forgive her...

Pit Bank Wench


Meg Hutchinson - 1999
    But the kindly folk of Wednesbury take her in and her life is changed forever

A Jersey Affair (The Jersey Scene Book 2)


Georgina Troy - 2014
    What she doesn't expect is to meet a mysterious entrepreneur, Sebastian Fielding, when she gets there. He helps ease the sting of rejection as he introduces her to the ancient sites he knows and loves. Unfortunately, soon after Paige returns to her island home in Jersey, she discovers that not only is Sebastian's company taking over the struggling store where her business is based, but that her concession is probably surplus to his requirements. How can Paige stop her fledgling business from going under? And what can she do to fight the gossip now that the paparazzi have published their untruths about 'A Jersey Affair'?