Ava Grace Fairchild never expected to find herself on the back of a hockey player’s motorcycle. Until now, her life in Laurel Springs, Alabama, has been everything you’d expect for a Southern belle: old money, silver spoons and a perfectly planned future. But you can’t plan for the kind of public humiliation that has her running away from her well-ordered life to spend one perfect night with a stranger. Russian enforcer Luka Zadorov is no fan of the South. Being traded to Alabama has meant swapping the glory of northern hockey for playing second fiddle to college football, but his plan to get traded back hits an interesting snag when he crosses paths with Ava Grace. Maybe the South has something to offer after all… Together, Luka and Ava Grace are finally enjoying the present instead of worrying about the future. But when their no-strings fling suddenly develops the kind of strings you can’t ignore, it’s time for them both to confront what their hearts truly need.
Hyacinth Dawson's life runs like clockwork-and she likes it that way. Spreadsheets, lists, and plans have never failed her, and now they're going to help her get her bridal shop on the popular reality TV show All Dressed in White. But it won't happen unless she can land a celebrity client... maybe one of those new NHL players in town. Enter Robbie McTavish, a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants Scottish defenseman who can't help but meddle when he spies a bride in Hyacinth's shop wearing a completely wrong dress for her figure. Robbie's family just happens to own the Scottish Highlands' premier wedding venue, and he knows his way around bustled trains and buttercream frosting-even if his help seems to be less than welcome. When a video of his infuriating interference goes viral, the TV producers decide to film at Hyacinth's shop-as long as her "associate" Robbie is part of the package. Opposites might attract, but as far as Hyacinth's concerned, no amount of chemistry is worth the way this particular plus-one threatens to blow up her carefully laid plans...
Evans Pemberton has always had a problem saying no-to her overbearing Mississippi Delta family, to her business mentor's push to expand her thriving pie shop, and to her lifelong crush, Jake Champagne. But Jake chose her beauty-queen cousin three years ago and ghosted on their close friendship. When he comes to her small town in Alabama with a new pro-hockey franchise, Evie fears she'll lose her heart all over again. Of course, she'll forgive him like the good Southern woman she is, but anything more than that is off the table. So why can't she stop baking for him? Jake is looking forward to a new team, a new town, and a clean slate in Laurel Springs. After a disastrous year, the hockey hotshot is leaving his past behind-even betting his best friend that he can stay away from women. But he's happy to reconnect with a piece of home when he visits Evie. Between slices of Mississippi mud pie and chicken potpie, he's starting to remember all the good times they had and the man he always intended to be... not to mention what a fool he was to let Evie get away. How will they find a future together when she can't say no and he can't say yes? The path to true love isn't quite easy as pie, but it sure is sweet in the end.
Hockey is all he has left. Until a one-night stand with the boss's daughter gives him something new to fight for…
Nashville Sound enforcer Thor Eastrom has been married, divorced, engaged, and dumped. But the hardest thing he's ever done is bury his twin babies. The last thing he wants or needs in his life right now is a relationship. Over the past nineteen years he's hoisted the Stanley Cup seven times and won gold and silver Olympic medals. All he wants is one more year in the NHL so he can go out as a member of the twenty-year club. Then he'll decide what comes next.
Tradd Davenport's dream is to succeed in the hardscrabble world of country music. Being daddy's little princess has its perks, but it's no longer enough to fulfill her-especially when she's lost more than she ever gained by it. She has the talent and the drive-and she's ready to work hard for something that her father's money can't buy her.
But sometimes life doesn't give you what you want. It gives you what you need. Tradd knows her father's hockey players are off limits. Thor knows that nobody touches the boss's daughter. But Thor likes to play with fire-and Tradd wants to burn. When they discover their one-night stand has consequences, can they find a way to have everything they want? Or will navigating their new reality be as perilous as a broken skate on slick ice?
Sensuality Level: Sensual
Two twentysomethings struggle to let go of their idea of a perfect world on and off the ice in this emotional third book in the Nashville Sound series.
Ambitious, smart, and straightlaced, Nashville Sound forward Jarrett MacPherson is determined to walk in the footsteps of his All-American hockey-playing grandfather. He prides himself on doing the right thing above all, with ethics so sharp they could cut the heart out of a saint.
Hard-working Merry Sweet toils by day in a paper shop and coffee bar in Sound Town and at night at the arena, cleaning, selling concessions, and taking tickets. Jarrett notices and admires Merry's determination and believes her when she says she needs money for law school, even offering to help solve her financial problems.
When she refuses him, his esteem for her only grows. But when the public catches wind of their budding relationship, a surprising secret from Merry's past comes to light. Now, Jarrett must decide if he'll let his image take precedence over his heart and cost him the chance at something perfectly real.
Sensuality Level: Sensual
Two deeply scarred souls struggle with forbidden feelings in this heartfelt second novel in the Nashville Sound series.
Life has taught defenseman Bryant Taylor never to look back and never to get serious about a woman. His ill, pregnant wife died while he was off playing an away game, leaving him-and both their families-heartbroken. Jokes and puck bunnies are his style now, and he's sticking to it.
Gabriella Charbonnet has idolized her brother Emile since he rescued her from their violently abusive father when she was eleven-and he's supported her ever since. He even agreed to play for the Sound so that she could apprentice as a pastry chef in nearby Beauford, Tennessee.
When Bryant and Gabriella find themselves thrown together at a society fundraiser, sparks fly. But Gabriella wants nothing to do with hockey players, aside from her brother, who just so happens to be Bryant's best friend. The first rule of the bro code? Don't mess with sisters.
There are plenty of reasons why starting a relationship would be all kinds of wrong, yet walking away from each other doesn't prove to be as easy as they thought.
Sensuality Level: Sensual
USA TODAY bestselling author Alicia Hunter Pace launches a brand-new sports romance series, Nashville Sound, featuring some fan favorites finding true love.
Emile Giroux has vowed he will be everything his stepfather is not: cultured, charming, sophisticated, and-above all else-a rich, successful NHL star. One of the top goalies in the league, the French Canadian strives for more, still haunted by his troubled childhood.
Amy Callahan was a freelance professional organizer until an ambitious, domineering boyfriend took over her life and cleaned out her bank account. Once indispensable to the stars, Amy now finds herself with no money, no house, no phone, and nowhere to go.
When Emile finds Amy literally kicked to the curb, he seizes his latest chance to rescue a damsel in distress-only Amy doesn't want to play that game. In fact, she's determined to put men on ice in her life permanently. Can they find a way to let love win?
Sensuality Level: Sensual
No matter how many critics call him an artisan or how much money people are willing to pay for his handcrafted furniture, Will Garrett will always be the son of a drunk from Mill Town. Though he has admired Dr. Arabelle Avery ever since his teenage busboy days at the Merritt County Club, he has no aspirations where she is concerned. A boy from across the tracks doesn't go calling on a state senator's daughter. But he is stoic about all that. He has his work and the home he built with his own hands in the woods where he draws his strength and serenity. At one time, life was easy for Arabelle Avery. She was smart and pretty, with her sister-in-law and cousin as best friends. When her sister-in-law wrapped her car around a tree, Arabelle was devastated. The day her brother remarried was a hard day, and going to Will Garrett's arms for the comfort was unexpected but easy. When she finds herself pregnant and hears, incorrectly, that Will is engaged, she flees to Switzerland to lick her wounds and have her baby. Desperate to do the best thing for her child, she allows her cousin to adopt him - a decision she immediately regrets. When a twist of fate reunites Arabelle with her child, she moves home to Merritt, where she is determined to keep her secret and raise her child in peace. But once Will gets a look at his son and guesses the truth, Arabelle's life spins out of control. Can they find the path to what's best for their son - and each other? Sensuality Level: Sensual
The last time Brantley Kincaid had an argument with someone, he was eighteen years old-and he regrets it like he will never regret anything again. If only he had not balked at going to pick up his grandfather that day, his mother would not have driven into the path of a truck and there would be two fewer graves in Merritt Cemetery. Though a frequent visitor, he hasn't lived in Merritt since burying his mother and grandfather. But now he's coming back and it might not be so easy to hide behind his wit and charisma.
Outwardly, interior designer Lucy Mead is a beautiful, confident professional. Inside, she's the friendless, overweight girl who spent her life following her archeologist parents all over the globe. And who could forget those teenage years of turmoil and unrequited love? It would have been kinder if Brantley had not known she was alive rather than treating her like Robin to his Batman. She carries the humiliation to this day.
Their friends and Brantley's family are delighted when he sets his sights on Lucy, though Lucy isn't so sure. She cannot deny the attraction, but something is wrong. Does he really love her, or does he see her as a refuge and another way to run from his grief?
If she can't find answers, what could be a simple, sweet life might go completely south.
When New York Yankee Marc MacNeal comes to Merritt, Alabama, for a charity golf tournament, he's shocked to be reunited with his ex-fiancee Bailey Watkins. Their college romance came to a bitter end when he was called up to the majors and the tabloids began printing rubbish about him, dubbing Marc the new bad boy of baseball.
Bailey never expected to see Marc back in Merritt ever again, and their reunion proves he's just as infuriating as she thought he'd be. Then social chair Missy Bragg asks her to attend the charity's gala as a last-minute fill-in for his date. It's the last thing she wants to do, but Missy won't take no for an answer.
At the ball, old secrets get revealed and old feelings surprisingly stir to life. Could this unexpected reunion be the perfect chance for them to get some long-awaited closure-or the start of a whole new ball game?
Tolly Lee is pearls, debutant balls, and old silver on the breakfast table. She is ashamed of something she did thirteen years ago, but she was only sixteen and she didn't set out to do it. Still, she should not have led college senior Nathan Scott to think she was his age. She never imagined a football star like him would keep calling her, but it was mostly a long distance relationship and it's not like they had sex. In the end, she paid for her sins with her heart and she might not be done paying. When she moved to Merritt, Alabama, Nathan had been gone for over a decade. Now that he's back, and if the good citizens of her adopted hometown learn of her part in costing their hometown hero his chance at an NFL career, she might as well pack up her law practice and move to Siberia. A sports commentator christened Nathan Scott "The Angel" because of his flawless face and his ability to leap to catch a football, as if he had wings. He still has the face but his leaping days ended when he was injured after going on the football field distracted, only hours after catching the girl of his dreams in a terrible lie. He would never have accepted the job as head football coach of Merritt High if he'd known Tolly had set up shop on Main Street. Not that he still has feelings for her. But a small town has a way of reviving the past and when common interest in an orphaned teenager forces Tolly and Nathan to agree to an uneasy truce, guilt and old resentments resurface. With no end zone in sight, their mutual attraction leads to a Scrimmage Gone South.
Chocolatier Lanie Heaven has good friends, a booming business, and the adoration of the citizens of Merritt, Alabama. But she also has a secret. After the devastating breakup with her long time college boyfriend, she lost a baby and the hope of ever having a child - the thing she desires above all else. Though still grief-stricken eighteen months after the accident that killed his wife and best friend, Judge Luke Avery is lonely for the company of someone other than his three-year-old daughter, Emma. When Luke moves into the apartment above Lanie's candy shop, Lanie and Emma fall in love at first sight and Luke finds himself along for the ride. It's so easy for the three of them to slip into a life as sweet as the candy in Lanie's shop. But when Emma calls Lanie Mommy, Luke realizes things have gone too far; he has to propose to Lanie or walk away. He isn't ready for marriage, but engaged isn't married. Lanie eagerly accepts but as the evidence stacks up, she must accept that Luke's love is not equal to her own. Can Luke find a way to slay his demons before the sweet life they have created goes completely south?
