A K9 cop, the woman he hires to build him a deck, and the magic of Christmas that could bring Trent and Lauren together this holiday season...
Police officer Trent Baker lost his wife four years ago and moved back to Hawthorne Harbor so his parents and sister could help with his toddler. He trains K9 police dogs for the force, raises his son–and needs a new deck. So he calls Lauren Michaels, a general contractor and the woman who asked him out years ago.
Lauren has made a name for herself in the beach town of Hawthorne Harbor, but finding a man to share her life with hasn't been easy. She knows Trent can't remember when she asked him out, but as they start working together on the Festival of Tree and his backyard, she's hoping to build a relationship with him.
But she doesn't like kids, and he's got a six-year-old. As she works through some of her maternal issues, she realizes Trent might not be as interested in her as she is in him. He feels disloyal to his first wife, but he desperately wants a mother for Porter. Can Trent learn to let go of the past so he and Lauren can find love and build a family?
This is a full-length sweet/clean contemporary beach romance in the vein of your favorite Hallmark romance movie by USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson.
Lauren Keller understands strategies. She adores them and never enters a marketing meeting without Strategy A, B, and C tucked away in the back of her mind. She's one of the top executives at her firm...until it all comes crashing down with the news that her boss has been stealing money from their clients for almost a decade.
After narrowly escaping indictments herself, Lauren finds herself, at age 43, standing in the parking lot of her office building, a box with a stapler, a sad plant, and a couple of photos as her only companions.
She needs a new strategy, and she decides she can map everything out from the beaches of Hilton Head.
It's not an exit strategy.
It's a seaside strategy.
Relax more. Worry less. Find out what she really wants in her life.
While trying to do that, all with the ocean breeze and her friends for support, Lauren meets Blake Williams. The man is movie-star gorgeous, witty, and looking for someone to help him run his successful financial planning business on the island.
But Lauren doesn't want to work for him, especially not in strategic investments. She's had enough of the high-profile, corporate life. Can she strategically insert herself into Blake's life without compromising her seaside strategy and finally get what she really wants...love and a lasting relationship?
A firefighter and his high school sweetheart who's returned to their beachside hometown...and doesn't want to be there. Can the day he said hello start a new relationship that will last this time?
Bennett Patterson is content with his boring firefighting job, puttering around in his wood shop, and spending evenings with his big great dane. At least he thinks so. He's been divorced for seven years, and at least he knows what each day is going to bring—and it's not heartache.
When he gets called out to a fire, he comes face-to-face with his high school girlfriend, Jennie Zimmerman, who swore she'd never return to Hawthorne Harbor. The kiln just sparked, she says. She doesn't need the firefighters there, she insists. But to get her art studio back up and running, she does need some recommendations—and some cash.
Thankfully, Jennie has been commissioned for several pieces at Magleby Mansion, which is undergoing a west wing remodel. Bennett is there too, putting his carpentry skills to good use. Jennie is definitely not looking for love, as she's coming off being left at the altar by her fiancé only six months ago.
But as she and Bennett spend more and more time together, their old flame is rekindled. Can Bennett and Jennie make their relationship stick this time? Or will she once again choose a different path?
This is a full-length sweet/clean contemporary beach romance in the vein of your favorite Hallmark movie by USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson.
Bradley Keith is a Carter's Cove native, despite his professional football career. He's not interested in dating a journalist on his hometown island, and to get her to back off, he tells her he's engaged. The only problem? He's not. Doesn't even have a girlfriend.
When the journalist shows up at The Heartwood Inn, where Brad is installing a new VIP swimming pool, demanding to know who his fiancée is, he names the first woman he literally sees walk by—Celeste Heartwood.
Celeste runs the social events at the family inn, and she's tired of planning parties to which she has no date. So when Brad knocks on her office door in a panic, she goes along with his crazy idea. She doesn't particularly like him, because she submitted a construction proposal to his firm that went unanswered. And she's stuffy and uptight—at least according to Brad.
Their plan? Stay together for six weeks and then quietly end things. No harm, no foul. She has a date, and he gets the reporter off his back.
Falling in love wasn't in the plan. Will Celeste put her reputation—and her heart—on the line for the football star? Or will she end up nursing a wounded heart when the truth comes out?
Cassandra Haslam loves plans. Lunch plans, wedding plans, and floor plans—they all bring her joy. In fact, she's had her entire life planned out—career, marriage, and family—since age ten. She's smart, hard-working, and a real go-getter, and everything has fallen into place so far.
Until her husband dies suddenly, right when she's about to enjoy the fruits of all of her hard work and planning, leaving Cass reeling and...well, without a plan.
When her youngest graduates three months later, making her an empty-nester as well as a widow, Cass decides it's time to make a new plan for herself.
It's not a back-up plan.
It's a paradise plan.
With one of her best friends now living in Hilton Head, Cass makes a move and purchases a piece of waterfront property on the island. It's the perfect place to build her paradisiacal life and her new self as she designs and constructs a beautiful beach house.
But when she injures herself—not in the plan, by the way—she meets general-contractor-turned-doctor Harrison Tate. He helps her out of a jammed thumb, a sprained ankle, and a bruised ego.
When he keeps showing up unannounced at her construction site, sometimes with her favorite pastries, Cass starts to wonder if she should add him to her daily routine... If she does, will her perfectly laid out plans fall short of paradise? Or could she find her new life and a new love, all without any plans at all?
Deirdre is almost 40, estranged from her teenage daughter, and determined not to feel sorry for herself. She does the best she can with the cards life has dealt her and she's dreaming of another island wedding...but it certainly can't happen with the widowed Chief of Police.
Deirdre Bernard has a restraining order against her, because her daughter lied about everything. She's moved across the island to Getaway Bay, where she's trying to rebuild her life one day at a time.
Wyatt Gardner has been a widower for years now. He's tired of the political games and constant pressure of his job as Police Chief, and with his daughter happily married, he thinks it's time to start dating again. When he runs into Deirdre leaving the Sandy Singles event, he decides to be brave and ask her out.
And...she says no.
Deirdre doesn't think it's smart to date the Chief of Police. Though she's not violent and her daughter was never in any danger, the protective order is still there. And she doesn't want to tell Wyatt about it. Better to just steer clear of the man, even if he does make her heart-strings vibrate.
She can say no to him, but Deirdre can't say no to her boss when she's assigned to plan the year-end celebration at the police station. And who will she need to coordinate with the most? Wyatt Gardner. As they spend more and more time together, Deirdre finds her resolve to keep her family secrets waning.
Can Wyatt and Deirdre find a way through their past heartaches to their very own island wedding?
Beatrice Callahan loves lists. Sometimes she even makes a to-do list of things she's already done, just to go check, check, check and feel accomplished. So it's easy to understand why, when her divorce is finally final and her ex is all moved out, Bea takes a cool, close look at her life...and makes a list.
It's not exactly a bucket list.
It's a love list.
Bea loves the outdoors, so she puts visit 10 National Parks on the list.
She loves animals, and on goes get a puppy.
She loves the beach, and she adds take a dream vacation to the list, and decides to do that one first. After all she's been through and all she's lost, she needs time to relax, rest, and reset.
On the first day she arrives in Hilton Head Island, she meets Grant Turner, the man whose house she's renting for her fabulous beach vacation. He's just there to make sure she settles in properly and has enough towels.
But when Bea asks for recommendations around the island, Grant quickly becomes her tour guide and then a friend and then...more than friends.
Bea turns to her lists when things get confusing and her love list morphs once again... Can she add fall in love at age 45 to the list and check it off?
The last Cooper sibling is looking for love...she just wishes it wouldn't be in her hometown, or with the saltiest cowboy on the planet. But something about Jed Forrester has Cherry all a-flutter, and he'll be darned if he's going to let her get away. But Jed may have met his match when it comes to his quick tongue and salty attitude...
Cherry Cooper isn't thrilled to be back in Sweet Water Falls, though she knows it's the right place for her right now. Her parents are aging and unwell, and she's been gone long enough. She wants to help Mama and rekindle her relationships with her siblings, which would be easier if they weren't all so blissfully happy.
She's not unhappy, and a certain cowboy at the farm next door definitely makes a smile brighten her face faster than anything or anyone else has in a long time. But Jed's already broken up with her once because of his short temper and quick tongue, and Cherry really doesn't want to play games.
Jed Forrester isn't the game-playing type of cowboy anyway. He's just trying to break down Cherry's impossibly high walls so he can get inside her heart. Or at least her head, to figure out why she's so resistant to him when they have such a great time together—and she sure doesn't seem to mind kissing him...
Can Jed use his saltiness in his favor and win over Cherry's heart? Or will she keep pushing back at him until he gives up?
A widowed park ranger, her twelve-year-old son, and the Chief of Police who's secretly kept an eye on both of them...
Janey Germaine is tired of entertaining tourists in Olympic National Park all day and trying to keep her twelve-year-old son occupied at night. When long-time friend and the Chief of Police, Adam Herrin, offers to take the boy on a ride-along one fall evening, Janey starts to see him in a different light.
Adam has had a crush on Janey since college. But she married his best friend and started a family before her husband died in a tragic accident. Since then, he's been hiding his feelings and biding his time because of Jess, Janey's son. But as he and the boy spend more time together, he wonders if maybe they're all finally ready to move on...including Janey.
He figures if he just keeps stopping in on them, she might finally start to see him too. Do Adam and Janey have the courage to take their relationship out of the friend zone?
This is a full-length sweet/clean contemporary beach romance in the vein of your favorite Hallmark movie by USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson.
Lisa is 36, tired of the dating scene in Getaway Bay, and practically the only wedding planner at her company that hasn't found her own happy-ever-after. She's tried dating apps and blind dates...but could the company party put a man she's known for years into the spotlight?
Lisa Ashford can't skip the party; she's in charge of the whole thing. So she goes to the top of the fancy resort, determined to step out of her comfort zone and ask someone to dance.
Cal Lewiston lost his wife a couple of years ago, and he's floundering to raise his fourteen-year-old daughter alone. He does a lot of contract work for Your Tidal Forever, and when Lisa, a pretty blonde wedding planner, asks him to dance at their company party, he does something he hasn't done in a long, long time.
He says yes.
He also has to help her stay safe as a tsunami hits the island during the party. And after that, Cal and Lisa are once again thrown together as he gets hired by her HOA to repair any damage to the homes in her neighborhood.
As they navigate the storms of rebuilding her house and starting a relationship, he also has to face letting go of his late wife. Lisa has to figure out how to support him as a dad and build a relationship with his daughter.
Can Cal and Lisa overcome the odds stacked against them? Or will Lisa be back to square one and facing a different kind of storm: attending another party without a date?
Sheryl Heartwood loves everything to do with plants, flowers, and trees. She tends to the grounds around The Heartwood Inn, and she's content with the beach-side life she's always known.
But she's not very happy about the ex-boyfriend who keeps showing up on her front step, following her around the expansive grounds at the inn, and scaring her.
So she hires Gage Sanders to be her 'boyfriend' to keep the other man away. The lines become blurred on the very first day, when she kisses him, which is so unlike Sheryl. As she and Gage spend more time together, she learns about the rough-around-the-edges man while showing him how to truly appreciate the beaches in the cove.
Gage took the job, because he needed the money. A retired military man, he's been doing security work on the ferry, so pal-ing around with a beautiful woman shouldn't be too hard.
Until his heart is on the line.
When their agreement ends, can Sheryl and Gage keep their relationship going?
Riley Randall has spent eight years smiling at new brides, being excited for her friends as they find Mr. Right, and dating by a strict set of rules that she never breaks. But she might have to consider bending those rules ever so slightly if she wants an escape from the island...
When thirty-five-year-old Riley finds a watch on an airplane, she manages to track down the owner—an Evan Garfield, lead singer for Georgia Panic, the #1 rock band in the country. Maybe even the world. Riley retreats, because Evan's not a permanent resident of Getaway Bay (that's rule #1), and there's no way a superstar like him would be interested in a nobody like her.
Oh, but Evan is interested, and he manages to find Riley even after she flees the coffee shop where she met him to return the watch. He desperately needs an escape from his high-pressure life as a celebrity, and he loves the way she treats him like a normal man. As they start a romance on the island, Evan only wants to be with Riley, and she has to admit that she's glad she bent her dating rules just a little bit...
But his agent needs him in LA. The band has some hard-nosed negotiating to do with their record label. New proposals are made for Evan to become a solo artist. Through the whirlwind of who he is and what he does for a living, Riley is left behind.
Will he be able to navigate the potholes of his career and keep Riley in his life? Or will she be forever destined to watch others find their happily-ever-after—and watch Evan escape the island without her?
