Island Women

Toni Benson’s life has been a roller coaster. Years ago, the heartbreak caused by a cheating ex-husband left her in tatters. Then she discovered the run-down fixer-upper that would become the Sweet Island Inn. For a while, things were good. But when her brother Henry’s tragic death sends her reeling all over again, she is back to square one. So she sets off on an overseas journey, in hopes of learning from scratch what kind of woman she is meant to be. She wasn’t looking for love. But it found her anyway.

Things are finally looking up for the Benson family. After a year of tough choices and big leaps of faith, it seems like love, success, and happiness are right in their grasp. But with a wedding on the horizon and a successful new restaurant growing faster than anyone ever expected, everyone certainly has their hands full. In fact, it’s starting to cause problems. Little cracks are appearing in the surface. And the historic storm brewing offshore might turn those cracks into craters.

Ashley Fox has known three things since age 12: she was an excellent seamstress, what her wedding would look like, and that she'd never leave the island of Getaway Bay. Now, at age 35, she's been right about two of them, at least. With an ill parent to take care of and her trusty sewing machine, Ash loves living in Getaway Bay and owning her own custom wedding dress shop. But the husband and wedding she's always dreamed of? Those seem like they're never going to happen for her.

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent. Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life

Tobias "Slim" Jackson has the perfect life as a pilot on Gansett Island in the summer and in Florida in the winter. He's happiest when he's in the air, or at least that was the case before last summer when he met Erin Barton, Gansett Island's newest lighthouse keeper. Now he can't seem to find his usual enthusiasm for flying, winter in the sunny South, or anything that doesn't include her.

One phone call is all it takes to lure real estate photographer Mallory Aldiss back to her family Rhode Island beach home. It's been 20 years since she's been gone - running from the scandal that destroyed her parents' marriage, drove her and her two sisters apart, and crushed her relationship with her first love. But going home is fraught with emotional baggage - memories, mysteries, and secrets abound. Mal's 13-year-old daughter, Joy, has never been to the place where Mal's life was shaped and is desperate to go.

AJ has a real boyfriend now, and he's really coming to the cove to meet her friends and family. She's turned into a domestic goddess as she preps to host Christmas at a rental that will hold everyone for the holidays. But beneath the bulky sweaters, AJ has a secret she won't be able to keep hidden forever.

Ursula Smart, along with her dysfunctional family, heads to Scotland for a gentle weekend of foraging and camping in the Outer Hebrides. Their boat capsizes. Washed up on an uninhabited island, the Smart women face starvation, freezing conditions, and - worse - no Wi-Fi. A fun break swiftly turns into a desperate battle for survival. Someone begins killing them off one by one.

Reporter Freya Sinclair has always known she was different. While waiting on the outcome of an autism assessment, Freya uproots her life in Glasgow, quitting her job at one of Scotland’s top broadsheets and taking a local beat in her childhood home of Orkney. But her plans for a quiet life are shattered when human remains are exhumed by a winter storm on Orkney’s wild Atlantic coast. The identity of the bones opens old wounds in the islands, and sheds light on a darker truth nobody wants to accept.

On a remote island off the coast of Maine lies a secluded estate. There, behind wrought iron gates and rock walls, sits Halcyon Hall. Today, it is an exclusive spa catering to wealthy elites and pampered celebrities. But once, it had another name - and a terrifying reputation.... Rosemary Tulle has come to Halcyon Hall desperate to find her younger sister. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve left a brief, troubling message on Rosemary's phone, begging to be picked up. But Rosemary is not on the visitor list, and no one will let her in....

Anna Pigeon, in her career as a National Park Service ranger, has had to deal with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors, but cyberbullying and stalking are new ones. The target is Elizabeth, the adopted teenage daughter of her friend, Heath Jarrod. Elizabeth is driven to despair by the disgusting rumors spreading online and bullying texts. Until one day Heath finds her daughter, Elizabeth, in the midst of an unsuccessful suicide attempt. And then she calls in the cavalry - her aunt Gwen and her friend, Anna Pigeon.

When Jill Morgan left Tempest Island after high school, she didn’t know what she wanted to do the rest of her life. The only thing she’d ever loved was writing fiction, but that was a pursuit with no financial guarantees. So she did the responsible thing and got her college degree, then a job that provided a good living, and she wrote in her free time. She never expected to become a bestseller, but her books—written under a pseudonym—brought her millions of happy readers. And a stalker.

1985. To twelve-year-old Mercedes, La Kastellana is home, an island with deep-rooted traditions untouched by the modern world. But this secluded paradise is upended with the arrival of multimillionaire Matthew Meade and his pampered young daughter, Tatiana. While the Meades lavishly spread unimaginable wealth around La Kastellana, the price Mercedes and the rest of the islanders will pay is more than they could ever have imagined.

Rebecca has been catapulted from her home, her marriage, and her children. She has escaped to Pawleys Island to hide herself from herself. But after Miss Olivia pries Rebecca's secrets from her, Huey and especially Abigail are challenged to reenter life outside the dream state their idyllic geography evokes. They will see that Rebecca has her day in court, but they never expect to provoke a national forum for discussion.

Michelle Sanderson may appear to be a strong, independent woman, but on the inside, she’s still the wounded girl who fled home years ago. A young army vet, Michelle returns to the quaint Blackberry Island Inn to claim her inheritance and recover from the perils of war. Instead, she finds the owner’s suite occupied by the last person she wants to see. Carly Williams and Michelle were once inseparable, until a shocking betrayal destroyed their friendship. And now Carly is implicated in the financial disaster lurking behind the inn’s cheerful veneer.

Adam McCarthy needs a few days at home on Gansett Island to soothe his battered soul. On the ferry ride home, he runs into an old family friend. Abby Callahan has come home to Gansett after two epic failures in the game of love. Before too long, Adam has appointed himself her guardian and is determined that the only sleeping around she's doing is with him. That is unless his brother Grant is willing to risk his newfound happiness to keep Adam from rebounding with his ex.

After Andi Gordon is jilted at the altar, she makes the most impetuous decision of her life - buying one of the famed Three Sisters Queen Anne houses on Blackberry Island. Now the proud-ish owner of the ugly duckling of the trio, she plans to open her own pediatric office on the first floor, just as soon as her hunky contractor completes the work. Andi’s new future may be coming together, but the truth is she’s just as badly in need of a major renovation as her house.

When a traveling show of impressionist art comes to Nags Head, North Carolina, librarian Lucy and the staff at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library are inspired to create an educational display about art history. Their launch of the display is a huge success, but the morning after, they discover that a reproduction of a famous painting has gone missing. No one knows why anyone would bother stealing it: the picture is of no value—the real, priceless painting is under lock and key at the art show itself.

Passionate about conservation and fleeing an argument with her mother, newly qualified London vet Charlotte Walker has taken up a fellowship on the tiny South Atlantic island of Tuga de Oro to study the endangered gold coin tortoises in the jungle interior. She can claim the best of reasons for this year in paradise—What better motivation than to save a species?—but the reality is more complex. For Charlotte has secretly come to believe that she has her own connection to this remote and eccentric community, and she is finally determined to solve the mystery that has dominated her life.

Small-town nurse Nina Wentworth has made a career out of being a caretaker. More "Mom" than their mother ever was, she sacrificed medical school - and her first love - so her sister could break free. Which is why she isn't exactly thrilled to see Averil back on Blackberry Island, especially when Nina's life has suddenly become…complicated. Nina unexpectedly finds herself juggling two men - her high school sweetheart and a younger maverick pilot who also wants to claim her heart. But as fun as all this romance is, Nina has real life to deal with.