Showing results by author "Eileen Goudge" in All Categories

The town of Paradiso, California, is abuzz during the lead-up to its annual Peach Blossom Festival. This year, the theme is the 1950s, so the locals are already calling the soon-to-be-named queen, “Peggy Sue” after the Buddy Holly song. The four finalists are all seniors at the high school, with an equal chance of winning the crown—or dying . . .

With the killer of the Peach Blossom Queen still on the loose and the festival on hold, everyone is on edge in the small town of Paradiso, California. Amid all the horror and sorrow, one good thing has happened: the hunkiest guy in school likes Hope Hubbard. It’s a dream come true for the high school computer whiz (and sometimes bookie). But she’s not betting on everything getting back to normal soon. As a tornado of rumors swirls through town, a few suspects are cleared while others emerge.

With a suspect who has confessed to the murder of the Peach Blossom Queen behind bars, the cloud over Paradiso, California, has lifted. Along with everyone else, high school senior and part-time sleuth Hope Hubbard is relieved to move on from the tragedy and flurry of false accusations. When the new Peach Blossom Queen is announced, the longshot winner realizes that it’s no fun being celebrated by the town when someone you’ve known your whole life is behind bars.

Senior year isn’t supposed to end like this—with the death of a fellow student. Now, instead of fun times with good friends, there is fear and mourning. The girl who was to be crowned queen of the annual Peach Blossom Festival has been brutally murdered, leaving behind a trail of broken bonds and malicious rumors in her wake . . .

When the two grown daughters of Elizabeth Marshall discover an old diary of their mother's in the attic, it comes as a shock to learn that the true love of Elizabeth's life was not their father. But is all as it seems? That's the mystery the two daughters must unravel as they stay up late reading the words penned by Elizabeth so long ago.

On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a neglected dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women called the Tattooed Ladies Club. They’re there for Kyra—and for each other.

Rosie and Abigail are like family, Ina Merriweather used to say. That is, until the day Ina abruptly cast out her housekeeper, Rosie, and her 15-year-old daughter, Abigail. Abigail felt deeply betrayed, especially by Ina's daughter, Lila, who was her closest friend. Only Lila's twin brother, Vaughn, with whom Abigail had been exploring the joys and heartaches of first love, showed any compassion.

A daughter holds clues to her father's shocking secrets and her mother would risk anything to protect those secrets. Grace Truscott, in the biography of her father - a great civil-rights advocate and Senator - raises questions about a death. Was her own father guilty of killing Ned Emory, the husband of his African-American secretary?

After years spent in the shadow of her movie-star sister, Monica, Anna Vincenzi finally remakes herself. But with Monica is murdered, Anna is arrested as the prime suspect. Fortunately, Anna is not alone as she fights to exonerate herself. When a Carson Springs dweller as beloved as Anna needs help, all the valley's residents rally together, each working in his or her own special way to help one of their own.

Rachel and Rose, now women with grown children of their own, find themselves face-to-face at last with the destiny that has haunted them nearly half a century, since the two of them were switched at birth in the chaos of a hospital fire.

What confronts them now threatens to uproot a lifetime of deeply buried secrets: the impending marriage of Rose's capable and caring son to Rachel's emotionally troubled daughter.

Lindsay and Kerrie Ann are sisters who have known hardship from an early age. Without guidance from their neglectful mother, their only aid came from an unlikely source, a retired exotic dancer by the name of Miss Honi Love. When the girls' mother was sent to prison, Miss Honi tried unsuccessfully to save them from being separated and sent into foster care. Thirty years later, Lindsay is still trying to reconnect with her sister.

Former equestrienne Kate Sutton's hopes for both show-jumping stardom and a family are shattered in a fateful fall from a horse. Yet the miscarriage also brings her an abandoned infant she and her husband claim as their own daughter. Then she reads the headlines about the kidnapped baby and the young mother who lost her, and faces the soul-wrenching decision of her life.

Fifteen years after their Princeton graduation, Jay, Franny, Emerson, and Stevie meet at a college reunion. Life has taken each of them in different directions - Jay is a married man with a baby on the way, while Franny yearns for a child. Divorced single mom Emerson is drawn to a man who challenges her assumptions about finding a once-in-a-lifetime love. And Stevie has recently been rocked by a shocking revelation - the answer to a long-kept family secret.

From home invasions to cheating spouses, Rest Easy Property Management owner Leticia Tish Ballard thought she'd seen it all. Almost four years sober after flambéing her real estate career in an alcohol-fueled blowout, she's finally in a good place in her life when the discovery of skeletal human remains rocks her world and plunges her headlong into solving a decades-old crime. Now she must delve into the darkness of her own past, including the one-night stand gone horribly wrong with Spence Breedlove, who happens to be the lead detective on the case.

With a Hollywood movie about to start filming in the California seaside town of Cypress Bay, Tish Ballard, owner of Rest Easy Property Management, welcomes her first celebrity tenant. Delilah Ward isn't your typical beautiful, spoiled actress; she's America's sweetheart. Even Tish is charmed by the young star, which makes her gruesome discovery of Delilah's bloodied corpse all the more gut-wrenching. With so much at stake, Tish has no choice but to do whatever it takes to lure a crafty killer out of hiding.

The Second Silence takes us into the breaking heart of Noelle Van Doren, whose only child is snatched from her by her estranged husband, Robert, a powerful real-estate developer. As Noelle and her long-estranged parents, Mary and Charlie, frantically peel away layers of mystery regarding Robert's past, the lives of each begin to change in unexpectedly wrenching ways.

On the eve of their 40th wedding anniversary, the Seagraves are among the most envied couples in their community, and still deeply in love - until the night Lydia Seagrave picks up a gun and shoots her husband. Confronting a tangle of family lies in the wake of this shocking tragedy are the three Seagrave sisters.

Can a New York City journalist exchange her subway pass for an SUV and find happiness? Can a small-town wife and mother take on the role of single city woman and discover a whole new life? Jessie Holland is in search of a hot story for Savvy magazine when her editor poses a compelling question: Can you ever really go home again? Jumping on the idea, and with her love life currently at a crossroads, Jessie plans to return to her Arizona hometown and follow the path not taken - with a twist.

Beneath the tranquil surface of Carson Springs, disputes flare, feuds simmer, and secrets are guarded. In Stranger in Paradise, a woman's love for a much younger man ignites a blaze of disapproval. Goudge's legion of fans will be drawn irresistibly into the life of this beautiful, lush, unique valley where family histories have dangerously deep and tangled roots.

Everyone knows that feisty, sensual Gerry Fitzgerald wasn't always so outspoken. As a young novitiate, Gerry became pregnant, fleeing the altar just as she was about to take her vows and never breathing a word about why. Twenty-eight years later the child she gave up for adoption has returned, a grown woman looking for answers. Now Gerry must learn how to defuse the years of guilt, shame, and bitterness that divide her from her daughter.