At fifty-five, Madeline Harper faces an unexpected plot twist in her own life, much like the romantic tales she pens. Once a celebrated romance author, she now confronts a crumbling marriage and a career at the brink of collapse. Her latest manuscript is rejected, and her agent delivers an ultimatum: reinvent your writing or risk fading into obscurity.

She’s 43 years old…and starting over from scratch. How did this happen? She had it all together. A stable marriage of two decades. Two grown daughters. And now she and her husband, empty nesters, were moving to a beach house. Until he showed up late one night and tore their marriage apart. A secret life. A different woman. Another family. Left alone, she has to begin again. And then her estranged sister and mother get thrown into the mix. When she buys a house on a small South Carolina island, will she learn what life is really about?

Quinn came to Whiskey Ridge with a secret. He never expects the woman sharing an office with him might uncover it accidentally. Kelly just wanted to run away from her problems. She needs order and quiet, but her neighbor is driving her crazy. Plus, he’s a little too attractive, and she doesn’t need that right now.

Josie Campbell has spent her entire adult life distancing herself from her childhood in the small Southern town of Happy Harbor. Growing up with an alcoholic mother who was either absent or scandalizing the town with her antics, all Josie ever wanted was to escape to somewhere no one knew her. Now, she finally has it all—a great job, a condo in one of Atlanta’s most desirable areas, a successful fiancé, and her daughter, Kendra, enrolled at a top-rated school. But when that life falls apart, and her beloved nana dies, Josie is forced to return to the one place she never wanted to visit again.

Kyle Parker never expected to see her again, and now he’s standing on her front porch with a foreclosure notice in his hand. Jenna can’t believe her eyes. Her life is a mess, her daughter is depending on her, and the one person who can wreck the rest of her day is standing there with a pink slip of paper in his hand. When she left him standing in a cloud of dust all those years ago, he vowed to never see or speak to her again. Now, he has to make a big decision—let her destroy his life all over again, or pay her back for what she did?

Danielle Wright has had an illustrious career as a nurse, but when the unthinkable happens, she has nowhere to run to get out of the gaze of prying eyes and judgmental people. When she takes a job as the nurse for Wisteria Island, she has no clue what she's agreeing to. The brainchild of a wealthy entrepreneur, Wisteria Island is home to a cast of quirky, and often difficult, characters. When Danielle finds out why the previous eight nurses have all quit within days, she has to decide whether to stick it out or go back to a life she no longer recognizes.

I NEVER wanted to be a daredevil. Even as the 49-year-old adult that I am, I still don’t want to ride a roller coaster or jump out of a perfectly good airplane. And I don’t understand people who want to do those things—even my lifelong best friend. And yet, here I am, holding a list of daredevil-ish things in my hand at my best friend’s will reading. I am SO going to get her back for this in the afterlife. So, my outgoing, adventurous best friend decided to leave me her estate but only if I completed her bucket list. HERS, not mine

Indy Stone is a well regarded professional therapist with her life all planned out. She's spent her life trying to escape her dysfunctional upbringing in Peach Valley. But when fate intervenes and causes her to return to her hometown with a huge responsibility on her shoulders, she never expects it to change her entire life. Through all of her hard times, there was always one bright spot in Peach Valley, but he disappeared years ago. Or did he?

When the unthinkable happens, and Claire Thompson's husband dies suddenly, she's left wondering how to go on. Being a wife and mother is all she's ever known. Grieving and lost, she decides to take her family for one last trip to their beach house before she's forced to put it up for sale. The house is filled with happy memories, and it seems like a great way to remember Bryan.

The very moment that Raina Wingate learns her husband of sixteen years wants to separate, she gets a call that her father has suffered a stroke. Racing to her family’s home on Amelia Island, Florida, Raina hopes the time apart will heal her cracked marriage and that she can step into her father’s real estate business and keep it running. Her sister, Tori, a divorcee who owns a catering business in Boston, also flies in to join the others at the hospital. But an unexpected run-in with their father’s rather attractive neurologist adds a new dimension to the days and weeks ahead.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

Five Years Earlier: Henry Dunne knows three things: that agreeing to host this raucous house party was a terrible idea, that he absolutely cannot show up to his nursing shift tomorrow with a hangover, and that the beautiful redhead in the corner will be sleeping in his bed tonight.

Ryder, Garrett, Kenzo, and Diesel - The Vipers. Their deals are as sordid as their business, and their reputation is enough to bring a grown man to his knees, forcing him to beg for mercy. They are not people you mess with, yet my dad did. The old man ran up a debt with them and then sold me to cover his losses. Yes, sold me. They own me now. I’m theirs in every sense of the word. But I’ve never been meek and compliant.

Obituary writer Nadine Barbault doesn’t mind being called “Lady Death”. It suits the ice queen persona she’s cultivated to survive the fast-paced Toronto Herald. So when Nadine learns that famous (and reclusive) author Dot Voline has died, she doesn’t hesitate to run the obituary…only to discover that Dot is very much alive. Nadine’s screw-up has brought Wesley Chen of the rival Spear no end of joy—she’s been a thorn in his extremely ambitious side for years. But the renewed interest in Dot also surfaced chatter about a mysterious past scandal.

Hockey coach Ashley Jaswal doesn't take nonsense from anyone … except her overbearing and superstitious family. They believe she's a good luck charm for her brother Jas, the newest Vancouver Canucks draft pick, forcing Ash to attend all his games as he rises up the NHL ranks, sacrificing her personal life (not that she has one—who decided hockey season needed to be 10 months long anyway?). Ash also clashes with Jas’s teammate, Canucks captain Devin Snyder.