Shane Cassidy's wish list is short this year. The young widower just wants his little daughter to be happy and his quiet son to come out of his room once in a while. Shane is determined to be there every minute for his kids, but when he runs into big trouble with the family horse farm around Christmas time, he realizes they just might need a helping hand. It turns out hiring a new nanny might wind him up in a whole new kind of trouble.

When the Chambers sisters receive an invitation from their jet-setting aunt to spend the entire month of December at the family's cabin in Asheville, North Carolina, they have one question—why? The retreat, tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains, may be the site of many happy childhood holidays and summers, but it also holds sad memories. The sisters and their aunt have spent twenty-five years avoiding the cabin and renting it to strangers. Why would Aunt Elizabeth want her "dearest darling" nieces to put their busy lives in three different states on hold and spend a month in the mountains?

Competing as a professional rodeo cowboy was everything he wanted. All that mattered. An opportunity he wouldn’t pass by. But it meant leaving his high-school sweetheart behind. Mae Wells was sweet, and innocent, and quiet. Not the kind of girl you dragged away from her family and home to follow you around the country. At eighteen it didn’t seem like a huge sacrifice. But at almost thirty, Boone’s lived enough and lost enough to realize he threw away something precious. Something he’s been chasing ever since.

When social worker Jessica Larson asks deputy sheriff Sterling McCallum for help finding the mother of an abandoned baby, he can’t refuse. The brooding cop has a stone in place of a heart and a past as mysterious as the case that brings them together. Something compels Jessica to brave the emotions Sterling arouses within her. But when their secrets come to the surface, can the two handle the shocking revelations?

Still grieving the loss of her husband, Maddie retreats to the peaceful isolation of her Aunt Schatzi’s mountain home in the Smoky Mountains hoping for a quiet retreat. Christmas is approaching, but instead of bringing joy, the holiday season brings memories that intensify Maddie’s loneliness. Snowed in and surrounded by a winter wonderland, she begins to confront the grief that has left her feeling stuck in the past, and the strained relationship with her sister that needs to change.

Hailey Morgan’s life has always revolved around music. She once had big dreams of becoming a professional songwriter, but the reality of life has led her to working as an assistant high school band teacher in Portland. As the holidays approach, Hailey dreads the annual tradition of spending Christmas with her family and dodging her mother’s meddling questions about her love life.

Single mom Lexie Bell hopes to make this first Christmas in their new home special for her six-year-old son, Brock. Festive lights and homemade fudge, check. Friendly neighbors? Uh, no. Stanley Mann lost his Christmas spirit when he lost his wife and he sees no point in looking for it. Until she shows up in his dreams and informs him it's time to ditch his scroogey attitude. Stanley digs in his heels, but she's determined to haunt him until he wakes up and rediscovers the joys of the season. He can start by being a little more neighborly to the single mom next door.

Growing up at the Shelter Inn hotel, Natalie Shepherd envied guests who could come and go as they pleased. So when it was time to finally leave for college and put the lush green mountains around Shelter Springs—along with the cloud of loss that seemed to follow her family—behind her, she swore she’d never come back. But now her sister McKenna needs a favor. On pregnancy bed rest at doctor’s orders, McKenna needs a helping hand with her two young daughters and someone to take over the inn during the hectic holiday season, and Nat can’t refuse.

With the rest of her family on a cruise, Lindsay Calhoun will be spending her first Christmas alone, so she volunteers to plan an especially festive holiday party for her company. Her coworkers are grateful—except for tall, quiet Jack Taylor. Jack has always been a loner, but something about Christmas puts him in an unusually foul mood.

For outsiders, Painted Canyon, Montana might simply be a picturesque western town, but for rancher and horse trainer Cord Hollister, it's meant salvation. That's why he recognizes in newcomer Shallie Fletcher another lost soul looking for a fresh start. But can he convince her that Painted Canyon is the perfect place to put down roots-and that love awaits if she'll just take a chance?

Samantha Parker is picking up the pieces of her life—and a pen to sign divorce papers—after she finds out her husband has been cheating on her and the other woman is expecting his child. While the idea of leaving town and starting over is appealing, Sam's only option is to head back to her childhood home of Cocoa Beach, Florida, to help her recently widowed mother run their family inn. Can she go home and start her whole life over at forty-three?

After fifteen years as a Coast Guard search and rescue specialist and a stint at headquarters, Lieutenant Craig Cole hopes to quietly finish out his career in his new assignment as commander of the Coast Guard station on Nantucket. But there’s nothing quiet about his clash with feisty red-haired charter fishing boat captain Katherine MacDonald, who does not appreciate a safety citation from one of the new hotshot commander’s underlings. As she and the commander go head to head, sparks fly … in more ways than one.

From Emma Cane, Jennifer Ryan, and Katie Lane come three wildly romantic holiday stories featuring snowstorms, proposals, a sleigh ride...and, yes, cowboys.

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.

Unsure of the future but ready for risks, Libby O’Dell trades big-city life for whatever the back roads hold. In this case it’s the small community of Sawmill, Texas, where Libby’s taken a temporary job putting an antique store in order. Her new boss, Benny Taylor, a handsome charmer with a three-legged dog named Elvis, isn’t a bad change of scenery, either. Across the street Benny’s surrogate grandmothers—the widows Minilee and Opal—are ready with homemade corn bread, sweet tea, and an invitation for Libby to join their book club.