Nolan O’Brien is a public prosecutor, and if he ever sees the name Bruno Barbieri again, it will be too soon. After a long week preparing for the trial of the decade, it takes no convincing to hit the men’s club for a few drinks. Except the club wasn’t the only thing he hit that night.

Ethan Sharpe is living every young Kiwi's dream—seeing the world for a couple of years while deciding what to do with his life, no rush. Then he gets a call. Two days later he's back in New Zealand. Six months later his mother is dead, his 15-year-old brother is going off the rails, and the café he's inherited is failing. His life is a hot mess and the last thing he needs is another complication—like the man who just walked into his café—a much older...sinfully hot...epic complication.

When ghostwriter Maz Amani inherits a house from an uncle he’s never heard of, he offers heartfelt thanks to the universe, packs up his car, his cat, and his skepticism about mysterious uncles leaving all their worldly goods to unknown nephews, and high-tails it to a small town halfway to the Oregon coast. Anything would be better than week after week of couch surfing his way around Portland. Even if the alleged house is a rundown shack ridden with termites, spiders, and—shudder—rats, he’ll deal. Because hey, he owns a house!

Foxed: to be thrown into a state of uncertainty—flustered, bamboozled, bewildered, puzzled, vexed. A.k.a., me. Jed Marshall. Fifty-five-year-old successful classic-car mechanic; divorced, mostly closeted, and whose wholly inexperienced bisexuality has suddenly awakened after one smoldering look and said, "Damn, who’s the hottie?" Or words to that effect.

Weirdly, people don’t react overly well when you’re caught standing over the dead body of a murderer who’d walked free. It’s not that I thought my fellow homicide detective would rejoice when he saw what I’d done, but is a pat on the back too much to ask for? Maybe a gold star at the very least? The problem is that the person who caught me is Gabriel, the only person I care for and adore… and he’s prepared to look the other way if I leave homicide and promise to never kill again.

When Judah Madden flees his tiny suffocating home town in New Zealand for the dream of international ballet stardom, he never intends coming back. Not to Painted Bay. Not to his family’s struggling mussel farm. Not to his jerk of a brother. Not with his entire life plan in shreds. And certainly not into the tempting arms of Morgan Wipene, the older ruggedly handsome fisheries officer who seems determined to screw with Judah’s intention to wallow in peace. But dreams are fickle things.

Drake Park has a complicated life. As a gay male midwife, he’s used to raising eyebrows. Add Crohn’s Disease and things get interesting—or not, considering the sad state of his love life. Experience has taught Drake that most men are fair weather sailors when it comes to handling his condition—gone for dust when things get rough. Staying healthy is a fulltime job without adding in any heartbreak, so a little loneliness is a small price to pay. If he says it often enough he might even believe it. One thing for sure, the cop who arrested him isn’t about to change that.

George Hunt can think of nothing he’d like more than to skip the high-society fundraiser where he has to guard a precocious seventeen-year-old girl and her judgmental therapist, but there’s no way out of it. If anything bad were to happen and he wasn’t there to stop it, he’d never forgive himself. So even though she’s grilling him about his dating life and the good doctor is psychoanalyzing him, he’s going to soldier on, because protecting his charges is what a knight does.

Cassidy Martin is a country boy through and through. He loves his horses, his Lord of the Rings tourist business, and his isolated paradise at the foot of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Not that everyone appreciates the seclusion he craves. Take his ex-wife, for example. The sexy-as-hell guy on his latest tour might be whip-smart and push all of Cass’ buttons, but he’s about as country as a pair of Louboutins, and Cass has been there and done that. Broken heart with the T-shirt.

Keats McCulloch opened his florist shop in Sydney two years ago and he’s living his dream. Even though running his own business leaves little room for a personal life, he is very single, sometimes lonely, but otherwise happy.

Rowe Prince is many things. But when it turns out Rowe’s lies conceal a secret that threatens the company I’ve spent years building, I have to choose: say goodbye to the sweet pretender I’m falling for, or risk everything for a man who just might be… the prince of lies.

Two years ago, I made a mistake, a big one. Then I added a couple more just for good measure. I screwed up my life, but I survived. Now I have the opportunity for a fresh start. Two years in NZ. Away from the LA gossip, a chance to breathe, to rebuild my life. But I’m taking a new set of rules with me. I don’t do relationships. I don’t do commitment. I don’t do white picket fences. And I especially don’t do arrogant, holier-than-thou, smoking hot K9 officers who walk into my ER and rock my world.

Frankie Bishop had only been married for a few months when he became a widower, leaving him with a mountain of debts, a business on the edge of ruin, and a parrot called Hank Marvin. Three years later, the business is finally thriving, and Frankie finds himself ready to look for love again. It comes as a complete surprise to discover that he’s developed feelings for Con — his late husband’s best friend and now Frankie’s business partner.

All people see when they look at me is a beautiful man, a supermodel, half of the world’s most famous twins. No one sees the man underneath. When I return to Forestville, the small town I grew up in, for my high school reunion, I impulsively decide to stay.

There’s nothing wrong with admiring a work of art, or so I tell myself…even when the admiring is more like peeping out my bedroom window, and the work of art is the shirtless, sweaty, body of the man who’s been mowing my lawn once a week every summer for years.

Cassidy Martin is a country boy through and through. He loves his horses, his Lord of the Rings tourist business, and his isolated paradise at the foot of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Not that everyone appreciates the seclusion he craves. Take his ex-wife, for example. The sexy-as-hell guy on his latest tour might be whip-smart and push all of Cass’ buttons, but he’s about as country as a pair of Louboutins, and Cass has been there and done that. Broken heart with the T-shirt.

When Judah Madden flees his tiny suffocating home town in New Zealand for the dream of international ballet stardom, he never intends coming back. Not to Painted Bay. Not to his family’s struggling mussel farm. Not to his jerk of a brother. Not with his entire life plan in shreds. And certainly not into the tempting arms of Morgan Wipene, the older ruggedly handsome fisheries officer who seems determined to screw with Judah’s intention to wallow in peace. But dreams are fickle things.

Maxwell Thornton isn’t a people person, but that never mattered to him because he’d lived for his job. After losing a patient during an operation, he’s afraid to pick up the scalpel again. He resigns his position in the city and takes a job as sole GP in the isolated town of Rainy Dale, Texas, population 1,001. Rainy Dale is populated with eccentrics who test his patience and seem to think he’s not only there to treat their illnesses, but that he’s also there to be their therapist. When one of his most annoying patients ends up dead in his pool, he has some explaining to do.

Two years ago, I made a mistake, a big one. Then I added a couple more just for good measure. I screwed up my life, but I survived. Now I have the opportunity for a fresh start. Two years in NZ. Away from the LA gossip, a chance to breathe, to rebuild my life. But I’m taking a new set of rules with me. I don’t do relationships. I don’t do commitment. I don’t do white picket fences. And I especially don’t do arrogant, holier-than-thou, smoking hot K9 officers who walk into my ER and rock my world.

I’ve been alive for millennia and have yet to meet my fated mate. It’s not something I’ve ever cared about; my heart already belongs to another. Someone I can’t have. Someone who doesn’t want me. Now I know we’ll never be together. Unlike me, he’s found his fated mates. Two of them. That’s fine. As leader of the Seraphim, Heaven’s most elite unit of angels, I don’t have time for love.

If I had to choose one word to describe my new cocky costar, it’d be exasperating. Nikolas Adamos may look like a Greek god—and he certainly struts around like he knows it—but unlike everyone else, I refuse to fall prey to his charms. Unfortunately for me, Niko and I get paired to do a series of lovey-dovey boyfriend videos for our employers at Elite 8 Studios. And when you film the sort of scenes we do, up close and personal takes on a whole new meaning.

When I left Birchbark angry and heartbroken, I vowed never to return. Fate had other plans. The father I hate had a stroke, so now I'm back in the Upper Peninsula to take care of him. The locals treat Dad like royalty, while Dad vacillates between open anger and flat-out ignoring me. Throw in my messy relationship with my brothers, and being in Birchbark becomes unbearable.

What’s a straight guy to do when he accidentally goes on a date with his brand new gym-bro? Offer to be the best wingman ever, of course! It’s foolproof. Joey needs a man? I’ll find him one. He wants someone who looks, well, kind of like me? No problem! Not into watersports? I’ve got him covered. The issue is, going on all these dates with Joey makes me realize I want more of his time to be spent with me. I like the guy. And his smile. And the way he makes me feel like anything is possible.

Nico knows he’s difficult; he has the string of exes to prove it. But staying sharp was the only way to stay safe in the cutthroat world of modeling, and it turns out, graduate school isn’t any gentler. Career first. Boys…later. Jadon knows he’s burning out; his partner at the Metropolitan Police is more than happy to remind him of that fact. But the last time he let himself get distracted, people died, and he’s not going to let it happen again. And Nico was nothing but a distraction.

Harrison Phillip Fletcher III isn't supposed to be here. Not in Burlington, Vermont, not running Vino & Veritas, a quaint inclusive bookstore and wine bar, and definitely not still alive, at 42. Also not supposed to be here? An unexpected delivery of chickens. Finn Barnes knows chickens. The burly organic farmer knows all about rare breed poultry, but dealing with a hot older bookseller is an entirely different matter. City-slicker types like Harrison never end up staying in Vermont for the long-term. They should steer clear of each other. But the flare of attraction is mutual.