What happens when your life takes an unexpected turn? What happens when you need to protect the one you love from the one you want to love? What happens when you lose something you never knew you wanted? Lambda and Golden Crown Literary Award-winning author Georgia Beers brings to you her long-awaited seventh novel, Starting from Scratch, a story where learning, laughing, loving, and baked goods are just a few of life’s basic ingredients.

Nothing’s ever been handed to Olivia Santini, and she’s proud of her work ethic. After seven years as the assistant manager of the Evergreen Resort and Spa, she has ideas to improve the bottom line and increase reservations. When her manager resigns, Olivia puts in her résumé and waits for the interview. The job is practically hers - all she needs is the paperwork. Hayley Boyd Markham is the youngest Markham, the only girl, and the most spoiled. An artistic soul in a family of business-minded type, as she’s always felt like a bit of a screwup.

Fifteen years is a long time. Long enough to forget the past, forge ahead, and create a terrific life. Bella Hunt has done exactly that, complete with a successful career, a gaggle of close friends, and a home she loves. Life is good. Or it was, until her teenage nightmare and the bane of her high school existence shows up for Bella’s class on conflict resolution.

As a kid, Adley Purcell dreamed of owning Get the Scoop ice cream shop, and now that she does, she’s worried it could go under. She’s trying to focus on her love of ice cream, but she’s edgy and stressed. And how the hell she’ll survive national dessert chain Sweet Heaven opening a store less than two blocks away, she has no idea. Life is a rocky road right now, and there’s only one cherry on top: the sexy business-suit-clad blonde at happy hour.

Charlie Stetko had a life to envy. A penthouse in Manhattan, a beautiful girlfriend, and a circle of perfect friends. Or so she thought. When her girlfriend sends her packing, Charlie ends up unemployed. Without a place to live or money of her own, she’s forced to do the one thing she vowed she never would: Go back to Shaker Falls, Vermont. Back to her parents, back to the bakery where she worked as a teen, back to the small town life - and the people - she left behind.

Teddi Baker used to believe in happily ever after. It’s why she became a wedding planner and worked so hard to make her business, "Hopelessly Romantic", successful. But after the catastrophe of her own marriage, Teddi loses her heart, her hope, and half of her assets. She is officially jaded, but she needs every job she can get to make ends meet. When bride-to-be Kelly Scott walks in, Teddi is ready. Until she comes face-to-face with Kelly’s sister: Leah Scott, her ex-wife’s divorce attorney. The one who helped ruin her life.

Is there anything worse than your I-don’t-do-commitment ex finally getting married? Not according to Scottie Templeton. Factor in living with her grandma, her rattletrap car, and never-ending job struggles, and Scottie’s stressed.

For Lindsay Kent, Vineyard is her dream job. She's thrilled when her boss leaves her in charge (well, half charge) and tells her to feel free to make changes. Lindsay has tons of ideas that she's been dying to put into action, and this is her big chance to increase the success of the business and prove she's more than ready to run things solo. But getting the boss's daughter on board is harder than expected. The uptight and annoyingly attractive Piper is blocking her every move. For Piper Bradshaw, Vineyard is not her job. She already has one.

If there’s one thing Brooke Sullivan knows for sure is that people let you down, but that hasn’t stopped her from going after the life she wants. In a new city, with a new job and a new start as a high-end real estate agent, she’s finally back on her feet. The last thing she needs is a distraction. Not her volatile neighbors, not a damn stray cat, and certainly not the flaky, infuriatingly adorkable girl-next-door property stager she has to work with.

Since she was 14, singer Sophie James has been an international superstar. With her career (and life) directed by her manager, Ray, she hasn’t had to worry about a thing for more than a decade...not where she goes, not what she sings, not who she is. But when Ray has a heart attack, Sophie is left without the only real father figure she’s ever known and questioning everything she believes about what’s important to her. Enter Dana Landon, the new manager sent by Sophie’s record company.

Accountant and financial advisor Lacey Chamberlain doesn't consider herself a control freak. She's merely a planner-orderly, neat, and content in her tidy little life. When a marketing firm moves into the empty office next door, the loud-music-playing, stinky-food-ordering, kickball-in-the-hall staff make Lacey crazy. Marketing expert Alicia Wright is spontaneous, flies by the seat of her pants, and lives in the moment-all the things Lacey is not. She's also gorgeous, thoughtful, and seems determined to make Lacey like her. They say opposites attract, but for how long? And is that really a good idea?

Cassidy Clarke wants to find herself. Tasked with scattering her friend Mason’s ashes, she heads to the campground where they met as kids. She expects the grief. She expects the guilt. She expects how absent she feels in her own life. What she doesn’t expect is the broken disrepair of the campground. Or the grouchily broody, yet intriguingly beautiful, cabin manager.

For Addison Fairchild, success is a guarantee. Groomed since childhood to run a division of Fairchild Enterprises, she takes her birthright seriously. Maybe a little too seriously, if you ask her friends. But work is so much easier than the rest of her life. For Katie Cooper, money has never been important. That is, until her father gets dementia and needs full-time care. As the bills start to pile up, Katie takes a second job as a temporary personal assistant. Two minutes and one spilled cup of coffee later, she's sure she's not ready for Addison Fairchild.

Cherry Davis is turning her part-time influencer gig into a full-time venture. As Cherry on Top, she’s the happy, loved lesbian lifestyle guide with an enviable relationship, friends, and wardrobe. Reputation is crucial for her business, and if she uses some smoke and mirrors to spice it up? She doesn’t hurt anybody. Everyone else does it, too. Trolls might try to tell her she isn’t being authentic, but she’s tougher than they are. Her childhood gave her a thick skin.

Three years after Courtney McAllister loses her partner in a car accident, she's finally trying to move forward. She's even dated half-heartedly over the past year, but no one is able to penetrate her emotional barricades until she meets aggressive real estate broker Rachel Hart. Despite Rachel's cool facade, Courtney is drawn to her - when she isn't furious with her. Still, despite an undeniable attraction, Courtney has given her heart once and doesn't have room for that kind of love in her life again.

Andrea Blake's life has order. Everything is meticulously laid out and planned, from her house in its quiet neighborhood to her career path at Hagan's, the largest supermarket chain in the Northeast. Andrea knows what she wants. Enter Kendall Foster, the distractingly attractive woman in charge of sales for her family's local microbrewery and somebody who wants very much to get her beer onto Hagan's shelves.

Whisk Me Away is must-see TV. When the famous host arranges a retreat for up-and-coming pastry chefs, Regan Callahan applies. Everything she’s been working for is served up hot and delicious right under her nose: recognition of her self-taught skills, learning from a master, there’s even been a secret prize hinted at that just might give her the means to buy her boss’s bakery when he retires. It’s not supposed to be a competition, but if it is, she’ll do anything to win. Ava Prescott has no intention of allowing that to happen. Not that she’s worried. Regan doesn’t have what it takes.

For Addison Fairchild, success is a guarantee. Groomed since childhood to run a division of Fairchild Enterprises, she takes her birthright seriously. Maybe a little too seriously, if you ask her friends. But work is so much easier than the rest of her life. For Katie Cooper, money has never been important. That is, until her father gets dementia and needs full-time care. As the bills start to pile up, Katie takes a second job as a temporary personal assistant. Two minutes and one spilled cup of coffee later, she's sure she's not ready for Addison Fairchild.

Cherry Davis is turning her part-time influencer gig into a full-time venture. As Cherry on Top, she’s the happy, loved lesbian lifestyle guide with an enviable relationship, friends, and wardrobe. Reputation is crucial for her business, and if she uses some smoke and mirrors to spice it up? She doesn’t hurt anybody. Everyone else does it, too. Trolls might try to tell her she isn’t being authentic, but she’s tougher than they are. Her childhood gave her a thick skin.

For Lindsay Kent, Vineyard is her dream job. She's thrilled when her boss leaves her in charge (well, half charge) and tells her to feel free to make changes. Lindsay has tons of ideas that she's been dying to put into action, and this is her big chance to increase the success of the business and prove she's more than ready to run things solo. But getting the boss's daughter on board is harder than expected. The uptight and annoyingly attractive Piper is blocking her every move. For Piper Bradshaw, Vineyard is not her job. She already has one.

Britton Walsh has never had a home. After a lifetime in the care system, she doesn't expect she’ll ever find one. But beginning her senior year with new foster parents, in a new city, means starting over - yet again. Tom and Cate Cahill seem okay. The hitch? Their daughter, Avery. Beautiful, popular, and cool, Avery is everything Britton is not. She’s all Britton could ever ask for in a sister, or even a friend - but having survived without either for so long, Britton knows the way her heart races whenever Avery enters the room can only mean one thing.

Melanie Larson is an attractive, extremely successful business executive who shocks herself by resigning from her job when her company merges with another and relocates. While trying to decide what to do with her life next and at the urging of her uncle, Melanie heads to Rochester, New York, to stay temporarily with her cousin Samantha. She hopes to use her business savvy in an attempt to help Sam sort out the financial woes of her small bookstore. During her stay, Melanie meets and becomes close to the family that owns the property on which Samantha lives.

Sarah Brennan is a hockey player in the new professional women's league, but it's her mind she wants to exercise when she enrolls in a university class on Irish literature. Professor Claire Joyce is no fan of pro athletes, especially after a failed marriage to one. Unfortunately her ten-year-old daughter adores hockey, and her idol happens to be none other than Sarah Brennan. Falling in love with someone who barely tolerates sports and athletes finally forces Sarah, at thirty-six, to admit that her career is in overtime, and to consider what life might look like after hockey.

Rocky Springs is the last place Kit Hartman wants to be. But when the home renovation show that was supposed to be her big break gets canceled, she has no choice but to return to the sleepy little mountain town and take a job in the family business. The only good news is that she finally has time to adopt a dog. Olive might be a perfect dog someday. For now, she's a naughty handful. And when she knocks down an attractive stranger at the dog park, Kit realizes she's in over her head. Especially since the stranger is someone she recognizes.

London Granger gave up her modeling career for investigative journalism only to discover no one would hire her to write anything important. The only way out of her dead-end job? Investigate something the internet will actually read. That’s how her next assignment becomes “What’s it Really Like to Date a Billionaire?” Her boss hooks her up on a glitzy getaway to St. Kitts as the companion of obscenely wealthy Miranda Northbrooke. Miranda’s only request: when they inevitably run into the ex who dumped her, London must play the role of Miranda’s adoring new girlfriend.

A chance meeting over a runaway pooch is the start of a journey for each woman. Over the course of one unbelievable summer set on the beautiful shores of Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York, these two women will teach one another, learn from one another, question their own beliefs and expectations, and unwittingly fall in love.

Welcome to Junebug Farms, a successful, well-known animal shelter in upstate New York, where every day brings something new - love, stress, heartbreak, warmth - and not just from the animals. Lisa Drakemore is in charge of intake and adoption at Junebug. She excels at her job, in large part because of her ability to keep her emotions in check. Her past has given her many years of practice and she's become a pro. But once she meets dog-walking volunteer Ashley Stiles all bets are off for Lisa.

After being fired from her job and faced with a dwindling bank account, Jennifer Harris finds herself at a crossroads, uncertain of her next move. When her best friend suggests that she stay at a cabin on the edge of her family's property for a few weeks, Jennifer reluctantly agrees. While escaping the chaos is enticing, Jennifer grapples with her fear of change and the unknown. Before she can change her mind, she leaves her dreary apartment behind and drives toward the coast, bracing herself for the unfamiliar challenges ahead.

Three years after Courtney McAllister loses her partner in a car accident, she's finally trying to move forward. She's even dated half-heartedly over the past year, but no one is able to penetrate her emotional barricades until she meets aggressive real estate broker Rachel Hart. Despite Rachel's cool facade, Courtney is drawn to her - when she isn't furious with her. Still, despite an undeniable attraction, Courtney has given her heart once and doesn't have room for that kind of love in her life again.

Nothing’s ever been handed to Olivia Santini, and she’s proud of her work ethic. After seven years as the assistant manager of the Evergreen Resort and Spa, she has ideas to improve the bottom line and increase reservations. When her manager resigns, Olivia puts in her résumé and waits for the interview. The job is practically hers - all she needs is the paperwork. Hayley Boyd Markham is the youngest Markham, the only girl, and the most spoiled. An artistic soul in a family of business-minded type, as she’s always felt like a bit of a screwup.