Showing results by author "Stephanie Taylor" in All Categories

Florida’s Space Coast—1963. People flock south to make the Sunshine State their winter playground, moving to the brand new beach towns and neighborhoods to live their lives in the sun. But the families moving to Stardust Beach near Cape Kennedy aren’t there for canasta and cocktails; the men aren’t going to spend their days on the golf courses, and the women aren’t there for fashion shows and shuffleboard. These couples are young, driven, and there to make history. These are the First Families of NASA’s new space program, and they’re ready to aim for the moon… Josephine ...

When a woman is prized first and foremost for her looks, what does she have left to offer when the world decides those looks are fading? Marigold Pim, once the darling of the modeling world, graced the covers of nearly every prestigious fashion magazine on the planet. Her beauty made her the epitome of glamour as a young woman—and also led her straight into the arms of Cobb Hartley, the famous-but-troubled British rockstar. They raised a son together and endured two decades of a complicated marriage, but now they’re happily divorced and living their lives on different continents. For ...

A President dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving a secret mistress and their twelve-year-old son…and also a loyal First Lady who has no idea what went wrong with their marriage. Forty-nine-year old widow Ruby Hudson, the former First Lady of the United States, needs a fresh start. As she mourns the loss of her husband, she turns her love of books into a whole new career, opening a little bookshop on a charming, pirate-themed island called Shipwreck Key just off the coast of the Florida Panhandle. Her two daughters think she’s crazy, but Ruby can finally breathe again knowing ...

It's wedding season on Christmas Key, and with the arrival of a Hollywood starlet and her groom-to-be, the locals are knee-deep in cake frosting and mysterious paparazzi! Can Holly Baxter pull off this top-secret wedding and make her famous guests happy? And will the nuptials of a wealthy couple leave two of the islanders with the kind of wedding envy that makes them wish they'd never even planned to say "I do"? Changes are happening fast on the growing island, and Holly realizes quickly that everything is better if you leave room for a little nonsense! Small town Clean and wholesome ...

Everyone loves a good holiday, and no one loves the season more than the women of Shipwreck Key... Former First Lady Ruby Hudson finally has things settled when it comes to her heart, and along with a solid romance, she has both of her daughters on the island for Christmas. Her best friend, Sunday Bond, is feeling secure and in love, and all of the island's residents are geared up for a holiday season full of laughter, love, and fun. They've invited family and friends to Shipwreck Key to help them celebrate, and there's even a hint of that most rare and impossible thing in Florida: SNOW! To...

When a woman gets to a certain age, everyone forgets that she has a long and vibrant life behind her. Molly is no different; at sixty-five, the residents of Shipwreck Key see her as just the proprietress of The Scuttlebutt, the island's coffee shop. But Molly has lived—really lived—and she has the battle scars to prove it. In 1982, when her beloved husband Rodney died in a boating accident off the coast of Hawaii, Molly was left a widow in her early twenties. But not only was she left to live without her best friend and life partner the day his boat vanished, her hopes and dreams to ...

Ruby Hudson has avoided reading the words of her late husband, President Jack Hudson--until now... For most of his life, Jack kept meticulous and well-written journals and diaries about his life. After his death, everything was boxed up and put into storage, but now, nearly two years after his passing, Ruby is ready to start unpacking her past and making sense of her husband's choices. With the month of August to herself on Shipwreck Key, Ruby brings out the boxes of journals dating back to the 70s, and she tries to unravel the mystery of her marriage: where did it go wrong? What had she ...

Life giveth, and life taketh away. For a woman of a certain age, loss is not unexpected, but when Ruby Hudson loses someone she loves dearly, it changes everything... At fifty, Ruby knows that life is a series of ups and downs, wins and losses, but she's still wholly unprepared to lose someone she loves so much. In the process of working through her grief, she discovers that there was so much she didn't know about this person she loved--so many contradictions and hidden stories. Has she turned a blind eye to everything but being First Lady, raising kids, and, now, to being a widow? Did she ...

*This box set includes the first two full-length novels of the series plus one of the novellas. There is no ending in this box set as the series is ongoing! When stagnation threatens the future of her beloved island, 30-year-old mayor Holly Baxter goes head-to-head with the community’s elderly retirees. With secrets swirling, family drama brewing, and an ex-boyfriend hanging around, can Holly find a way to save her slice of paradise? Her best bet is to allow a reality show to film on the island, but not everyone is thrilled to have cameras and prying eyes on Christmas Key. In fact, one of...

A Secret Service agent devotes his life to protecting the people he serves…until one day he realizes that the person who needs protecting is him. Henry Banks is a former Marine, a career Secret Service agent, and the only man allowed into the Shipwreck Key book club full of women. He’s like a handsome brick wall who doesn’t show emotion, but he’s finally let his guard down—just a little bit—to let Sunday Bond in. Banks and the former Second Lady have been dating for a few months, but now that they’re in their fifties and both divorced once, the dating dance has become more ...

Mayor Holly Baxter has her hands full: the island is hosting a group of rowdy, swashbuckling weekend pirates; her ex-boyfriend's new love interest has decided to stick around; mysterious holes keep popping up all over the island; and a new family is ready to make Christmas Key home--a family that includes rambunctious six-year-old twin boys... After leaving the island on Christmas Eve, River O'Leary has started texting and calling Holly again, stirring up feelings in her that she's been too busy to ponder. But will having River back in her life finally free Holly from the ties that bind her...

A hilarious tropical romp: When stagnation threatens the future of her beloved island, mayor Holly goes head-to-head with the community’s elderly retirees. With secrets swirling, family drama brewing, and an ex-boyfriend hanging around, can Holly find a way to save her slice of paradise? With her beloved island's future on the line, Mayor Holly Baxter must choose between progress and the status quo, and she'll go up against a small army of golf cart driving retirees to do it. Throw in some major family drama, long-kept secrets, and the complication of a new romance that sparks under the ...

In a world that expects near perfection from people in ministry, it is hard to be honest about struggles of being a pastor's wife or a woman in ministry—let alone have a sense of humor about it! In their popular podcast, Pastors' Wives Tell All, Jessica Taylor, Stephanie Gilbert, and Jenna Allen create a safe place for pastors' wives and women in ministry to be their most authentic selves. Now they're bringing their wit and wisdom to women through the spoken word.

When a woman needs to flee a bad marriage, it doesn’t matter that she’s the wife of the former Vice President, it only matters that she escapes... Sunday Bond longs for a life far from Washington D.C., and far from the husband who has kept her in a gilded cage for too long, locked up there with only his dark secrets to keep her company. When Sunday’s best friend, the former First Lady, moves south to Shipwreck Key, Sunday goes for a visit and decides to stay. The remote island off the coast of Florida is the perfect place to avoid the world’s prying eyes and to forget about her ...

Francesca Lombardi’s ascent from glamorous Rockette in the late 1950s to star of the Broadway stage seemed like a given; nothing could stand in her way. But something did—something broke her spirit and she gave up dancing and left New York for good, swearing that she’d never set foot on a stage again... Fast forward a few years and Francesca has been refashioned as Frankie, gorgeous wife to one of NASA’s newest astronauts, Ed Maxwell. Frankie’s new group of friends loves her for her acerbic wit and sharp outlook on life, and her close friendship with Jo Booker is keeping both ...

Spring comes in like a lion on Christmas Key, bringing heat, humidity, and April Fools Day pranks, but leaving romance and expectation in its wake… As usual, Mayor Holly Baxter has her hands full with a visiting group—this time a reunion for a family of redheads famous for starring on a reality show—and life on the island is changing once again. She and Miguel are still happy as clams, spending more time together than apart, and the promise of an upcoming wedding on the island has everyone daydreaming about love. But there are more twists and turns than the locals can imagine, and ...

Fiji is fiery in July...and so is Lucy's love life! Things have cranked up a notch for Lucy and Nick, and her other hot and handsome next-door work neighbor doesn't like it one bit. After months of travel and of juggling her mother's care and the two men who are interested in her, Lucy is ready for a slower pace on Fiji. She's rented bungalows for everyone coming along on this Holiday Adventure Club trip, and she's already having visions of tropical flowers, cold drinks, and island sunsets. Little does she know, but things are about to get harder, not easier, when both Nick and Dev show up ...

Christmas Key will have to function without its beloved mayor, Holly Baxter, while she embarks on a European adventure with her long-distance love... But when Holly's mother arrives on the island with plans to sell off paradise and build a bloated, gaudy casino on the island's shores, the locals have to pull together to keep her at bay. A shocking loss throws the locals for a loop while they welcome three new islanders to Christmas Key in Holly's absence, but if she learns nothing else from her trip across the pond, Holly comes home knowing in her heart that it's time to say "yes" to new ...

Christmas Key: a tropical paradise full of golf carts, lovable locals, and year-round Christmas decorations...and now the latest destination for the Holiday Adventure Club travels! Lucy's sticking close to home this time by taking her tour group to an island off the coast of Florida, but that doesn't mean it'll be a walk in the park, because this time she's bringing an entourage: her mom, her aunt Sharon, and her mother's persnickety nurse, Glinda. But there are surprises afoot--for Lucy and for her guests--because they aren't just visiting a big city with sites to see and history to learn,...

Valentine's Day is near, and romance is in the air on Christmas Key! Things are heating up between Mayor Holly Baxter and the island's newest resident, Miguel, and there's a seafood festival coming to town. Holly's DNA results have come in and suddenly there's a man in her life to fill the role of father figure--but does she even want to meet him after a lifetime of assuming he doesn't exist? When a tragedy happens on the island its residents must pull together to help a stranger--whether they agree with Holly's methods and motives or not. Join Christmas Key's colorful locals for another ...