Each day I prayed for my husband to love me again. After 15 years together, he walked away from me, and into the arms of another. I didn’t know how to cope. I didn’t know my worth. I didn’t know how to exist without him by my side. All I wanted was for him to come back to me. Then, Jackson Emery appeared. He was supposed to be a distraction for my mind. A summer fling. A confidence boost to my bruised heart. We were perfect for one another, because we both knew we wouldn’t last. Jackson didn’t believe in commitment, and I no longer believed in love.

Greyson East left his mark on me. As the young girl who first fell for him, I didn’t know much about life. I did know about his smiles, though, and his laughs, and the strange way my stomach flipped when he was near. Life was perfect…until it wasn’t, and when we were forced to go our separate ways, I held on to our memories, let go of my first crush, and wished for the day I’d find him again.

After leaving the city life behind to escape my loveless marriage, I moved to small-town Havenbarrow for a fresh start. What I didn’t expect was to find myself drawn to the town’s black sheep. They called him troubled, cold, a man with a dark past. What everyone seemed to miss about Jax was the splashes of light in his eyes, the random acts of kindness he performed when no one was watching, and the way he made me smile and laugh.

Falling in love wasn't the plan. But how could I resist his promises of hope? Of forgiveness? Of a future I had stopped dreaming of? We were shattered. We were scarred. We were something strange and beautiful. We were two lost souls holding on to the only thing that could keep us together. Each other.

Quirky Holly Jackson was unlucky in love, yet her romantic heart refused to give up her search for companionship—even after her fiancé left her at the altar on Christmas Eve. Grumpy restaurant owner Kai Kane wanted nothing to do with love. Unfortunately for him, when an eccentric Holly kept entering his restaurant nightly with a different first date, his annoyance grew. When Kai volunteered to help Holly find a suitor, it was for one reason only: to get her out of his restaurant and on to a second date with someone at a different location.

Shay Gable hated my guts, and I hated hers, too. We went out of our way to avoid one another at all times. When she came in my direction, I went the other. When we locked eyes, she’d turn and walk away. All of that changed the day I was presented with a challenge. It started out as a stupid bet: make Shay fall in love with me before I fell in love with her first. That was an easy bet for me to win. I didn’t love. I hardly liked. Yet slowly the game started to shift. Shay made me crave things I never knew I wanted.

I was warned about Tristan Cole. "Stay away from him," people said. "He's cruel." "He's cold." "He's damaged." It's easy to judge a man because of his past. To look at Tristan and see a monster. But I couldn't do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him, because it also lived inside of me.

I know I should stay away from Ian Parker. But when my drug-dealing stepdad kicks me out, I have nowhere to go. Squatting in an abandoned shed on Ian’s grandpa’s farm seems like as good a plan as any. Ian finds me there, of course, and he insists on me moving into his spare room. I should say no, but the appeal of a roof and a warm bed is too much. Not to mention Ian’s brown eyes and strong arms. We’re nothing alike, but the spark between us is undeniable. But then I call the cops on my stepdad and unintentionally get my pregnant mom arrested.

Emery has never felt more alone. Raising her daughter is both her pleasure and her pain as she struggles to hold on to her job as a bartender and keep a roof over their heads. With no one to help them - no support system - any unexpected expense or late bill could turn their whole world upside down. Reeling from the death of his twin brother and bandmate, rock star Oliver Smith is trying to drink his problems away. Apparently he isn’t very good at it; they follow him wherever he goes. Also in hot pursuit are the paparazzi, who catch Oliver at his lowest low. 

I met Milo Corti during his self-destructive era, and he met me at the beginning of mine. That night when we crossed paths at a college party, we only had one goal: to feel good during our hell storms. After we parted ways, I’d planned never to see him again. That was until I showed up for my first day as a student-teacher and found him sitting right there before me.

That's me - Tingly Simmons - athlete, foreign-language major, professor lover, obsessed idiot girl. Definitely not a frat rat or sorority slut. I've never ever played beer pong. I ditched the vapid, soulless high-society life of Los Angeles for the promise of something more meaningful in rural Ohio. Accepting a track scholarship for college, I tried running my way to happiness, but instead I ended up sleeping with my French professor and falling head over heels for him.

There once was a girl with fireflies in her eyes and music in her soul. Remember her... she's important. She's the reason I panic-bought the little brick house on Maple Street, the one I lived next door to for eight magical years. Now that I'm back digging up floorboards and lost journals, I can't stop thinking about the two people who grew up here. You see, that girl was my best friend, and this house was once hers. She also had a big brother who was my everything before circumstances turned us into nothing more than memories.

Kacey Dawson has always lived life on the edge - impulsively, sometimes recklessly. And now, as lead guitarist for a hot up-and-coming band, she is poised at the brink of fame and fortune. But she is torn between wanting to be a serious musician and the demons that lure her down the glittering but alcohol-soaked path of rock stardom. A wrecked concert in Las Vegas threatens to ruin her career entirely. She wakes up with the hangover from hell and no memory of the night before.

If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one. After 17 years - and countless broken bones and broken promises - she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close. But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she's spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything. 

He was 18. The heir to a notorious, criminal MC. And my student. There was no way I could get involved. No way I could stay involved. Then, no way I could get out alive.