Khrista didn't believe her daughter when she stormed out of her life five years ago. But every day since, her daughter's angry words have echoed in Khrista's mind, even as she tries to hide the truth from her chosen family—the community that raised her. Finding solace in her preschool classroom by day and her whisky by night, Khrista is forced to confront her pride and her problems when someone from her past brings news that threatens to drive her deeper into the danger zone.

After ten years of loyal service, Daisy Butterworth has been made redundant. Like any clever woman, she knows the cure to redundancy is a little too much wine and her best friend. Only the next morning, Daisy has more than a hangover...she has a whole new house—in France! Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a disaster, she’s excited about finally moving to France, just as she and her husband always dreamed of. However, Daisy is in for another surprise. Despite planning to move there for over 20 years, her husband never actually intended to go.

The Whitley is Nantucket's most exclusive waterfront hotel - a sprawling collection of pristine white cottages and an elegant main building on a long stretch of private white sandy beach. It's a family owned business - brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, all work there in various capacities.

Thirty-year-old Sophie has longed to live in Manhattan but could never afford to do so—even with roommates. She has just been laid off from a job that she didn't love. When her 92 year-old great aunt invites her to stay with her for a while—in her Fifth Avenue Apartment, Sophie jumps at the chance to move to the city. She decides to temp for a while to find out what industry she wants to go to next as she is burned out from the stress of working at a law firm.

Riley Sanders didn’t plan on losing her job as a content marketing manager right before Christmas. When she calls her sister Amy to vent, she learns that their mother has broken her leg and could really use some help at the inn. Riley decides to head home to the inn, nestled along the shores of Cape Cod, in time for the Christmas rush. She is happy to help and needs something to distract her as mistletoe is hung and snowflakes begin to fall.

High-school teacher Lauren, 36, seems to have it all. Lauren's wedding is just a few weeks away when one of her students goes missing, and when his body is found a few days later, she suddenly becomes a person of interest. Her fiancé, David, is a former minor-league pitcher turned stockbroker who is excited to settle down with Lauren. But when the missing student is found dead and the media turns its attention even more closely on Lauren, David is surprised to discover that Lauren hadn't told him everything about her past.

Jane Cho is a former legal investigator who was really good at her job, but she quit when someone she was investigating tried to have her killed. She returned to the seaside town of Waverly, Massachusetts, to run a takeout-food shop, Comfort & Joy, and to live a quiet, safer life. She thought everything was behind her as that person was convicted and is behind bars. But one peaceful morning, Jane stumbles over a dead body while taking out the trash. The dead woman ran a nearby bed and breakfast and had been threatened by Jane's thriving new business.

Laura Scott grew up in a trailer park. It was just her and her mother and they were happy, even if others looked down at them. When this story begins, Laura is madly in love with her best friend, Cole Dawson, and dreaming of their future. Cole wants a career in country music. They'd planned to marry after graduating college, but an unexpected pregnancy speeds up their timeline. Dalton Dawson, Cole's father, is a billionaire aiming to be governor. He doesn't approve of Laura or of Cole's interest in music. He wants him to follow in his footsteps and go to law school.  

Meet Emma McCarthy, a 30-year-old failed actress that just moved home to Plymouth, MA. And her mother, Cindy, a yoga instructor in the Pinehills, an exclusive golf community in Plymouth. They’ve just inherited Court Street Investigations, a private detective agency. And its one part-time employee, 80-year-old Mickey, a retired police detective. They expect typical cases like cheating spouses or workman’s comp, but quickly learn that the agency also has a reputation for solving murders when they are hired to find a local missing woman. 

Tabitha’s entire life came undone because of a simple, mundane errand. Now left a young, widowed mother with two boys, she has to pick up the pieces of the life she created with her husband, Tate. But there are too many reminders. Too many memories. Too much of Tate woven into the world around her. Tragedy stole Tate from her and yet, he is everywhere. A year later, consumed with grief and exhausted from going through the motions, Tabitha uproots her family to live in a small, fishing town on the Oregon Coast. She hopes to find healing and the fresh start they all need.

When Marina Moore’s life blows up on national television, she seeks refuge at her grandmother’s beach house called the Coral Cottage. Now in her mid-40s with children in college, Marina is in dire need of her grandmother's gutsy advice to a well-lived life. Marina meets an old friend, Ivy Bay, proprietor of the Seabreeze Inn, who encourages her to share her love of food at the local farmer’s market.

Izzy is in the Caribbean on the honeymoon-that-isn't after her fiancé broke her heart. She's not looking for someone new. But when she meets Charles Miller, a successful writer holidaying alone, the electricity is undeniable. And what does she have to lose? In Ireland, Charles's ex-wife and agent Ariel flits from party to party, glamorous and poised. She's always in touch with Charles. Though they're divorced, they're very close. Ariel wonders if they should get back together. She's an independent woman, but she liked being part of a power couple.

When she offers to help plan her older sister’s wedding, Dinky Redfern knows that she’ll have to pack up everything and move to Idaho temporarily. Luckily, this isn’t a big deal, because a) Dinky is able to fit her entire life - including her pet hedgehog - into her beat-up sedan, and b) her sister lives at a beautiful tourist-destination ranch. No hardship at all...until Dinky meets her handsome co-planner, the groom’s best man. 

When Brid Harcus is sent to the Orkney Islands, in the far reaches of Scotland, she has high hopes for her trip being short, straightforward and lucrative. Her mother has inherited a cottage from her Great Aunt Jennet which has been unlived in and unloved for decades, and the time has come to make it habitable and saleable. Easy, right? But Midness Cottage has other ideas. For one thing it’s rather more ‘fixer upper’ than Country Living. And Brid definitely hadn’t planned for the strongly held local belief that the cottage is meant to be the home of the Orkney Witch.

Julie Houston's novels are heart-warming, full of joy and completely addictive. Charlie Maddison loves being an architect in London, but when she finds out her boyfriend, Dominic, is actually married, she runs back to the beautiful countryside of Westenbury and her parents. Charlie's sister Daisy, a landscape gardener, is also back home in desperate need of company and some fun. Their great-grandmother, Madge – now in her early nineties – reveals she has a house, Holly Close Farm, mysteriously abandoned over sixty years ago, and persuades the girls to project manage its renovation.