Showing results by narrator "Vanessa Daniels" in All Categories

Elliana Allbright is happy running her perfume shop, Scents & Nonsense, in the charming town of Poppyville, California. Ellie and her women's business group, the Greenstockings, are helping to open a new museum about local history, and while sorting through the collection of artifacts, they discover a time capsule from the days of the Gold Rush. Among the contents is a strange botanical manuscript, recognized by local history professor Eureka Sanford as extremely rare and valuable. When the professor is found dead in the museum, Ellie has no choice but to sniff out the murderer.

Elliana Allbright's business and personal life have been flourishing in her hometown of Poppyville, California, since she opened Scents & Nonsense. She uses her very special skills to craft perfumes that almost magically ease heartache, inspire change, and bring joy - and her customers love to relax in the beautiful garden behind her shop with her corgi, Dash, and her cat, Nabokov.

Paige Roberts learned to fend for herself growing up. Now she's doing everything possible to give her daughter, Casey, the stability she never had. But when the vivacious five-year-old decides that she's done wearing her prosthesis, Paige faces her toughest challenge yet: trusting a handsome, brooding stranger who simply wants to help. JT McKinney lost more than his leg in a car accident that stole his dreams of pro football. Eight years later he's made a new life for himself far away from his old one.

Alexis Morgan has spent the past eight years devoted to turning her tiny start-up into Manhattan's premiere wedding planning company, The Wedding Belles. Now that her business is thriving, it's time to turn towards her much neglected personal life, and Alexis approaches her relationships like she does everything else: with a plan. Not a part of that plan is Logan Harris, the silent partner in the Belles, and the one person who's been there for her since the very beginning.

Discovering her fiancé is an international con man just moments before they exchange vows devastates celebrity wedding planner Brooke Baldwin's business - and breaks her heart. Now a pariah in Los Angeles, she seeks a fresh start in New York City and thinks she's found it with her first bridal client, a sweet - if slightly spoiled - hotel heiress. Then she meets the uptight businessman who's holding the purse strings.

When Lexi gets her latest gig, tracking down a blackmailer guilty of extorting thousands of dollars from the country's hottest girl band, it's a dream come true. However, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous doesn't turn out to be as much fun as she hoped. Instead of four cool, young women with a squeaky clean image, who are eager to aid in her investigation, Lexi must deal with incessant squabbling and fighting from a band who will do just about anything to hinder her search for the truth. Before she even gets started, disaster strikes.

When a broken man arrives in town, desperate to locate his missing girlfriend, loved-up PI Lexi Graves can hardly wait to reunite the lost lovers. However, the further Lexi delves into the case, the more she begins to sense the missing woman doesn't want to be found. To make matters worse, just as Lexi and her boss slash boyfriend are enjoying a romantic date, their restaurant is robbed by a pair of thieves. Her best friend, Lily, owns a bar that also falls prey to the gang. Following Lily's hunch about who's behind it, Lexi eagerly rushes to help her friend solve the case.

Paramedic Vanessa Hollister has put her adolescence behind her, including the unwanted label of being the new kid in town over and over again, thanks to her father's military career. She's overcome what her mother called "the biggest mistake of her life" and is planning an elegant destination wedding in Destin, Florida, with her new fiance. But will the reappearance of her first husband from her what-were-you-thinking teenage elopement disrupt her dream of an idyllic beach wedding?

The women of Sweethaven are reunited for a small-town Christmas! It's holiday time in Sweethaven, but things don't go quite as planned for these scrapbookers. Lila is thrown for a loop when a woman claiming to be her sister arrives in town. As she begins digging into the woman's claims, Lila uncovers things about her family she may never be able to accept or forgive.

Priced out of their Manhattan neighborhood, Jessica and Aaron move with their young daughters to the one place Jessica swore she'd never go: the suburbs. But to Jessica's surprise, life in the commuter belt makes a great first impression. She quickly falls in with a clique of helpful mom friends, and she's thrilled when she's invited to a moms-only weekend at the beach. The trip turns into a series of eye-opening lessons, and Jessica must decide if she's strong enough to be honest with herself about the sort of life she really wants.

In all the years of their marriage, Clara Trent's husband failed to mention his involvement in a murder - and now he's not only dead himself, but accused of committing it. When St. Elmo sheriff's investigator Aaron Malone re-opens the 40-year-old cold case, Ronan Trent's named - posthumously - as the killer of his previous lover, a vivacious blonde with a jealous husband. Clara's discovery of sensuous drawings of the woman, unlike any of her husband's other work, reveals a carefully concealed obsession.

As intricate as a fisherman's net, Riptide fairly writhes with sinister delights - family secrets, family feuds, lost family fortunes, betrayals, puzzles, sunken treasure...and murder, of course. With a bit of illicit romance and treachery thrown in for seasoning, this rife atmosphere swirls around New York artist Isabel Anders, who's summoned home to tiny St. Elmo, Florida to deal with an emergency: the aunt who raised her has been brutally - and mysteriously - injured. Isabel arrives to find the family mansion in ruins, her aunt living in a trailer, and more.

The first Sag Harbor Antiquarian Book and Ephemera Fair is right around the corner, and interior designer Meg Barrett has her hands full decorating rooms at the Bibliophile Bed & Breakfast for wealthy rare book collector Franklin Hollingsworth. Rumor has it Hollingsworth is in possession of an unpublished manuscript written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. When the Fitzgerald manuscript's authenticator is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, Meg suspects a killer is on the loose.

Lily Trulock, owner of Trulock's Grocery & Marine Supply, leads a pretty quiet life until a stranger comes to town. The new guy's not what he appears, but then, some of St. Elmo's residents aren't either. Before she can say, "down the hatch", Lily's at the center of a vicious murder and a no-holds-barred bootlegging war-and a nasty storm's on the way. This is a vibrant, atmospheric, powerful novel-as filled with energy, mystery, and motion as a hurricane.

Caring family and friends, tranquil streets-ex-prosecutor Willow Lamont wishes these could make her feel truly at home. She's back to help her grandfather manage Chocolate Haven, a long held dream come true. But she's struggling to make their unique fudge - and to cope with a secret trauma that haunts her. Yet when she finds an abandoned baby who breaks her heart wide open, she wonders how long she can hide her emotions - especially from warm, handsome, and way too nosey Deputy Sheriff Jax Gordon.

The Emergency Dessert Squad business is booming, with owner and baker Winnie Johnson working overtime to satisfy the emergency cravings of Silver Lake, Ohio. Her latest order, a plate of motivational desserts for an artists' retreat, is just what she needs to keep her mind off her own relationship woes. But Winnie's problems seem like trifles when she discovers the body of retreat owner Sally Dearfield mere inches away from five oh-so-eccentric and viable suspects. Now, this baking detective must uncover the inspiration behind Sally's murder.

Baker Winnie Johnson does her best work when the heat is on. As owner of the Emergency Dessert Squad, she has a deft touch in the kitchen and a soft spot for lost causes. So when her business professor beau, Jay Morgan, expresses misgivings over having to fail one of his fourth-year students, Winnie cooks up a sweet solution. She'll offer an extra credit opportunity in exchange for a little help with her growing business. But when her protégé's first dessert delivery poisons a student journalist, the publicity threatens to burn Winnie's business to a crisp.

With her rent rising faster than her pie crust, bakery owner Winnie Johnson had hoped to be rescued by an inheritance from her wealthy friend and neighbor Gertrude Redenbacher. Instead all she inherits is the widow's hostile hissing tabby, Lovey, and a vintage ambulance, restored by Gertrude's late husband. As her dream crumbles, Winnie makes her final delivery - a peach pie to an elderly widower. But she finds Bart Wagner lying on his kitchen floor, smothered by a pillow.

Abby Harper's life has finally gotten on track - almost. Sure, she's still single, and yeah, it's a little depressing to be planning the menu for her grandmother's wedding, but romance is hardly her first priority right now. Heading up the restaurant of the Harper family's inn is the job of her dreams, not to mention her chance to show her two older sisters that she's not a kid anymore. But when a bad review of her signature brunch puts her face-to-face with the only man who ever touched - and broke - her heart, Abby is determined to redeem her reputation.

Single mom Bridget Harper has no time for romance. Her hands are full enough running her new inn. Toss in a sister's wedding to host, another sister's career to help jumpstart, and a grandmother's missing cat to find, and Bridget has little free time for anything other than taking a good book down to the beach. With troubled times officially behind her, she's perfectly content with her busy life...until a handsome guest has her questioning what may be missing.