About the Book
Heartache. Betrayal. Forgiveness. Redemption…
It’s time to head back to Magdalena, New York, and spend a little time with the people we love to love and even a few we love to hate.
A Family Affair: The Gift
Only one thing is missing from Tess and Daniel “Cash” Casherdon’s perfect life—a child. Oh, how they long for one to make their life complete. But what is it people say about being careful what you wish for…? Their wish will come true, but not in the way they think.
Daniel Casherdon’s past is about to catch up with him. It’s bad enough when a woman arrives in Magdalena with a nine-year-old boy she claims is his, but confessing to a terminal illness and asking Tess and Cash to raise the boy when she’s gone? Well, that’s going to require a big leap of faith that won’t be easy or without repercussions. How can anyone refuse a dying mother such a heartbreaking request? Tess is torn between doing right by the child and acknowledging that another woman has given the man she loves something she may never be able to—a child. As the woman pulls Cash closer into her emotional circle, it is Tess who becomes the outsider, and soon she wonders if the woman has secrets she’s not telling.
More than one resident is suspicious of anyone who drives a wedge between one of Magdalena’s favorite couples. The newcomer may look and act like the girl next door, but something isn’t right, and Pop Benito is going to gather ammunition and find out what that something is. But he’d better do it fast, before it’s too late.
And Cash isn’t the only one who’s gotten a visitor from his past. Pop Benito encounters his nemesis and is forced to face some hard truths about himself and the choices he made years ago. It’s going to be one very interesting summer in Magdalena! You’re not going to want to miss it!!
A Family Affair: The Weddings
What’s more charming than a Christmas wedding? How about two Christmas weddings? Join us as we head back to Magdalena in this holiday novella and witness two couples head down the road of happily-ever-after. But don’t expect that road to be nice and smooth. Is anything worthwhile ever easy?
Still, I’m betting on this town to help these couples through the rough patches and a good amount of snow to get to their happily-ever-after.
So, are you wondering who these couples might be? There are quite a few possibilities, but I’ve decided to give you the true gift of a good surprise!
A Family Affair: The Cabin
He’s lost his fortune… She’s nursing a broken heart…When fate steps in, will love prevail?
Pete Finnegan had it all—money, power, status, a future wife, until he lost it all in one huge financial “gamble.” Now he’s back in his hometown of Magdalena, trying to figure out what to do with his life. When Nate Desantro offers him a job fixing up a cabin one hundred miles away, he jumps at the opportunity. Peace and solitude in the woods away from busybodies and do-gooders is exactly what he needs to contemplate his future.
But Pete doesn’t expect to find a beautiful woman staying at the cabin.
Elissa Cerdi has escaped to the Blacksworth cabin to heal her broken heart. As Gloria Blacksworth’s former caregiver, she’s agreed to honor the dead woman’s last request by mailing letters to select residents of Magdalena. When Elissa meets Pete, she doesn’t know he has ties to Magdalena, and she certainly doesn’t know the final letter she plans to mail is about his father.
Pete and Elissa are both in need of healing and maybe that’s why they agree to shut down the outside world and pretend nothing exists but what’s inside the cabin. Could that also be why they’re able to open up to one another, talk about disappointments, hurts, betrayals, and hopes?
Because it’s all pretend?
Is that why passion consumes them, burns them with a need they’ve never felt before?
Is it so powerful because it isn’t real?
Except it is.
When Pete uncovers the truth about Elissa’s part in Gloria Blacksworth’s cruel scheme for vengeance, he feels betrayed and questions everything that happened in the cabin. As weeks pass and the couple forge separate lives, Pete must decide if he can open his heart once again to forgiveness and love.
