Showing results by author "Judith Keim" in All Categories

Ann Rutherford's and Rhonda DelMonte Grayson's lives continue to be full of surprises as they run The Beach House Hotel, their small upscale hotel on the Gulf Coast in Southwest Florida. Things heat up when Tina Marks (Valentina Marquis, a famous young movie star) is sent to the hotel in secret to lose 25 pounds in eight weeks for her next starring role. As much as Ann and Rhonda want to help Tina succeed, the hotel is known for its delicious food as well as its promise of anonymity, and Tina is impossible to deal with.

When Vice-President Amelia Swanson asks them to oversee a stay at the hotel by the Italian Ambassador to the United Nations in New York City and his family, Ann and Rhonda hope this won’t mean another problem for The Beach House Hotel. Enrico Ferrara, his wife, Catarina, and his daughter, Philippa, arrive at the hotel at the same time a young chef, Chet Waring, and a friend, Harper Lewis, seek employment at the hotel after being unfairly booted from the Miami restaurant scene by a notorious, difficult chef.

In 1970, Violet Hawkins’ only wish at 18 is to escape her life in the Dayton, Ohio, foster-care system and make her way to the west coast to enjoy a mellow life and find the love she’s been missing all her life. She makes it to San Francisco, but soon learns she needs a job if she’s to live properly.

Planting the seeds of forgiveness might bring the best harvest of all… Sarah Bullard Miller returns to Lilac Lake with her four-year-old twin daughters following the suicide of her husband. She’s always been part of the group of summer kids who play together with the granddaughters of the woman who owned the Lilac Lake Inn, and she loves renewing those friendships. Keeping busy working at her parents’ hardware store and taking care of the girls, she begins the healing process following her husband’s violent death. Aaron Collister was Sarah’s high school boyfriend.

One favor deserves another, or does it? Against their better judgment, Ann and Rhonda agree to help a young girl in distress at the request of the vice-president of the United States, Amelia Swanson. After almost losing their lives because of an earlier request of hers, they plan on being more careful. Amanda Rogers was an intern for Senator Worthington’s office when she was drugged at a staff party and got pregnant. Now, alone without parental support, she and her friend, Jax Thomas, arrive at the hotel to wait out the last weeks of pregnancy in privacy.

Sheena Sullivan Morelli and her sisters, Darcy and Regan, receive the unexpected news that their Uncle Gavin Sullivan has left them a hotel on the Gulf coast of Florida. The gift comes with a twist. They must live together for one year at the hotel and prepare the hotel to receive guests within a year. Dreams of sitting on the beach sipping margaritas are shattered when they see the property in need of renovation. Facing the unexpected and working together, the three sisters learn a lot about each other and the gift of family love.

Rhonda and Ann are touched when they learn members of a small book club have saved for a long time to be able to spend a week at the Beach House Hotel. They arrange to put the five women in one of the two private homes on the property and promise to give them all the bubbles each one has requested as a surprise for the others. Things become complicated when Vice-President Amelia Swanson requests the use of the other house for two of her staffers who need time to rest and write up reports for her.

Ann and Rhonda continue overseeing their Beach House Hotel along the Gulf Coast of Florida and providing guests with a lovely experience of good eating, relaxation, and the privacy many of them require. When vice president of the United States Amelia Swanson asks them for a favor, Ann and Rhonda agree without realizing it means protecting Amelia’s sister from an abusive husband and a nosy public, including their nemesis, Brock Goodwin, who hopes to gain something from the knowledge. But once they’ve said yes, there’s no going back.

Love can make even the most fragile person bloom. Misty Owen escapes Florida and comes home to Lilac Lake following a disastrous relationship with an emotionally and physically abusive man. David Graham runs a landscaping business with his father and has created a memorial park in town for his sister who died of cancer. Kind and gentle, he is the sort of man Misty can’t help being attracted to. But until she heals from her past, how can she move forward? She knows it’s going to take someone like David to help her, but he’s content to be just friends.

When Ann and Rhonda receive a request from the vice-president to provide a private space at the hotel for a nighttime talk show host having difficulties, they’re worried. Trouble always happens when they do something for her. Sipping nightcaps, they watch Darryl Douglas’ show and decide to allow him to rent one of the guesthouses at the same time their beloved daughter-of -heart, Tina Marks, is renting the house next door along with her personal trainer, Abbie Hathaway.

When Marissa Crawford and her husband Brad decide to start a family, Marissa has serious doubts about her ability to be a good mother - she was raised by one of the worst. Torn between telling Brad the truth and hoping she doesn't get pregnant, Marissa's life is completely upended when a baby girl is left in a basket on the front porch of her large home in Maine. In caring for the baby given specifically to Brad and her, Marissa must decide what her role in life is all about.

With her unexpected pregnancy, Carol Ann breaks free from her dismal life with her parents. Left on her own with no support from the father of her child, she decides to start an interior decorating business on the side. She begins by secretly helping Ed Pritchard, her boss at MacTel, decorate his condo for Christmas. One secret Sunday leads to others. Carol Ann and Ed are planning a future together when Ed is diagnosed with a serious illness. He decides it's only fair to break off his engagement to Carol Ann. Devastated, Carol Ann wonders how she can continue.

Catherine “Cate” Tibbs, Brooke Ridley, and Amber Anderson, friends since they were awkward 13-year-olds who named themselves “The Beach Babes,” are about to face their 40th birthdays. Because they haven’t been able to get together for some time, Cate arranges for them to rent a house along the Gulf Coast of Florida for a long weekend. She hopes it will give them the opportunity to celebrate and re-ignite their friendship.

After agreeing to enter the New Life Assisted-Living Community outside of Boston, Agatha “Aggie” Robard talks her devoted, serious granddaughter, Blythe, into driving her to Florida, stopping to see old college friends along the way. She particularly needs to speak to Donovan Bailey, the man she’d thought she would marry right after graduating from college. By asking Blythe to go with her, Aggie is hoping to prove to her that life should be about having fun, too.

When Sukie's husband shacks up with her Pilates instructor, her domestic drama becomes the talk of her small Georgia town. Friends from her married life prove fickle, and Sukie hides at home, terrified of encountering the town gossips at the grocery store. Betsy, Sukie's neighbor, invites her to join "Fat Fridays", a weekly gathering at a local café where the women order whatever they crave - no calories counted. Over sausage pizza and sage advice, Sukie gets a grip on her new life.

Three talented women brought together by a man’s love. When Lily Weaver is asked to help Alec Thurston, the one man she’s ever truly loved, and to come to Palm Desert, California, she doesn’t hesitate. He’s dying of cancer and needs her help in overseeing the sale of his hotel, the Desert Sage Inn, to another hotel group. For five wonderful years, she was his assistant at the hotel until he kindly told her their relationship was getting too serious, and he helped her find other work.

Camilla "Cami" Chandler comes home from France to take over the Chandler Hill Inn and Winery for her recently-deceased grandmother, Lettie, as she’d always promised. Determined to succeed in this new venture, she finds herself in trouble from the beginning when she discovers most of her grandmother’s estate intended for maintaining the inn’s business expenses was lost in a Ponzi scheme. She forges ahead to provide her guests with wonderful experiences and to produce the best wines in Willamette Valley. She decides that being friends with Drew Farley is the safest way to proceed.

Following her divorce, Allison Hartwell leaves Maine for California to become a partner in her college roommate's art gallery. She's out to prove she can succeed in business, get along without a man and have fun along the way. But things quickly fall apart; the business is financially insecure and she's left with the care of her roommate's eight-year-old daughter, Daisy.

Following her estranged mother's death, Marissa Cole returns to her hometown. Her mother has left a request for Marissa to scatter her ashes in New Hope, Maine. Marissa doesn't understand why; she's never heard her mother talk of such a place. In Maine, Marissa is thrilled to discover a family she never knew she had. But the family isn't what she thought, and helping her grandmother keep her share of the family fortune might cause Marissa to lose the only man she's ever trusted enough to love.

Three talented women are brought together by a man they all love, becoming his Desert Flowers, who work together to save his hotel from being ruined by the company buying it….