It was just one date. My friend told me I needed more fun in my life, so I reluctantly said yes. Fun wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse. After watching my own mother’s love life implode time and time again, it’s only natural that I have a few rules to protect myself. Actually, it’s just one rule: avoid relationships with men so I don’t get attached. This guy was just a warm body in a chair. I was here for the basketball game. I was absolutely NOT here for my date. Or the kiss cam. Or the kiss. Or the impromptu evening with the one man who seems bent on throwing my tidy world off of its axis.

Jim Whitmore has lofty dreams of a bright political career. So when a well-connected friend invites him home for the weekend, the promise of rubbing shoulders with her congressman father and his professional associates is thrilling. What he doesn’t anticipate is meeting his friend’s sister, Katherine, an intriguing woman who immediately steals his heart.

I’ve had a crush on my brother’s best friend my entire life. Once, in high school, I even got a taste of what it would be like to be with him thanks to some well-placed mistletoe: incredible and humiliating. We always spend Christmas with Max’s family at our cabin, and every year I have to suffer through a blissful week with him in a completely platonic way. His steady stream of girlfriends have made him off limits . . . until now. It’s Christmas. We’re at the cabin together. And Max Dawson is single.

Theresia Dvorak has nothing left of her parents—nothing save her dowry, a priceless crystal vase stolen and sold by her own stepmother. Theresia will do anything to secure what is rightfully hers—even assume a false identity and steal her future back. When she gains entrance to a house party and has a memorable run-in with the handsome navel captain Rolland Reese, her mission is compromised.

Northern California girl Charlotte “Charlie” Lucas has two great loves: Diet Coke and Pride and Prejudice. But her passion for Regency classics is tempered by a very real fear: Charlie is terrified of having to endure the fate of her namesake—spinsterhood. Despite her best attempts to maintain a modern sensibility, she can’t say no when an elderly neighbor asks Charlie to attend a charity ball with her grandson. Blind date or not, Charlie is powerless to resist the allure of a real-life ball. Soon it’s clear that she will struggle to resist the charms of her blind date too.

Sowerby, England, 1802. Miss Genevieve Wilde—a magistrate’s daughter and independent heiress—is determined to meet life’s challenges all on her own, just as her late-father had taught her. So when her father’s pocket watch is stolen, she will do anything to get it back, especially when the local authorities prove incompetent. Upon reading an advertisement in the paper, she takes a chance and contacts a thief-taker to find the watch. It’s a choice Ginny regrets when former Bow Street officer Jack Travers arrives on her doorstep.

Brooke is living her best life far from the city and career that tried to destroy her. She's happy spending her summer renovating the house she inherited and gardening with her elderly neighbor, Miss Lily. But when Miss Lily's handsome—and obnoxious—grandson shows up, making wild accusations and dragging up Brooke's past, Brooke must convince Ian he has her all wrong. But what happens when their chemistry proves even more dangerous than Ian's accusations?

Despite living at her father’s inn her entire life, Elizabeth Doyle has always managed to avoid involvement with the smugglers who frequently gather there. Until now. When a handsome smuggler is brought to her with dire injuries, Elizabeth risks everything to hide him - completely unaware that the wounded man is not who he appears to be. When an opportunity arises to infiltrate the notorious smuggling gang he believes caused his father’s death, Jonas Ainsworth, the Viscount Langton, pretends to be one of them.

Kate Fletcher is my kryptonite. She's also my best friend. Former best friend? I'm not sure what you call it when we grew up attached at the hip and then she left Silver Creek (and me) to travel the world. The important thing is: Kate is back. (Temporarily.) And I'm still in love with her. (Permanently.) But something is different now. The attraction doesn't seem one-sided. I don't think I'm imagining the heat in Kate's eyes or the chemistry crackling between us.

When my best friend found out I’d be alone over Christmas, she hooked me up with a week's stay in her family’s cabin in Idaho. I was on a publishing deadline for my latest book and was really looking forward to a cozy week by the fire, cuddled up in flannel pajamas with my laptop and hot chocolate. Alone. So imagine my surprise when I arrived at the cabin during a blizzard and found it already occupied by an all too familiar face and a fine pack of chiseled abs.