After the Fire

In this small-town second chance romance, Melissa Brayden’s Dream a Little Dream explores the pain of betrayal, the courage to face the unexpected, and the longing for a love that’s unforgettable.

Savanna Potter is having an off year. Her aunt died, and the woman of her dreams, who had agreed to meet her on the suspension bridge one year after their first amazing date, stood her up. Then, in news that rocks her, it turns out the dad she knew isn’t her biological father. So, who the hell is?

Savanna, angry and adrift, can’t believe it when Dr. Kyle Remington, the very woman who left her standing on that bridge like a fool, shows up in Dreamer’s Bay.

Not only has Kyle landed in Savanna’s small town, but she’s managed to charm every other person who lives there. Savanna has no plans to forgive and forget. There’s nothing between them anymore, even if Kyle’s sparkling blue eyes and shiny dark hair make Savanna’s pesky knees go weak. Life is too complicated for second chances. Or is it?

Miss Cassandra Belvedere and Miss Louise Sheffield were once debutantes vying for the same gentleman’s attentions. Bitter rivalry turned to passion—but at the end of the Season, Louise chose the earl instead of the girl.

Fifteen years later, Cass strides back into London Society to demand Louise’s help. After all, it’s the least she can do after destroying Cass’s life. Her family’s glove making business is in peril, and the elegant Louise, now the widowed Countess of Atwater, wields enough power to bring Cass’s gloves into fashion.

But Louise didn’t expect the attraction between them to burn stronger than ever, or that society would turn on her for associating with Cass. Bold, brash Cass has the real power—to unravel Louise’s strait-laced life and show her that their passion is worth fighting for.

Nothing could prepare them for the Season of a lifetime—or a second chance to fall in love.

Eli Thomas is going home for Christmas just like she does every year—only this time it’s different. Her grandmother has died, and she’s forced to reckon with her past, her broken relationships with her remaining family, and Aracely Hernandez, the girl who got away.

A seemingly purposeful error in Grandma’s will keeps Eli in town for longer than she planned and brings all the conversations she’s been avoiding for twenty years to a culmination. While her attraction to Aracely has never faded, Eli remains apprehensive to follow her heart and risk having it broken again.

Now she has to decide if avoiding her hometown forever is worth losing the people who used to mean the most to her.

It’s Christmastime and everyone is in the holiday spirit at no-kill animal shelter Junebug Farms.

When Junebug sponsors the annual Christmas parade to raise money and awareness for their shelter, the staff have a plan: the king and queen of the parade will spend the holidays filming adorable Christmas vignettes to bring in donations and find forever homes for lovable pups before Santa comes.

What they don’t know is that Mia Sorenson, volunteer dog walker and superior matchmaker, is about to rig the voting so that her granddaughter, Samantha, and Sam’s friend Keegan, win queen and queen of the parade. Sam and Keegan have been dancing around each other for years, and if Mia doesn’t do something, they might never realize they’re meant to be together. But can Sam and Keegan ever forget the Big Embarrassing Thing that makes romance a nope?

It’ll be all paws on deck to bring them a miracle and make this Christmas one to remember.

Actor Davis Hart’s career is in a death spiral after her drunken sleep-and-tell outs the star of their hit television show. Hoping time and distance will offer a new start, Davis returns to her small hometown where it’s Christmas year-round and the community theater where she honed her acting skills draws thousands of tourists every year. Only everything has changed. The theater is struggling to stay open, and its last hope is a mesmerizing hazel-eyed woman with a grant to produce an original holiday play.

Playwright and director Asia du Muir is serious and very focused on her career. She’s finished her education at Columbia University and hopes a fellowship grant to write and produce a play at a community theater will launch her career. She’s not going to let some party girl actress ruin her best chance to get noticed by a Broadway critic.

Neither of them expects the feelings they can’t deny, but everyone knows personal and professional relationships shouldn’t be mixed. Is their love destined to wait in the wings?

Bronwyn Charles had everything she’d always wanted: a handsome fiancée, the career in fine arts that she adored, and an enviable home in Notting Hill, London. Everything was perfect until she ran into Jaq Bailey, her first love, during a classmate’s wedding in the English countryside. Suddenly, her carefully constructed life started to seem like it belonged to someone else, and she’s forced to decide whether she’s brave enough to let herself remember how it felt to be truly loved.

Jaq Bailey, a mathematics savant from a rundown trailer park in east Texas, attended Stratford Academy in London on a scholarship and fell in love with Bronwyn the moment they met. Despite being forced apart by Bronwyn’s wealthy family when their romance was discovered, Jaq never forgot her. After the wedding, their lives become entwined again as dangerous secrets emerge and Bronwyn’s seemingly perfect life starts to unravel.

Are they strong enough to hold on to true love, or will they lose each other again, this time forever? Reprint