The Secrets of Willowra

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?

As a doctor, Mick McVey knows what a mental health crisis looks like. Her own still takes her by surprise. When she inherits a house from the grandfather she’s never met, she puts herself on sabbatical and travels to the small hometown of the mother who abandoned her. It’s a temporary solution.

Mick might not be grieving her grandfather, but to her new neighbor Katy, his death is one blow too many. Mick’s arrival feels like Katy’s chance to forget her ex and her struggling cinema and reinvent herself. She’ll finally get her hot rebound and make this year her year.

When the COVID-19 lockdown traps both women in situations they’d convinced themselves were temporary, they’re forced to face what they really want from their lives, and who they want to share them with.

When a young woman shows up on her doorstep in the middle of a rainstorm, Felicienne de Montagne feels compelled to help her despite her better judgment. Comfortably living alone and working in her greenhouses, Felicienne soon realizes that adventurer and blogger Puck Aston is made from a different cloth. Traveling the US and Canada in her campervan with her dog, Puck is a rolling stone to Felicienne’s boulder.

Puck’s campervan has broken down and needs major repairs. When she learns that Felicienne needs a photographer to document her hybrid flowers for a book, she offers her services for room and board. As Felicienne and Puck slowly get to know each other, their mutual attraction grows even as both accept that the day Puck goes back on the road, their bond will be broken.

Hannah works for one of the biggest liquor brands in the Northwest and is eager to prove herself and get the promotion she has been owed for so long. There’s just one annoyingly gorgeous obstacle in her way—the beloved local distiller, Alexandra Lang.

Alexandra isn’t afraid of a little competition. Okay, a lot of competition. Everyone knows her distillery is an homage to her late father, and she has the unwavering support of the whole community and tight-knit bar scene. Hannah’s charming sales pitch, endless legs, and big city influence don’t stand a chance. Right?

Ambition and passion go head-to-head as they duel for bar placements, local awards, and overall support for their products. But as sparks of friction and attraction fly, Hannah begins to suspect there might be more to small town life, and to Alexandra, than she thought.

Looks like the liquor will be the least of the hard stuff.

Picturesque retreat Valley of Rubies is intended only for the young women of Sanctity Covenant, but dark secrets lurk behind locked doors. The truth that emerges from the shadows is nothing less than terrifying.

Adel Rosse, an investigative journalist for Vanity Fair in the cutthroat world of Manhattan journalism, has just been handed an assignment that will catapult her career—if she can survive undercover at Valley of Rubies and find out what lies beneath the surface. Just as she starts to uncover the nefarious truth behind the shadowy cult running the organization, she falls in love with the one woman who holds the key to the story...if only she knew the reason Adel was there was to write one.

Grace Waters is an old maid at twenty-six, at least by Covenant standards, and her annual idyllic summers spent as an instructor at Valley of Rubies are rocked by the sudden expectation that she must marry a man she despises at the end of the session. If she refuses, she risks being excommunicated—or worse—but a mysterious new writing instructor at camp makes her brave enough to wonder what would happen if she dared to write her own story. Reprint.