M.J. Duncan

Emerson Riis has a job she loves, friends she considers family, and her goofy malamute Sasha for company. As far as she’s concerned, life in the small town of Mystic is pretty much perfect. Enter Mari Davenport, a Hollywood screenwriter with a dozen blockbusters to her name, who arrives in a car that is completely unfit for the north woods of Minnesota. Their paths cross in a way that could have been plucked straight from one of Mari’s romcoms, and though their attraction is instant and their chemistry off-the-charts, the fact that Mari must return to LA at the end of her six-month writing sabbatical looms ominously on the horizon. As Emerson and Mari’s feelings grow, will they find a way to rewrite the ending to their story, or are they meant only for this sweet but short-lived season of halcyon nights?

Working as a chef aboard a private yacht might not seem like a vacation for most people, but to Lauren Murphy, a highly-regarded sous chef at a top New York restaurant, the opportunity to spend seventeen days in the Virgin Islands, sailing from one tropical location to the next, while having complete freedom to create her own menus is a dream come true. Enter Grey Wells, the owner and captain of the Veritas, and the most complicated person Lauren has ever met. Cold and distant one minute and then cautiously friendly the next, Lauren is compelled to get to know her better. What happens when she does, however, is enough to change both of their lives forever.

Charlie Bennett is a rising star in the world of sports journalism, but her personal life is a mess. Still hung up on her college sweetheart, a one-night-stand gone wrong convinces her that she needs to make a change. An offer for a one-year guest lecturer position from a small private university provides her the opportunity she needs to escape, and she jumps at it. All Charlie expected to find when she left Manhattan for rural New Hampshire was a little peace. Instead, she finds Mackayla Thomas. Eight years have passed since Charlie foolishly walked away from Mackayla, and Mackayla is determined to never let anyone hurt her that way again. For Charlie, their serendipitous meeting is a sign that happily ever after might finally be within her reach. First, however, she needs to find a way to convince Mackayla to let the past go, and to give her a second chance.

The only thing worse than Eve Morrison’s parents’ annual holiday gala is attending the event solo, so when her plus-one for the event backs out at the last minute and offers up his cousin as a replacement, she doesn’t say no. She has every confidence the long weekend will be a disaster, but at least this way she’ll have someone who might support her through it all.Aspen Collier-West is in the middle of her busy season as a charter pilot and doesn’t appreciate it when cousin calls in an old favor, but they both know she owes him and that she can’t tell him no. Even though standing in as the plus-one for his best friend for four and a half days will throw a colossal monkey wrench into her schedule.Neither of them head into the long weekend thinking it’ll be anything special. Eve just wants to emerge in one piece, and Aspen is simply repaying a debt she owes. Their low expectations are yanked from under their feet the moment they meet, and suddenly the long weekend feels far too short for either of their liking. Will they find a way to make things work long-term, or is their whirlwind, storybook weekend destined to become nothing more than a fond memory?

Professor Kate Walker is a tenured, world-renowned engineer. She has a job she loves, a daughter she adores, and friends who've been with her through thick and thin. It's a fulfilling life that doesn’t really need anything—or anyone—else. Especially not a charming, downright amazing woman who happens to be twenty years her junior.Carter Burke has lived a storied life and has the Olympic medals to prove it. She’s got her dream job coaching a collegiate women’s lightweight rowing team in her beloved Boston, and is happily married to the sport she’s dedicated her life to. She’s happy with her life and not really looking for more, but all that changes when a blonde professor with hypnotizing sea glass green eyes waltzes into her boathouse. The Charles River has played host to countless scenes of overwhelming joy and crushing heartbreak over the years—but never quite on a scale like this. Because when hearts are involved, the stakes are infinitely higher. Carter is hooked from the moment she first lays eyes on Kate, and their chemistry is undeniable, but is that chemistry enough to help Kate push past her reservations and into Carter’s arms?

Life is full of choices. Some are easy, others are more difficult, and then there are the ones that aren’t really choices at all. For Parker Ravenscroft, helping her brother always fell into that last category—risks be damned. All that changes when Sheridan Sloan re-enters her life. As their relationship grows from friendship to something more she’s forced to choose between her brother and her own happiness. Picking one over the other isn’t the end of things, however, because the ghosts of her past choices have the very real power to destroy the future she so badly wants.

Emma Beauchamp and Campbell Jordan’s rivalry on the ice was legendary. Retirement should have closed that chapter of their lives, but when Campbell joins the faculty at Stonebridge—the prestigious Berkshires boarding school where Emma now teaches—it takes on a brand new life. There’s plenty of distrust and lingering animosity, but as circumstances force them to find a way to not only coexist, but work together, Emma and Campbell find that being on the same team isn’t as awful as they’d feared. Will their years spent battling it out for team and country be too much to overcome? Or will they finally acknowledge the truth behind the electric connection they share?

Joss Perrault left Sky, Colorado after high school with no intention of ever returning, but all that changes when she inherits Atramentum. Burned out on public accounting after too many sixteen-hour days, the allure of operating a small, independent bookstore is too tempting to resist, and Joss decides to walk away from the career she spent the last decade building to move back to the resort town high in the Rockies. Cupid strikes as she’s moving into her new place outside Sky and, contrary to popular belief, Cupid has four legs and a tail, hits like a linebacker, and answers to the name George. Before Joss can recover from being tackled by the Great Dane, she finds herself face to face with George's mom, Maeve Dylan. Joss is immediately smitten with her beautiful neighbor, but their conversations walk the line between friendliness and flirtation like it’s a tightrope, and Joss is reluctant to do anything that will risk their budding friendship. Thankfully for her, however, George doesn't give up so easily.

When Holly Burke saw who she’d drawn for Secret Santa, she knew she had to do something to make it special. It was Christmas, after all, and if anyone deserved some extra Christmas cheer, it was Mo Davy.

It was just supposed to be a working weekend in Maui and not anything remotely life-altering, but all that changes the moment Gwen Harrison holds a hotel elevator for Dana Ryan. Beautiful and charming, Dana is a breath of fresh air that Gwen is helpless to resist—something she dearly regrets when their whirlwind weekend is over and reality sets back in. The course of true love is notorious for being anything but smooth, but the truths and consequences of an inauspicious beginning such as theirs are enough to put that old adage to the ultimate test.