Showing results by author "Katie Winters" in All Categories

Janine Potter grew up on the other side of the tracks. Her mother, Nancy, struggled with just about everything—alcohol, men, money—and Janine made a pledge to herself that she would never be like her. At age nineteen, Janine met Jack Potter, the son of an oil tycoon, and never looked back. Her life became a series of cocktail parties and multi-million-dollar apartments all across the world, and rubbing elbows with celebrities. Slowly, memory of her mother faded, although the trauma never really did.

Elsa Remington Steel pledged to love one man for the rest of her life. Aiden was a bright light, a wild personality, a beautiful soul. He was her husband and the father of her three wonderful children. Two years before, when they learned of his diagnosis, Elsa felt his death coming like a storm. After all, her brother had died at age ten, her mother had died when she was sixteen, and her father's health was on the decline. In Elsa's eyes, her world quickly fell apart. It was just expected.

Ten years ago, Nancy Grimson met the handsome and successful Neal Remington in Bangkok, Thailand. It was a whirlwind romance—one that found her back on Martha's Vineyard, Neal's home, to become a stepmom to Elsa and Carmella, and help Neal with the Katama Lodge and Wellness Spa. Earlier this year, Neal passed away, and earlier this summer, her estranged daughter, Janine, came back into her life after a heartache of her own. It's been a whirlwind of changes, and Nancy continues to reel with pain and sorrow, even alongside her gratefulness.

Six months ago, Janine Grimson learned her best friend had an affair with her husband of twenty years—at the engagement party of their oldest daughter, Maggie. In the wake of that horrific event, Janine rekindled her relationship with her mother, Nancy, moved full-time to Martha's Vineyard, and found herself stronger, better, and brighter than ever before. Now, news from Manhattan shakes her to the core. Something tragic has happened to her ex-husband, Jack Potter—the only man she's ever truly loved—just two weeks before Thanksgiving.

It's finally time for Carmella to marry the love of her life—her best friend turned boyfriend turned fiancé, Cody. As she grapples with her new role as stepmother to Gretchen, she learns some surprising news about her own situation and finds herself rewriting a future she'd once thought would be aimless and incredibly lonely.

As a child, Carmella Remington was boisterous, alive: always one to move too fast, laugh too long, and feel too deeply. She was the middle child of Neal Remington, the fraught one between Elsa and Colton. Until one day, Carmella made one of the biggest mistakes of her life—a mistake so wretched that it cost Colton’s life. In the wake of this, Carmella's entire life changed forever.

After the recent death of her father, Maggie aches to have a family of her own—but soon learns that the world she so craved will not be hers so easily. While other women in their twenties get pregnant on the fly, she finds herself cursed with a body she no longer understands. But telling this health news to her loving husband or even her mother and sister makes her feel even less in control. She keeps this secret close to her heart and runs back to the Vineyard to grieve alone, pretending all is "just fine." Such is the way of Maggie Potter.

Elsa's middle child, Mallory, is often described as the quietest and sweetest of all the Remington women—just as happy-go-lucky as Elsa, agreeable as Janine, and punctual as Nancy. Needless to say, it never pleased Mallory to be overlooked. But after her accidental pregnancy with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Lucas, plus the death of her father and grandfather in the span of a year, she's had very little time to ask herself that pivotal question: Who am I?

Susan Sheridan left her life in Newark almost a year ago. Since then, Susan, Christine, Lola, Audrey, and Amanda have lived out every life milestone under the sun—from divorce to new loves, illnesses, to second-chance romances, and beyond. Now, after a year of cancer and healing, it’s time for Susan Sheridan to have her happily-ever-after with her high school sweetheart, Scott. There is so much to be done before the huge event—but Susan Sheridan is good at staying busy.

Elsa's eldest, Cole Steel, is on the brink of the rest of his life. Like his father before him, he's a remarkable sailor—but unlike his father, he has no wife, no children, and just the open ocean at his feet. Elsa's not entirely pleased with his reckless nature. But she knows he has the same adventurous spirit his father always had. Aiden lives through Cole every day. Recently, Cole signed a contract to sail professionally. It's the opportunity of a lifetime—with a caveat. His boss is widely known as the toughest in the business.

Since Jason drowned over a year and a half ago, Charlotte has struggled moving forward. She owns a popular wedding planning and events business and throws some of the most expensive and intricately coordinated weddings, occasionally featuring celebrities, and always with her fourteen-year-old daughter’s help. But her devastation is so complete that sometimes she struggles to get out of bed in the morning. As Thanksgiving approaches, a celebrity asks Charlotte to plan a gorgeous multi-million-dollar wedding on Martha’s Vineyard.

Christine Sheridan is the middle sister of the Sheridan clan: lost between her older sister, Susan, a successful criminal lawyer and her whip-smart little sister, Lola. After twenty years apart, they have just learned the secret their dead mother kept from them. But now, Christine returns to New York City, to her boyfriend Frank, to a life she once loved. But the prestigious restaurant they own is no more, and Christine is left once again without solid ground. At forty-one, unable to have children, and with nowhere to go—she knows only to return home to the Vineyard and her family.

Kelli Montgomery spent the previous twenty years in a loveless and abusive marriage. Last Christmas, after her brother, Andy, arrived home after decades away, she finally found the strength to leave her husband—but as anyone who’s ever been through such trauma knows, what happens next—the healing process, the rebirth which is the hardest, and most grueling part of healing. Years ago, Kelli and her ex took over her parents’ prosperous real estate business. Now that Mike has officially left the island, the work has fallen on Kelli’s shoulders.

Susan Sheridan knows Martha’s Vineyard like the back of her hand. She grew up there as the eldest of the three Sheridan Sisters, their father the longtime owner of the Sunrise Cove Inn in Oak Bluffs. The Inn, the water, the sun all spun with laughter, and love, with the most important people—her family and friends. It was her glittering, perfect life—until it wasn’t. Tragedy struck over twenty years ago, and Susan has hardly said a word to her sisters or her father or anyone else she ever loved. Not until now.

Lola Sheridan is the youngest Sheridan sister: a whip-smart journalist with a flair for the dramatic. As her older sisters settle into new lives on the Vineyard, Lola demands more out of the summer season with a fantastical sailing expedition up from the Florida Keys to Martha’s Vineyard. The sailor who takes her? The mysterious, dark-eyed loner, Tommy Gasbarro—the ex-stepson of the Sheridan sisters’ greatest enemy. He represents so much of what went wrong in Lola’s life—and knows secrets about her mother that she was never allowed to learn.

Veteran Andy is set to marry Beth, the love of his life and the younger sister of his long-dead best friend, Kurt, who died overseas. Over the past year, Andy has fallen head-over-heels for Beth and become something of a father figure for her only son, Will, who is autistic. But the wild and chaotic changes of including Andy in a world that has been primarily Beth-and-Will-only causes Will to catapult into fears and panics that seem unparalleled.

Audrey gives birth at the end of February. Although she’s young, healthy, one of the most vibrant people on the Vineyard, the birth is a troubling one—and the baby’s health is cast into doubt. This adds even more stress to an already stressful situation. After all: Christine planned to help Audrey raise her baby, to allow her to return to school and get the degree she so desperately wants. As Christine, Audrey, Lola, and Zach wade the waters of this delicate new family plan, and grapple with the fears surrounding a very sick baby, they find new strength together.

If there’s anything Susan Sheridan understands, it’s that things don’t always go as planned. From her divorce, to her move from Newark, to her cancer diagnosis, finally to Scott popping the question at the Sunrise Cove Inn’s New Year’s Party in front of all her closest family and friends. She never thought she’d find her way back to a love like this. Amanda prepares herself for the ride of her life as she plans a dream-wedding to Chris, a man she’s loved desperately for years. But there’s something off about him. Something that rears its ugly head as the January wedding date rolls near.

Andrew Montgomery is the black sheep of the Montgomery family. Seventeen years ago, Andy and his best friend, Kurt, took off for the army and planned to never look back. Once overseas, they realized the depths of their mistake. But once Kurt died in combat, Andy decided to turn his back on his past for good. Years later, Andrew is bound to the US again with an injury. A phone call a few weeks before Christmas changes everything and beckons him home. His father has been involved in a horrible car accident. When Andrew returns to the island, he finds himself in the center of so many ghosts.

Charlotte Hamner lost her beloved husband Jason three years ago. His death nearly destroyed her—but with the help of her dearest sisters and cousins in the Montgomery and Sheridan clans, she was able to find hope once more, and ultimately build her wedding planning business back to new heights. And against all odds, she found love again with the dashing photographer, Everett.