Showing results by author "Ashley Farley" in All Categories

Ellie Pringle has spent endless hours and countless dollars working with a therapist to remember the lost years of her childhood. She's baffled and more than a little intrigued when the grandmother she hasn't seen in 34 years dies and leaves her a fortune. The time has come to face her past in person. Still reeling from a recent breakup of a long-term relationship, and with nothing to keep her in San Francisco, Ellie packs her meager belongings and boards a plane for the South Carolina Lowcountry.

When new next-door neighbors Georgia, Midge, and Lula first assembled on Georgia's porch in Charleston for sweet tea, they couldn't have known their gathering was the beginning of a treasured tradition. For 26 years they have met on Tuesdays at four o'clock, watching the seasons change and their children grow up, supporting each other in good times and in bad. With their ambitions as different as their personalities, these best friends anticipate many more years of tea time.

Merry Mary: Investigative journalist Scottie Darden is photographing the homeless for her Lost Souls series when she makes a discovery that could change her life forever. Under a makeshift tent in subzero temperatures in a downtown city park, she finds a woman's dead body with her infant child. Breaking the Story: To attract the attention of the main players in the news industry, Scottie Darden needs a standout story with a unique perspective. What she finds is a scandal that could turn the upcoming presidential election upside-down.

Stella Boor's biological father is a nameless, faceless sperm donor. At least, that's what her parents have led her to believe. Imagine her surprise when she learns he's none other than rock legend Billy Jameson and that Billy has died and left Stella a historic inn on a sprawling farm in the mountains of Virginia. A city girl at heart, Stella can't imagine living anywhere but New York. Her first inclination is to sell the property. But the terms of Billy's will stipulate she manages the inn for three years before putting it on the market.

After thirty years, college friends Lena Browder and Olivia Westcoat have met again by chance at an unexpected crossroads: an airport lounge in Atlanta. Lena is running away from home and her demanding family. Olivia is trying to find her way after a painful divorce. With their old selves in the rearview, they toast to a new beginning - and it starts with a spontaneous dare.

Julia Martin grew up wealthy, but it wasn’t until she met her husband, Jack, that she knew true happiness. He made her feel worthy and loved. Their marriage was also an escape from her sister’s bullying, her father’s scrutiny, and her chilly and enigmatic mother. But when tragedy strikes on the night she gives birth, Julia’s happiness is shattered. She has no choice but to return home to her family’s South Carolina mansion, where the grief and guilt buried in her mother’s past await her.

All is right in Ellie Pringle Hagood’s world. Recently married to the man of her dreams and in anticipation of the big family she’s always wanted, she focuses on restoring the large home she inherited from her grandmother on Charleston’s prestigious Battery. But then, in the midst of all her happiness, comes news that throws Ellie’s life into a tailspin.

Presley Ingram has often wondered about her birth parents. Yet her 23andMe test kit remains unopened in her bedside table drawer. When she finds an address on a torn envelope in her adoption file upon her adoptive mother's death, she makes an impulsive decision to travel to the mountains of Virginia in search of answers. In the charming town of Hope Springs, she discovers her dream job as an event planner at the prestigious Inn at Hope Springs Farms and the potential for romance with a ruggedly handsome bartender.

Merriment and mayhem collide for a chaotic holiday season at the Inn at Hope Springs Farms.

Faith Neilson, survivor of an abusive marriage, has finally discovered her life's passion. She's established a shelter for women in crisis - not only for homeless women, but also for those who are suffering from abuse, dealing with addiction, or coping with grief over the loss of a loved one. Faith's mission, when she opens her doors, is to help the residents mend their broken hearts. In the midst of that challenge, she struggles to find additional funding to keep her program afloat while balancing the demands of career and home.

Samantha Sweeney has always been the glue that holds her family together, their go-to girl for love and support. When an ATV accident leaves her teenage son in a wheelchair, she loses her carefully constructed self-control. In the after-gloom of her dreaded 50th birthday and the discovery of her husband's infidelity, Jackie realizes she must reconnect with her former self to find the happiness she needs to move forward.

Kate has spent the past few weeks in the Lowcountry, caring for her mother after a stroke. Although she should have returned home by now, the allure of Magnolia Shores keeps her rooted in place. At a crossroads in her life, Kate rediscovers the carefree spirit of her youth. She faces a tough choice: return to a failing marriage in Texas or pursue a golden career opportunity in South Carolina looms large.

Lillian Alexander’s father is dying of cancer. When he rambles on in a morphine-delirium, Lillian can’t ignore the feeling he’s trying to tell her something. At his funeral days later, she encounters ghosts from her past who stir long-suppressed memories from the day her mother died 27 years ago. Why, if her mother’s death was an accident, does Lillian harbor guilt, as though she were somehow to blame? When Lillian and her twin sister, Layla, learn the Stoney family fortune is gone, Lillian fights to save her ancestral home on Charleston’s prestigious East Battery.

Lillian Alexander has never understood why her twin sister hates her so much. Layla’s animosity stems from childhood, from their mother’s death 27 years ago. But Lillian remembers nothing about that day. Why, if her mother’s death was an accident, does Lillian harbor guilt, as though she were somehow to blame?

Ten years ago, Stuart Carpenter was killed in a single-car accident after retrieving his daughter, Reese, from college. The first responders to the accident saw no evidence of her, and she’s been neither seen nor heard from since. A decade later, Reese’s mother, Eva, struggling to make it through her days, holds out hope her daughter is still alive. Maggie, on the rebound after the breakup of a long-term relationship, rushes into marriage with a man she knows little about.

Wedding bells will soon be ringing in the Lowcountry. All Sam Sweeney wants is to marry her man on Christmas Eve surrounded by family and friends. But emerging complications, some humorous and some not so humorous, threaten to converge and derail the best-laid plans during the busy stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Some families never resolve conflicts. Not so with the Sweeneys. Their sense of family, their love for one another, and their willingness to forgive have always triumphed and brought them back together. Until now. The latest crisis threatens to tear the family apart and crumble the foundation that has always proved itself rock solid. At the heart of the matter are 16-year-old Annie Bethune and her boyfriend, Cooper. At stake are their dreams for the future. As to these dreams, no one in the family holds back when asserting an opinion.

When the seafood business Lovie Sweeney established 60 years ago is destroyed by fire, she finds herself at the center of an arson investigation. What really happened that night? Is Lovie responsible for starting the fire, or is her family under attack from a sworn enemy? The loss of their family business leaves the Sweeney clan in flux.

There's a stranger in town. And it's no coincidence when she shows up uninvited at a Sweeney family wedding. All eyes are drawn to this urchin who seems to have washed in with the tide. Before the night is over, the doe-eyed waif charms young and old with her street smarts and spunky personality. For better or worse, Annie Dawn is here to stay.

Isabelle is haunted by remorse over a past mistake that drastically changed the lives of those closest to her. Apologizing would be a step in the right direction—if only she could muster the courage to say, "I'm sorry." Her world is turned upside down when her late husband's will stipulates that she transform their waterfront estate into a bed and breakfast. As the summer's first guests are due to arrive, Isabelle feels increasingly overwhelmed. Unexpected help arrives in the form of her twenty-four-year-old granddaughter.