Women Who Survive and Thrive by Charmaine Gordon Series

Each morning, Emily Kendrick runs on the hard-packed sand of St. Augustine Beach to clear her mind and heal her heart. From the widow’s walk of the house perched high on the dunes, a man trains his binoculars on Emily...

I held his cooling hand and asked the two words spoken many times during our years together. “Now what?” This time there was no response. I was on my own for the first time. When my fingers touched his wedding ring, I slipped it off and held it in my fist. The gold band was warm. I clung to him. “Come back to me, dearest.” Sometimes what you wish for is more than you can live with.

Seems easy enough. Jimmy Costigan will deliver supplies to sister Charlie's project Haven,a respite for the needy, and leave.Simple. Instead Shelley Jackson answers the door,says she needs him and soft-hearted Jimmy stays to protect the family seeking refuge from a sociopath. He didn't count on falling in love. A twist of fate intervenes when Shelley keeps a secret that threatens to break apart the Costigans and her future. A mysterious client, Deanna Rose, enters Haven, victim of a savage beating under strange circumstances. Using Internet resources, Shelley digs in to find Ms. Rose has an unsavory past. With the reputation and safety of Haven at stake, Shelley is at risk to lose everything and everyone she cares about.

Tom Donnelly, once known as The Catch – every woman’s dream guy, has fallen down every rung of the ladder he once worked so hard to climb. On New Year’s Day, he realizes just how far he’s fallen, and makes a list of resolutions to change his life. He vows to regain the trust lost from his family, his law firm, and his friends – and maybe even find the right woman this time. He crosses paths with Joanne McKenna Friedman – a smart young lawyer, beautiful on the outside, damaged on the inside. Joanne’s secret past leaves her distrustful of everyone. Until a court case comes up to threaten her career and even her life, and she turns to Tom for help.

Charlie Costigan has a secret. Home life gone from bad to the worst when she protects her mother from another vicious attack by her drunken father. Midnight. Clothes thrown into an old suitcase, she races for the bus with a letter to an unknown aunt and uncle. "This is my daughter. Embrace her as if she were your own." Determined, Charlie begins again. Alone with her secret.

Nineteen year old Grace Meredith didn’t say no to the Big Man On Campus, Scott Dwyer. And then her life changed... Grace makes her way to a new town and with the kindness of strangers, establishes a business called The Pet Emporium where she grooms , what else? Dogs and cats. Years later, a too-close encounter of an unpleasant kind with a skunk and Scott’s German Shepherd reunites the former lovers. What happens in between are their stories of beginnings and endings and love lost, then found.

Steve and Sally Atwood have some big adjustments to make when they move to River’s Edge. Steve has lost his career in the corporate world and finds work painting houses. Sally flings off her apron and pursues her lifelong dream to be a reporter in the small town with a big heart, where the motto is ‘Kindness to Strangers’. Afraid he is losing Sally to a more exciting world, Steve panics, but despite Sally’s lecherous new boss, together they rediscover all the love of their thirty-five years together and all the... excitement... that brings to their lives.

One night, she ran. For the bus to freedom and a new life. She had a plan, and a small box of cash. With grit and determination, the young girl learned more than lessons at nursing college, the first part of her plan. Someday, she would become a top chef, but for now, she’d claw her way up the ladder. There is payback for every crime, and sometimes the payback is more than satisfactory.