Cheryl's Book Nook

  We grew up in the same house. We were never supposed to love each other like that. But I did—quietly, carefully, with a guilt I never learned to outrun. I was placed with the Holmes family at ten years old. Hayden and I were the same age, sharing a house, a family, and a line we weren’t supposed to cross. He left Coral Bay and built a life somewhere else. We stayed in touch. We stayed family. And I told myself that was enough, burying the feelings I wasn’t supposed to carry. Now he’s back—divorced, a single dad, and we’re sharing space and responsibility again. The house feels smaller. The past feels closer. And the feelings I locked away are breaking free. Every touch is a confession. Every line we cross can’t be uncrossed. And Hayden and I both know it—and still risk it. But wanting this has a cost. It can fracture the only family I’ve ever known—and force us to choose between the love we can no longer deny and everything we stand to lose. My Review Hayden and Evangeline grew u...

  Can the wrong romantic getaway lead to the right person? Christian Beckett had his life mapped out—steady career, beautiful girlfriend, and a plan to take the next step on a wintry Valentine's trip to Italy’s Amalfi Coast. But from the moment they arrive, the romantic getaway falls apart—and so does everything he thought he wanted. For Alessia Rossi, it’s just an off-season job. Another happy couple to tour guide. She never expected the handsome American to notice her, or share her love for beauty in the ordinary. He reminds her how it feels to be truly seen, and to want something she can’t have. Rainy walks, shared laughter, and a Vespa ride along the cliffs—what starts as a tour, deepens. Every glance says more than words, every touch threatens  the line they both know they shouldn’t cross. Christian sees not just Italy differently, but himself. Now he must decide: follow the life he planned … or the love he never saw coming. Because sometimes, the right person arrives at ...

  The rules are no feelings, no strings. But rules were made to be broken. And broken things hurt. As the owner of the Coral Bay Inn, I’ve built myself an uncomplicated small-beach-town life. Men? friends with benefits, no strings—the safest way to guard my heart. But Sebastian Sawyer isn’t just any guy. He’s been there from the start—before I had cheekbones, before my skin cleared. Before I turned heads. We were each other’s first everything. Now that long-ago geeky boy has muscles that belong on an action figure and a calm that’s hard to shake. Our long-tenured no-strings arrangement is perfect. But perfect things don’t last. When the inn needs repairs, Sebastian moves in to help. Spending our days and nights together shatters the balance and complicates everything. Sebastian wants forever—an F-word that scares me as much as feelings—so I safeguard my heart before his rewrites everything I swore against. Yet my foolish heart insists on following my body’s lead. Because forever wi...

  Owen Wheaton isn’t just a soccer icon—he’s also my brother’s off-limits best friend. My once-upon-a-time protector. My first everything. When an injury sends him home to our small California town, we end up living under the same roof. Only Owen isn’t the boy who left—he’s a world-famous athlete who dates models, tops hottest man alive lists, and has full stadiums singing his praise. But I know the version of him the world doesn’t see. The one who made me believe I was more than my stutter. The one I trusted to be my first—all those years ago. I’ve built a quiet, full life—crafting handmade products for the shop I manage, filming YouTube videos to face my stutter head-on, and finding strength in my own voice. But now he’s everywhere—on my porch, in my kitchen, under my skin. The simmering tension between us starts to boil ... and nothing will ever be the same. He’s looking at me like I’ve always been his. But I keep telling myself I never really was. Because if I was—if I am—what ...

  Two childhood soulmates, two opposite sides of the tracks, one beach house. Oliver Madden doesn’t do relationships. Which I’d do well to remember because, at 38, he’s the same maddening heartthrob he was in high school. I’ve known him since we were six. My mother cleaned the house Oliver grew up in. A lonely kid in a big villa with no love. From the moment we met, we became each other’s shore to crash on, until time and life came between us. When the broken boy I once loved learns I’m drowning in debt and offers I move into his beach house, I can’t afford to say no. I just need to ensure I don’t fall for the man he is now. A green-eyed man with barbed wire around his heart. His barricaded heart claims he offered his house because he owes me. But every kind act, every lingering look, every burning touch, tells me that this rugged man is a gun loaded with pain, rage, and love. And he doesn’t want to risk my finger on the trigger. Shores of Your Heart is a dual pov, forced proximity...

  Once they had it all. Now they want it back. Finn Brennen, swim team star, and Anne Drecher, the wallflower who tutored him, sparked an unlikely friendship that turned into a love so breathtakingly deep that they couldn’t imagine life without the other. But their happiness was short-lived. Torn apart by horrible timing and a twist of fate, for over a decade they are forced to hide their mutual past. Devastated by a love neither could forget, Anne built a life away from it all while Finn strove to give his son a stable home. But every family gathering brought them into the same room and served as a torturous reminder of what-ifs and could-have-beens. Now Finn is divorced and ready to fight for what his heart wants and needs. Anne tries to resist but yearns for the love she thought she’d lost forever. Family is forever, but what if love is, too? Is a second chance even possible when their love could tear a tightly-knit family apart? ‘You Weren’t Mine Then’ is a steamy slow-burn sma...