The Road Leads Back by Marci Boudreaux

Kara Martinson and Harry Canton weren’t exactly high school sweethearts, but they did share one night neither will ever forget. Twenty-seven years later, Harry surprises Kara at an art gallery opening and discovers he left her with more than just memories when he went away to college. Desperate to connect with the family he never knew existed, Harry convinces his son to move to Stonehill—and pleads with Kara to come, too.

Kara hasn’t stepped foot in their hometown since the day she was sent away to a home for unwed mothers. Now Harry’s back in her life and as they put together the pieces of his parents’ betrayal, old heartaches start to feel anew. She wants to be near her family, but returning to Iowa means facing some things…and some people…she isn’t quite ready to.

Can Harry convince her to forgive the people who betrayed her so they can embrace the future they were robbed of so long ago? Or will the pain of the past be too much for Kara to overcome?

 
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This is a rather sweet, yet realistic story about a couple that gets a second chance at love. While there is a certain amount of starry-eyed romance and some situations work out just a little too easily perhaps, for the most part the story deals with the uglier, more difficult side of coming home again. For while some people might be happy to have you in their life again, and you're happy to see them again as well, it's not going to be all sunshine and rainbows when the past has been full of betrayals. Forgiveness might come, but probably not easily, and when events in the past have so strongly shaped your life they can never be forgotten. All that can be done is to try to find a way through the pain so it can be left behind and you can move forward. The story of how Kara and Harry figure out how to do just that is told here with compassion, acknowledgement of the fact that there aren't going to be any easy answers or fixes in this situation, healing won't come overnight, and some wrongs can never be entirely forgiven -- or can they?

The Legend of Sarah Latham by Marci Boudreaux

Family reunions can be Hell.

Nearly four hundred years ago, Sarah Latham and William Fuller disappeared without a trace.

Legend has it she was a wicked witch and he was her demon. Legend also has it that whenever a Latham descendent reaches thirty years of age, Sarah comes to drag them to Hell.

Good thing twenty-nine year old Elizabeth Latham doesn’t believe in legends. Or at least she didn’t until she happened upon a woman in the family cemetery who just happened to look an awful lot like the paintings in the local museum.

Elizabeth is determined to stay ground in reality, but her idea of reality is shattered when she realizes Sarah and William have returned. But Elizabeth quickly realizes that Sarah is about as far from wicked as William is from being a demon.

So if Sarah hasn’t been killing generations of Lathams…who has?

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I loved this story. Simply loved it. The characters, the story, pretty much everything about it, except perhaps the length. A part of me would have liked more time with these characters, more chance to get to know some of them better, just...more. And yet in this instance, I think the work as a whole might have suffered had it been extended out very much more.

The Rebound by Emilia Mancini

Still reeling from catching her husband in bed with his mistress, the last thing Casi Hanson is looking for is romance. When she meets brokenhearted Conner Bennett, she thinks she has found exactly what she needs.

Their mutual desire for a “no strings attached” sexual relationship offers the opportunity to explore fantasies and fetishes their spouses denied them and the freedom to walk away when they are done.
The only fantasy too taboo is falling in love.

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A spellbinding story of two people who meet by chance at a function just as both of their marriages have fallen apart. They start off by pretending to be there together to save face and to get through the evening, but one dance is all it takes for it to become more. They become lovers that night, and enter into a steamy, "no strings attached" affair, but is that all it will ever be? Do they even want it to ever be more, or will they be satisfied with their friends-with-benefits arrangement indefinitely?