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| Cape Sanctuary, California – Present Day Meredith Collins returns to Cape Sanctuary, the one place where she felt safe growing up. Her late grandmother gave her the love that Meredith’s parents would not give her. But she knows that coming back will not be met with open arms from her cousin, Tori, who runs the local café once owned by their grandmother. The café was left to both girls and now Meredith is there to work—and recover from the wounds left after her late ex-husband swindled people out of millions of dollars. As expected, Tori is openly hostile to Meredith, but since they split the café due to the terms of their grandmother’s will (Tori has fifty-one percent), she finally does agree to give her cousin a job. Meredith was also willed one of the cottages owned by her grandmother, with Tori living in another and a third one is currently rented by a man who is there for a month while he writes his book. The man, who says his name is Liam, spends hours in the café with his laptop and soon is friendly with Meredith. When she offers to spruce up the café décor, Tori agrees, and Liam offers to help with the painting. Slowly, Meredith’s relationship with Tori begins to thaw, while her friendship with Liam turns deeper. Tori is a widowed mother of a teenage daughter. Her late husband’s family lives in town and is a big support, especially Sam, her late husband’s brother. Sam is divorced and has custody of his teenage daughter, and the two teens hang out together, which means Tori sees Sam a lot. Soon, Tori is experiencing feelings for Sam that are much more than friendship. But how would his family feel about them as a couple? As Tori grapples with what to do, she begins to push Sam away. Meanwhile, her hatred of Meredith—and what she feels was her cousin’s fault for staying away while their grandmother lost money, then got sick and died—begins to thaw. There is more to what is going on with Meredith than Tori realizes. As readers soon learn in THE CAFÉ AT BEACH END, nothing is as it appears. Meredith’s husband was a cheating scoundrel who abused her. Law enforcement thinks she knows where the missing funds that her ex stole are, but she doesn’t and wishes she could have stopped him. Liam, it turns out, is an FBI agent on vacation and undercover. His bosses had closed the file on the missing money, but he thinks that she can lead him to it if he gets close to her. But he soon realizes that Meredith is a victim also. Tori doesn’t trust Meredith and that was reinforced after she bailed out on them when they were younger, and their grandmother fell for Meredith’s husband’s scams. She believes that her cousin was a willful participant in the scam and hates that she is back in Cape Sanctuary even though she is a part-owner of the café. Tori soon realizes that Meredith is barely hanging on financially. Like others, she wonders if she knows where the funds are. Meanwhile, Tori and Sam are dealing with their willful daughters who think having fun is more important than getting good grades in school. They are soon banding together to help fix their children. Will it bring them closer to being a couple? THE CAFÉ AT BEACH END is that emotional read which will tug at your heartstrings. Meredith keeps her secrets locked deep inside to hide the pain. It is Liam and Tori who finally gets her to open up to them. Tori is struggling with her feelings for Sam. She has to get over the feeling that she is betraying her late husband by being attracted to his brother. Will the women finally come together and become close again? Will Liam see the truth in Meredith? Grab a hanky as you go on the women’s emotional journey in THE CAFÉ AT BEACH END. Patti Fischer |
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THE CAFÉ AT BEACH END – RaeAnne Thayne