Summer By The Tides by Denise Hunter

From the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom (now a beloved Hallmark Original movie) comes a heartfelt story of family secrets, forgiveness, and unexpected romance.

Following a painful betrayal, Maddy Monroe's love life is a wreck, and her restaurant career is in shambles. When her grandmother goes missing, she and her estranged sisters converge at the family beach house in Sea Haven, North Carolina. Being with uptight Nora and free-spirited Emma at the place where their family broke apart is a struggle, and undercurrents of jealousy and resentment threaten to pull the sisters under. In the midst of the storm, sparks begin to fly between Maddy and Gram's maddening neighbor, Connor Murphy.

As the sisters pack up the family belongings, memories of idyllic, slow-paced summers are resurrected. But long-buried secrets also come to light as Maddy discovers that all was not as it appeared that last summer in Sea Haven--nor today in the seemingly perfect lives of her sisters.

As family tensions rise and Connor causes tumult in Maddy's heart, the sisters must find a way to accept each other for the women they've become before the bitterness of the past destroys their hope for a future.

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My Review
If Hallmark doesn't turn this book into a made-for-TV movie I'll be severely disappointed. Hunter goes beyond her typical romance plot and incorporates a splash of women's fiction and a drop of family saga (yes, puns intended....). However, since this is a standalone novel, every side plot is nicely tied together by the end. The romance between Conner and Maddy is strong and satisfying (and a little angst-y at times, which keeps the pages turning). The setting made me wish I was there. I'm a big fan of Ms. Hunter's, and I can't wait to see what she brings her readers next!

What Hope Remembers by Johnnie Alexander

When you need a new beginning, sometimes

the best place to start is home.

When Amy Somers loses her job as a lobbyist, she moves to Misty Willow, well aware that she's crossing bridges she'd burned years before. With all the mistakes she's made and the uncaring things she's done--even to her own family--she can hardly believe that happiness will find her, especially when Gabe Kendall, her first crush and her first kiss, rides back into her life atop a buckskin mare.

A former Marine, Gabe is at loose ends after serving a prison sentence for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He sees beyond Amy's hard exterior to the girl he once knew and loved, and he longs to see her open her heart. Yet with his vision clouded by shame for his past and fears about the future, he finds it difficult to see the path ahead.

But the memory of that long-ago kiss just may have the power to reignite a romance that brings out the best in both of them.

Publisher: Revell, 2017

Genre: contemporary romance

My Review

What Hope Remembers is book three of Alexander's Misty Willow series and is a nice conclusion to the Somers family saga. Set in rural Ohio, this romance features two broken characters fighting for a fresh start. With pasts that both bond them together and makes their future relationship challenging, this story brings the Somers family together, heals, and brings true faith to light. The twist at the end caught me completely off guard, which was nice as that doesn't happen often. This book reads as a standalone novel, however, I recommend reading the entire series in order to better appreciate Amy's character. I give this book four stars, and I'm looking forward to what Ms. Alexander brings us next!