Introduction

In this brand-new summer read by the USA Today bestselling author of The House on Mermaid Point, three women join forces to bring a historic seaside hotel back to life…
 
There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix…
 
After losing their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, Maddie, Avery, and Nikki have banded together to make the most of what they have left, using their determination, ingenuity, guts, and a large dose of elbow grease. It’s Maddie’s daughter Kyra who stumbles across a once glorious beachfront hotel that has fallen into disrepair. The opportunity to renovate this seaside jewel is too good to pass up—especially when they come up with the idea of shooting their own independent television show about the restoration. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Everything. With the cameras rolling, Maddie’s second-chance romance with her all-too-famous new boyfriend gets complicated, Avery struggles with grief over the loss of her mother, and Nikki’s reluctance to commit to the man who loves her could leave her to face the biggest challenge of her life. Even the hotel seems to be against them, when their renovation uncovers a decades-old unsolved murder which just might bring their lives tumbling down all over again…

Editorial Review

No editorial review at this time.

Excerpt

One

Madeline Singer was fairly certain that the number of former suburban housewives who went on to have relationships with rock stars was too small to be statistically measurable. Which might be why she felt like Cinderella that night as William Hightower handed her out of his boat and onto the dock at the Lorelei Bar and Restaurant. If, that was, Cinderella had to color her hair, suck in her stomach, and wore a size too large to make Project Runway.

Perched on the edge of U.S. 1 the multi-tiered Islamorada landmark served good, basic food, poured potent drinks, and drew a mostly laidback crowd for its nightly sunset celebrations. Tables surrounded a thatched hut of a stage and spilled out onto a half moon of beach where you could eat with your bare feet buried in the sand and your eyes pinned to a truly spectacular sunset that played out over the Florida Bay.

Remnants of sunlight glinted off the black hair lightly threaded with gray that brushed William’s shoulders and cast his sharply angled face into shadow. “Should be interesting to see what kind of reaction we get to the new song,” he said as he retrieved his guitar case from the boat and slipped an arm around her shoulders.

“Everybody on Mermaid Point loved it,” she reminded him. “You got a standing ovation.”

“Yeah, well, let’s not forget Mermaid Point is surrounded by water. The residents are a captive audience.”

Maddie laughed but did not concede the point. She might not be a musician, but she knew a great song when she heard one. Will had written Free Fall in September not long after she and the rest of the Do Over crew had finished turning William Hightower’s private island into what was supposed to have been a high end Bed and Breakfast but which he’d turned into a sober living facility. It was the first song he’d written after more than a decade unable to make music at all. The first he’d ever written without the benefit of drugs or alcohol.

“And not that I don’t appreciate it,” he added. “But I don’t think you’re completely objective.”

“True,” she said. “But I was a William Hightower fan way before I ever met you.” That had been back when he was building a name as a southern rocker and Wasted Indian had been climbing to the top of the charts. “So let’s not go questioning my musical taste.”

His dark eyes creased with amusement. The spider web of lines at their corners attested to all he’d been through. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head then headed for the stage.

Maddie leaned against a vacant post not far from the bar that afforded an unobstructed view over the already packed tables that fanned out from the stage. A waitress handed her a glass of Pinot Noir, which she accepted gladly. She sipped it as Will and the musicians he’d cobbled together set up. Her eyes scanned the stage, the crowd, and the sun that hung in midair poised for its swan dive into the bay. She had only one more day with Will before she’d drive up to Bella Flora, the house that she, Nicole Grant and Avery Lawford had nursed back to life and which had now become home. There they’d have to figure out what, if anything, they could do about the show they’d created, lost control of, and then quit so publicly.

Conversation ceased as William stepped up to the microphone. All eyes, including hers, fastened on the man who had once hung in poster form on her bedroom wall. William Hightower might be 62, but he’d come out of rehab a little over a year ago for what he’d vowed would be the last time, looking hot as hell.

With a salt breeze and a pinkening sky for background, Will laid out his losses with a pain roughened voice. He’d lost his younger brother and the woman who’d borne his son to drugs and excess. The pain had only mounted as he disappeared into every vial and bottle he could find in an attempt to hide from the hurt. Tonight he hid nothing, singing with his eyes closed, his fingers lithe on his guitar strings, his body taut with emotion. The crowd’s response was equally visceral. When he finished Maddie’s were not the only cheeks wet with tears. She’d expected that. What she hadn’t anticipated was the naked hunger that shone in the eyes of his female fans.

He sent her a smile over the heads of the women who mobbed him after the set and she managed to smile back even as she struggled to tamp down her jealousy and uncertainty.

She’d learned over the last months to stop apologizing for her body or even trying to hide it from him, though the stomach sucking was a reflex with a mind of its own. He insisted he wasn’t comparing her to anyone; that she, a fifty-one-year old mother of two and grandmother of one, turned him on just the way she was.

But if Will’s mind didn’t stray to all the women who’d come before her or to the tsunami of female adoration that was currently washing over him, Maddie’s did. A lifetime spent as a suburban housewife prepared a woman for a lot of things. A relationship with a man like William Hightower wasn’t one of them.

“You were fabulous,” she said on the boat ride back to Mermaid Point. “Could you feel how the audience reacted to Free Fall? God, they loved it. They were hanging on every word.”

“Yeah.” Steering with his right hand, he pulled her onto his lap with his left. “I didn’t expect to get the same high, you know, performing straight. But it’s a definite rush. Kind of like a shot of adrenaline to the heart.”

His body was hard and warm against hers. She could practically feel that adrenaline coursing through him. When they reached the house Will emptied his pockets onto the bedroom dresser and began to shuck his clothes.

“I’m way too wired to go to bed,” he said pulling on swim trunks. “Want to come for a swim?”

She’d become used to taking off her clothes in front of him, had been unable to argue his unfailingly positive physical reaction to her, but his reception tonight had proved that while she might have tamped down her insecurities she hadn’t shed them completely.

“I think I’ll stay here and start getting my things together.” Unable to meet his eyes, she glanced at the items he’d pulled from his pockets. There were two cocktail napkins with names and phone numbers, one of them written in bright red lipstick. A crumbled photo of . . . “Is that a naked woman?” She moved toward the dresser for a closer look. “I didn’t know anyone owned a Polaroid camera any more.”

“Hmmm?” Will asked as he reached for a towel.

“This.” She held the photo up by one corner. “This naked photo.”

He turned to look at the photo Maddie held between her fingertips. He snorted. “Given who I think shoved that in my pocket, I doubt it’s remotely recent.”

“Someone shoved a naked photo of herself in your pocket,” she repeated dully.

“Um hm.”

“And this is . . .” she scooped up a wisp of red lace, dropping it when she realized what it was. “A thong.” She could hear the note of disbelief in her voice.

“Seems to be.” Will shrugged and smiled. “You sure you don’t want to come for a swim? It’s past resident curfew. We’d have the pool and the hot tub to ourselves.” He shot her a wink.

“I’m looking at a thong that a complete stranger placed in your pocket.” A thong that she doubted would make it over one of her thighs. “And all you’re thinking about is going for a swim. With me.”

“Absolutely.” He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. “What else should I be thinking about?” He asked this as if every female at the Lorelei that night hadn’t spent the evening mentally undressing him and would gladly swim naked to Mermaid Point, like some Sexual Seal Team Six, if invited.

Maddie hadn’t dated in close to thirty years and she’d never dated a rock star, but she was pretty certain that freaking out over groupies or calling attention to all the women William could have sex with instead of her, was not a good idea. She shrugged as casually as she could. “I don’t know. I’ve never been in this situation before.” She looked at but did not touch the thong.

“It’s nothing,” he said tucking the towel under one arm. He hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt and she couldn’t help watching the play of muscle as he shrugged again. “It just goes with the territory. You walk up on a stage and . . . seriously, Maddie, there’s no accounting for what some people will do or assume.”

“Right.”

His eyes held hers, but he didn’t argue the point. “I’m just going to do a few laps. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Maddie knew him well enough to know that a few laps could be anywhere from fifty to infinity. Swimming had been his go to stress reliever during and after rehab and he typically swam twice a day out of habit, she thought, as much as necessity. She stood out on the balcony and watched him slip into the pool; it and the ocean beyond glimmered in the moonlight. Only a few years ago she’d dreamt of empty nesting only to have that nest filled with an aging mother-in-law, an unexpectedly pregnant daughter, and an unemployed husband who’d lost everything, including his job, to Malcolm Dyer’s Ponzi scheme. Two desperate years of hanging on and staying afloat had followed. Now here she stood on the bedroom balcony of William Hightower’s private island; an outcome she’d never imagined in her wildest dreams.

Inside she began to empty her drawers, carefully avoiding the items that still littered Will’s dresser. Then she got undressed, slid into bed and lay listening to the rhythmic splash of his flutter kick. Somewhere in the middle of lap thirty-five she finally fell asleep.

? view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1. In order to renovate the Sunshine Hotel and Beach Club, Madeline, Avery, Nicole, and Kyra must help solve the mystery of what happened to Renée and Annelise’s parents. What else do the characters learn as they renovate the club? Does each woman have to make peace with a certain part of her own past to move forward with changing her life?
2. Renée and Annelise suffered a brutal loss when they were children and have dealt with that loss very differently. Renée feels the Sunshine Hotel and Beach Club, the place where the loss occurred, should be torn down while Annelise doesn’t want it touched. How do these different approaches to the hotel reflect how each sister has dealt with her loss? Do you think that’s a result of their ages at the time of the incident, their personalities, or both? How does solving the mystery of their parents’ deaths help the two sisters? How do they each change as a result of what is discovered? How does that change their view of the hotel?
3. Avery has to come to terms with the unexpected death of her mother, Deirdre Morgan. Do you think that is made more complicated, since she had just reconciled with her mother? Do you think Avery regrets not allowing her mother back into her life sooner?
4. When Steve Singer comes to stay at Bella Flora it changes his relationship with his ex-wife, Madeline, and his daughter Kyra. How does each relationship change? How do Kyra’s feelings toward her father change the longer he lives in the house? What does she learn about him?
5. Maddie chooses to let Kyra reach her own conclusions about Steve. Why do you think Maddie handles it this way? Do you think it was the right strategy? How does Steve change through the book? Do you think he learns any lessons? How does Maddie and Steve’s relationship transition throughout the book? What do they each learn about each other? As Kyra’s view of Steve as a father changes, does it influence how Kyra feels about Daniel Deranian’s parenting skills?
6. Do you think Kyra is still in love with Daniel? When she lets Dustin stay with his father on the movie set do you think she has any sympathy for Tonja? Why or why not?
7. At the end of the book Kyra takes a loan against Bella Flora to raise the money the women need to renovate the hotel and fight the network lawsuit. Her father and John Franklin are very concerned about the risk involved. Do you think Kyra is making a wise decision? Do you understand why she is willing to risk Bella Flora? Do you think she should have told Maddie, Nikki, and Avery the truth about where she got the money? Do you understand why she didn’t, and why she didn’t want to take a loan from Daniel? Have you ever taken a similar risk?
8. Nicole is struggling with how to tell Joe Giraldi that she is pregnant with his baby. Have you ever found yourself scared to reveal a secret that affected another person so closely? Do you agree with how Nicole handled the situation? Why do you think it was so hard for her to tell Joe? Why is Nicole so scared to trust Joe’s love? Why is she reluctant to marry him? Do you think her feelings have changed by the end of the book?
9. Why do you think Nicole feels obligated to visit her brother Malcom Dyer in prison, after all he has put her through and after all the lies he’s told her? Why do you think she wants to believe in him and to trust him? In contrast, why is it so hard for her to trust Joe?
10. Daniel Deranian and William Hightower have both been celebrities for a long time and they both encourage Maddie, Nicole, Avery, and Kyra to keep the paparazzi like Nigel Bracken interested and reporting on the women’s activities at Bella Flora. They feel that relationship will help the women to promote and protect their television show, Do Over, and that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. Do you think that’s true? What do you think about reality television stars who are famous simply because they’re willing to have their lives filmed? What role do the paparazzi play in their celebrity status?
11. Madeline feels like she’ll never be able to compete with the young, gorgeous rock-star groupies who hang on William Hightower. Do you think her fears are reasonable? Do you think women are under an enormous amount of pressure to appear young, thin, and beautiful no matter their age? Why do you think William values his relationship with Maddie? Could you relate to Maddie’s insecurities?
12. Maddie and Kyra are navigating complicated relationships with high-profile stars. Maddie is romantically involved with the rock star William Hightower, and Kyra’s son Dustin was fathered by Daniel Deranian, a major movie star. What difficulties are presented for each woman because she’s involved with a famous man? How are their challenges similar and different?
13. At the end of each day, Maddie asks everyone to share one good thing to toast at sunset. Why do you think Maddie feels that tradition is so important? Does it help each character? Does it help some of the women more than the others? Do you have a similar daily ritual?
14. Avery, Kyra, Maddie, and Nikki each faced different challenges in the novel. Which woman’s story resonated the most with you? Why? What do you think each woman learns throughout the course of the book? What causes the breakthrough for each of them?

Weblinks

»	Author's web site
»	Publisher's Book Info

Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.

Member Reviews

There are no user reviews at this time.
Rate this book