Showing results by author "Carolyn Brown" in All Categories

Cousins Tabby and Ellie Mae are due for a change. Running their aunt’s beachfront bed-and-breakfast in Sandcastle, Texas, is just the thing to shake things up…though their lives spin out of control in more ways than one when a hurricane barrels into the coastline. It’s a miracle it didn’t carry them off to Kansas. Not so lucky are the assisted-living center and a small eclectic group of local folks who take shelter with the cousins.

After thirteen years away, Tina O’Grady returns to her hometown of Benson, Texas, drawn to the old oak tree in the park. She and her childhood friends, Walker and Gracie, called it the Tomorrow Tree and shared their dreams beneath its branches. But Tina, still reeling from past betrayals, has no plans to stay.

Substitute counselor for wayward teens isn’t how public-school teacher Jayden Bennett planned to spend her summer vacation. However reluctant, she’s hiking up her jeans and heading for remote Piney Wood Academy in north Texas. Two months. Seven days a week. Few amenities. And three troubled girls daring Jayden to make a difference. She understands what she’s up against. She has her own burdens to bear. Jayden’s not in it alone. The devoted elderly couple who run Piney Wood trusts in Jayden’s tough-love approach to get the job done. So does drill instructor Elijah Thomas.

What do a runaway bride, a free spirit, and a corporate exec have in common? Besides all being down on their luck, Lainie, Jodi, and Becky are Lizzie Cornell's granddaughters. Upon inheriting their grandmother's home and family bait shop, the three cousins return to Catfish, Texas, grieving Lizzie's passing and hoping to find the fresh start they all need.

Professional poker player Carla Wilson’s luck runs dry in Tucson, leaving her with nothing but an SUV running on fumes and a deed to the Tumbleweed Bus Stop and Diner in small-town Texas. Her plan to sell the café and move on seems simple enough—until she meets the motherly cook who rules the kitchen with an iron skillet and the sunny waitress who treats her like a sister.

In the fading town of Rooster, Texas, all that's really left is a service station, a church…and the Banty House, a long-ago Depression-era brothel. For more than seventy-five years, Betsy, Connie, and Kate Carson have called their mama's house a home. The three eccentric sisters get by just fine with their homemade jams and jellies, a little moonshine on the side, and big hearts always open to strangers. Like Ginger Andrews.

Meet Minnie, Dotty, and Stella—all retired and year-round residents on a cruise ship, they have dubbed themselves the unofficial matchmakers aboard. Minnie can ferret out a lonely woman by the second day of the cruise. Dotty can spot an open-hearted man all the way across the Lido Deck. And Stella is great at putting a plan together. Together they’ve been every bit as successful as one of those online dating sites, and they can watch the romance unfold right before their eyes.

A week before your wedding is no time for your ex to ride back into town, stirring up trouble. But that’s exactly the predicament Darla McAdams finds herself in. With practically the entire town of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, in attendance, the last place she wants to be is at her grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary party with the whole family, her fiancé and her old flame all in the same room.

She doesn't need anything but her bar....Daisy O'Dell has her hands full with hotheads and thirsty ranchers until the day one damn fine cowboy walks in and throws her whole life into turmoil.... He's looking for a cold drink and a moment's peace....Instead, Jarod McElroy finds one red-hot woman. She's just what he needs - if only he can convince her to come out from behind that bar and come home with him....

Nita, Sharlene, and Billy Joe, all about to turn 80, are tired of waiting their turn for a funeral dinner. They each have a bucket list and are determined to tick off at least a few of the items before they go. So what’s left but to hit the road? They enlist two drivers—Billy Joe’s great-grandson, Ford, who has just gotten out of the Air Force, and Sharlene’s great niece, Joelle, a schoolteacher who has the summer free.

An inheritance has reunited three estranged cousins. Their grandmother Lucy left Nessa, Flynn, and April her cabin nestled in the woods near Blossom, Texas, as well as a hope chest to be unlocked after they complete a special task. Together, they must hand stitch a cherished quilt Lucy left unfinished. It meant everything to her. And now, to three people struggling with their own patchwork pasts.

Secrets told in the church ladies' room are supposed to stay in the ladies' room. But that doesn't mean that what Trudy overhears there during her great-aunt Gertrude's funeral won't change the rest of her life. Trudy has a daughter in the middle of a major rebellion, a two-timing husband who has been cheating for their entire married life, and a mother with Alzheimer's residing in the local nursing home.

For Grace Dalton, her sister, Sarah, and her cousin Macy, the Devine Doughnut Shop is a sweet family legacy and a landmark in their Texas town. As the fourth generation to run the Double D, they keep their great-grandmother’s recipe secret and uphold the shop’s tradition as a coffee klatch for sharing local gossip, advice, and woes. But drama brews behind the counter, too.

Jillian Williams, a Texan artist specializing in oil paintings, doesn't have time for romance. She has three more pieces to complete ahead of her upcoming gallery show, and besides, she's perfectly happy in the company of her cat, Molly. Unable to afford any distractions, she escapes to a cabin in the remote town of Wamba. It's the perfect, tranquil setting to get some real work done—until the quiet forest backdrop is disrupted by country songs blaring out of a nearby truck's speakers.

Angela Marie has spent all of her thirty-five years on Meadow Falls, the farm that’s been in her Texas family for generations. It wasn’t her plan. It was an obligation. Now that her parents—less loving kin than strangers—have passed, the whole shebang belongs to Angela. And a legacy she never wanted is hers to uphold. She can’t forsake it now. Her beloved nanny, Mandy, who was always more of a mother, needs a caregiver herself.

Ever since childhood, Emma Merrill and Sophia Mason were bound by a passion for painting. Like all young best friends, they promised to never lose touch. But the girls came from different worlds, and their paths diverged when Emma went to an elite college and Sophie worked her way through state school. After a decade they’ve reconnected, both in a time of need. Emma has been struggling with depression since her college years, and she’s lost herself under the suffocating influence of her controlling and manipulative mother.

Riverbend, Texas, doesn’t look like the crossroads of anywhere. But for four high school besties reuniting after twenty years, it’s a place to unpack a lot of baggage. Risa’s headed for divorce, Mary Nell’s been kicked to the curb by her leech of a boyfriend, and Haley was just blindsided by a shocking family secret. But restless army veteran Jessica Callaway, looking to plant roots, has an idea: corral her fellow former cheerleaders and renovate an abandoned church smack-dab in the middle of three dry counties into a bar.

With her sassy humor and sexy cowboys, USA Today bestseller Carolyn Brown launches her new Longhorn Canyon series. One city girl, one die-hard rancher, and eight mischievous kids. What could go wrong? Every summer Cade Maguire looks forward to opening his Longhorn Canyon Ranch to underprivileged...

Family doesn’t mean everyone has to like each other. That’s the case when cousins Taryn, Anna Rose, and Jorja return to Shamrock, Texas, to help manage their grandmother’s flower shop, the Lucky Shamrock. The reunion isn’t exactly a beautiful arrangement—considering they’re as compatible as ranchers and coyotes. Thank heaven for a handsome go-between like Clinton, who lives above the shop.

Tessa Wilson's life is all over the map. She may be clumsy, but this time she's stumbled into a pickle by choice, not by accident. She's agreed to take a month-long trip around Texas jammed into a '59 Cadillac with a drama-loving teenager, two elderly spitfires, and—oh, yes—her biological mama who gave her away at birth. And the ride gets even crazier when hot-as-sin cowboy Branch Thomas crosses into her lane. They don't call him the sexiest man in the Lone Star State for nothin'.