Jennifer Berkley is a straightforward, ambitious, soon-to-be lawyer in the fast, driven city of New York. She doesn’t have the time or patience to deal with people who can’t or won’t give her what she wants. When her father asks her to visit her aunt in Ohio as her last dying wish, Jen is immediately resistant, but reconsiders when her father makes her an offer she can’t refuse.

When I first encountered Ford Donovan, I had no idea who he was...well, other than the obvious. Young, gorgeous, successful, smart. Did I mention young? If I did, it bears repeating. Ford Donovan was too young for me. Let’s back up to how it all started. My best friend decided I needed to start dating again. So, without my knowledge, she set up a profile for me on a popular dating site - one that invited men ages 21 to 27 to apply for a date.

I thought I’d left my past behind for good. But when my older brother gets killed in a car accident, I’ve got to come back to take over his car-tuning business. But things are not like I remember. There’s something weird going on in Santo Domingo, something that seems connected to the city’s underground street racing scene. There’s the orange-haired mechanic at the tuning shop with the FOXGRRL license plate. There’s the strange black cat hanging around my house, and the dreams I’ve been having about a racer girl with cat ears and a tail.

It was the summer of my life. I’d met the guy of my dreams. Unfortunately, he was the son of my uppity employer - and very much off-limits. But Gavin was a rebel. He knew his mother would disown him if she found out about us; in his eyes, we just had to be careful. He never treated me as his mother did - like hired help. Instead, Gavin put me on a pedestal and loved me harder than I’d ever been loved in my life.

It all started with an unexpected phone call. Two years after my fiancé passed away in an accident, his father died suddenly, leaving Brad’s adult special-needs brother with no one to care for him. The next thing I knew, I was on a cross-country drive to New Hampshire where I’d be moving in to look after Scottie until I could get him into a group home. The last thing I ever expected? I wouldn’t be taking care of him alone.

It’s natural to want the one you can’t have. And for as long as I could remember, I’d secretly wanted my brother’s best friend, Jace. He was six years older and always treated me like the sister he never had. Fast forward a decade. We were all in our 20s now. Jace had moved in with my brother, Nathan, and me to help us make ends meet after our parents died. It was just the three of us - an odd family dynamic. Living under our roof, Jace was as bossy and protective as ever. But he certainly didn’t look at me like a sister anymore. That was what made things so complicated.

Deacon was rough on the exterior, but apparently on the inside? Mr. Single-and-Ready-to-Mingle was a baby whisperer. After that night, we became friends. He’d go for coffee runs. Come over to chat. Normal friend stuff. But over time, our conversations ran deeper. We got closer. Until one night we crossed the line.

Robin Cove has had enough of her boss, is over her boyfriend, and makes a split-second decision to leave it all behind. Too bad she didn’t check the weather forecast before she left. Stranded on the side of the road when her old car breaks down, Robin fears her impulsive action will be the death of her as her body temperature steadily lowers to dangerous levels. When Robin wakes up, she finds herself in the kind of home that she has always dreamed of having, except for the handsome man with the surly attitude.

The one that got away. Every girl has one, right? Mine was a charming, British aristocrat who turned my world upside down one summer. From the moment I first spotted Leo in the distance through my binoculars, I’d been captivated. I certainly never expected to find a man showering outside of the property across the bay in his birthday suit.

The beginning of my sophomore year in college was off to a rough start. On the first day of orientation, I had an altercation with an infuriating British dude in a campus bathroom. (The ladies’ room was out of order. So, I used the men’s room. Don’t judge.) I got home later that night and realized that the foreign student we were expecting to rent a room in my parents’ house was allergic to our cat. So, the spare room went to someone else: Caleb - the British guy from the men’s room. And so it began...my love-hate story with Caleb Yates. Or was it hate-love in that order?

I came looking for family...I never expected to find love.... Lost parents, foster care, group homes...I’ve seen it all, and I wish I was over it. But now that I’m out of college I can’t move forward until I find answers about my past. And that brings me to Bennet Wood. But it’s not long lost relatives who change everything...it’s Jay. He says he’s just passing through, but he makes me feel like I’ve found a new home. I don’t know what it will take to make him mine, but I have to try. Things are just heating up when I find out everything I thought I knew was a lie.

I don't know why nobody ever wanted me. For real, I mean. My parents died when I was eight, and I spent the next 10 years hopping between foster homes. Let's just say, they barely did me any favors. I have got nothing. No job, no place to live and I have no one to be with. Except...well...I do have DNA test results from a genealogy website. With close family matches. It’s probably a stupid idea. A total long shot, really... I’m going to go and find them.

Eli hasn't been home since he left at 18 with a heart aching from his best friend's rejection and his father's intolerance. But when his father reaches out, Eli figures it's time to make peace with his family. He doesn't expect to come face-to-face with Turner too - or to learn that the straight friend he'd foolishly loved is actually bisexual - but once the shock wears off, he knows exactly what he wants for Christmas.

Joseph "West" Weston has paid for his wealth and success with long hours at the office and no personal life to speak of. Meetings, conference calls, and paperwork dominate his waking hours and have kept him from honoring the promise he made to his late grandfather years before. After leaving the Marines, Robert "Rush" Coeman returns to his hometown and settles in as a Christmas tree farmer. His life is quiet and simple, and he likes it that way.

I can’t date Dean Madden. He’s a bad boy and my older brother’s best friend. So what if I pretended he was my fake boyfriend in high school? That was a long time ago, and he never has to know. We’re both grown up now. It’s never going to happen. Until one hot weekend when everything happens. Now Dean has made a bet with me: Four weeks of dating, and whoever gets dumped first loses. In order to win, I just have to date him. And the more dates we go on, the more I see the things Dean hides from the rest of the world. This might be crazy.