Beloved high school teacher Maggie Adair had been comfortably, if somewhat ambivalently, engaged to her dependable long-distance boyfriend, Stan. But in the heat of summer, Maggie’s attraction to her colleague David McDonald has caught fire. Now both are facing an uncertain future as they try to figure out how to stay committed to their careers --- and each other. Meanwhile, the girls of Downey House --- mercurial Fliss, glamorous Alice and shy, hard-working Simone --- have had long summers at home, which weren’t quite the respite they had been hoping for. But the new school year is thankfully here, and it will bring new pupils and lots of fresh challenges for students and teachers alike at the school by the sea.

Maggie Adair’s first year as a teacher at Downey House was a surprising success. Now engaged to her longtime boyfriend, sweet and steady Stan, Maggie has to stop thinking about David McDonald, her colleague at the boys’ school down the road. Can she take a leaf out of the Well Behaved Teacher’s exercise book and stick to her plan for a small but elegant wedding and settled life of matrimony? Even as Maggie tries to stay within the lines, rules are being broken all around her. Maggie’s boss, headmistress Veronica Deveral, has more to lose than anyone. When Daniel Stapleton joins the faculty, Veronica finds herself forced to confront a scandalous secret she thought she’d carefully buried forever.

On the little Scottish island of Mure, Flora MacKenzie and her fiancé, Joel, are planning the smallest of “sweetheart weddings,” a high summer celebration surrounded only by those very dearest to them. Not everyone on the island is happy about being excluded, though. The temperature rises even further when beautiful Olivia MacDonald --- who left Mure 10 years ago for bigger and brighter things --- returns with a wedding planner in tow. Her fiancé has oodles of family money, and Olivia is determined to throw the biggest, most extravagant, most Instagrammable wedding possible. And she wants to do it at Flora’s hotel, the same weekend as Flora’s carefully planned micro-wedding. As the summer solstice approaches, can Flora handle everyone else’s Happy Every Afters --- and still get her own?

Maggie, the newest teacher at Downey House, is determined to make her mark. She’s delighted by her new teaching job, but will it come at the expense of her relationship with her safe, dependable boyfriend, Stan? Simone is excited and nervous: she has won a scholarship to the prestigious boarding school and wants to make her parents proud. Forced to share a room with the glossy, posh girls of Downey House, she needs to find a friend, fast. Fliss is furious. She has never wanted to go to boarding school and hates being sent away from her home. As Simone tries desperately to fit in, Fliss tries desperately to get out. Over the course of one year, friendships will bloom and lives will be changed forever.

Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job. Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping?

Marisa Rosso can’t understand why everyone else is getting on with their lives as she still struggles to get over the death of her beloved grandfather. Retreating further and further from normal life, she moves to the remote tidal island of Mount Polbearne, at the foot of Cornwall, hoping for peace and solitude, while carrying on her job as a registrar, dealing with births, weddings and deaths. Unfortunately --- or fortunately? --- the solitude she craves proves elusive. Between her noisy Russian piano-teaching neighbor, the bustle and community spirit of the tiny village struggling back to life after the quarantine, and the pressing need to help save the local bakery, can Marisa find her joy again at the end of the world?

Rosie Hopkins has gotten used to busy London life. Although she might like a more rewarding career, and her boyfriend is not exactly the king of romance, she’s not complaining. And when she visits her Aunt Lilian's small country village to help sort out her sweetshop, she expects it to be dull at best. When Rosie arrives to help her aunt with the shop, the last thing Lillian wants is to slow down and wrestle with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully colored sweets. But as Rosie gets Lilian back on her feet, breathes new life into the candy shop, and gets to know the mysterious and solitary Stephen, she starts to think that settling for what's comfortable might not be so great after all.

Posy Fairweather is over the moon when her boyfriend, Matt, proposes in what is probably the most romantic way possible --- on top of a mountain, in a thunderstorm, like something from a Nicholas Sparks novel. But a few days later he dumps her. Crushed and humiliated, Posy wonders why all her romances have always been such train wrecks. Determined to gain some insight, Posy resolves to get online, track down her exes and ask them. Which doors from Posy’s past should stay closed? Which might open? Can she learn from past mistakes? And what if she has let Mr. Right slip through her fingers along the way?

They may be twins, but Lizzie and Penny Berry are complete opposites. Penny is the life of the party, while Lizzy is often left out of the crowd. The one trait they do share is a longing to do something spectacular with their lives, and as far as these two are concerned, there’s no better place to make their dreams come true than London. Presented with a once-in-a-lifetime house-sit at their grandmother’s home in a very desirable London neighborhood, it finally seems like Lizzie and Penny are a step closer to the exciting cosmopolitan life they’ve always wanted. But the more time they spend in the big city, they quickly discover it’s nothing like they expected. They may have to dream new dreams…but are they up to the challenge?

On a tiny, beautiful and remote island, a new hotel opening is a big event. New mother Flora MacKenzie and her brother, Fintan, are working themselves half to death to get it ready in time for Christmas. Its impressive kitchens throw together two unlikely new friends. Isla Gregor is a hardworking young girl who has been a waitress in the island's cafe, dreaming of a bigger, better life. Konstantin Pederson is working his way up in the hotel's kitchens too…but he is also, secretly, the only son of the Duke of Utsire. Konstantin has been sent to learn what it is to work hard for a living, before receiving his inheritance. As the island’s residents and special VIP guests gather for the grand opening gala, Christmas is in the air. But so are more than a few small-town secrets.

Lissa is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissa to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in the Scottish Highlands. Lissa will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who is Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. These two strangers are now in constant contact, taking over each other’s patients, endlessly emailing about anything and everything. They discover a new depth of feeling…for their profession and for each other. But what will happen when they finally meet?

Sophie Chesterton is London’s “It Girl”. She knows all the right people, goes to all the right parties, and wears all the right clothes…and her rich parents pay for everything. But deep down she suspects that her best “friends” --- and her posh lifestyle --- are nothing but shallow fakes. Then one evening Sophie’s life takes a shocking, drastic turn, and her father decides it’s high time for the party girl to make her own way in the world. Forced to earn a meager living as a lowly assistant to a “glamour” photographer, live in a shabby flat with four smelly boys, and eat baked beans from the can --- Sophie is desperate to get her old life back, at any cost. But does a girl really need diamonds to be happy?

Katie resigns herself to the fact that there’s no sex in London for her and decides to head to the Scottish Highlands. But while she relishes the chance to do battle with armies of admirers, she’s not excited about going head to head with her shady new boss, Harry. At least there’s the local eye-candy to distract her, including gorgeous newshound Iain. But he is at loggerheads with Harry, and she can’t afford to get on Harry’s bad side any more than she already has. Life in the country might not be one big roll in the hay, but now that Katie has taken the plunge, can she ever turn her back on the delights of Fairlish and return to city life?

In her comfy cottage nestled in the Derbyshire hills, Rosie Hopkins has good reason to feel a warm blush in her cheeks. With Christmas weeks away, the holiday is being ushered in with England’s first glorious snowfall of the season. Her boyfriend, Stephen, is starting his new job as a teacher in the village school. Her quaint Sweetshop and Confectionery has been restored to its former glory, and she has a lovable mop of a new puppy named Mr. Dog. Most joyous of all, Rosie and Stephen’s relatives will finally be gathering together in Lipton for what is sure to be a merry feast. But when a devastating tragedy strikes at the heart of the close-knit town, plans for a cozy Christmas are suddenly in danger of melting away.

Desperate to escape from London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her four-year-old son, Hari. Although Hari’s dad, Jaz, is no help at all, his sister Surinder comes to Zoe’s aid, hooking her up with a job: a bookshop on the banks of Loch Ness. And there’s a second job to cover housing: Zoe will be an au pair for three children at a genuine castle in the Scottish Highlands. But while Scotland is everything Zoe dreamed of, everything else is a bit of a mess. The Urquart family castle is grand but crumbling, the children's single dad is a wreck, and the kids have been kicked out of school and left to their own devices. Lottie has her work cut out for her and is determined to rise to the challenge, especially when she sees how happily Hari has taken to their new home.

Years ago, Flora fled the quiet Scottish island where she grew up --- and she hasn't looked back. But when fate brings Flora back to Mure, she's suddenly swept once more into life with her brothers (all strapping, loud and seemingly incapable of basic housework) and her father. Yet even amid the chaos of their reunion, Flora discovers a passion for cooking --- and finds herself restoring a dusty little pink-fronted shop on the harbour: a café by the sea. But with the seasons changing, Flora must come to terms with past mistakes...and work out exactly where her future lies.

Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion…and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more. Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile --- a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. Nina soon discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home --- a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.