Beach House Summer

With a poignant tale of opportunities lost and regained, Morgan (The Christmas Escape) proves that one can always go home again. Joanna Whitman learns from the news that her ex-husband, Cliff, a celebrity chef, has been killed in a car accident that left his pregnant teenage passenger, Ashley Blake, gravely injured. In the media storm that follows, Joanna takes Ashley, whose reasons for being in Cliff’s car aren’t what the media think, under her wing, and the pair escape the paparazzi to Silver Point, Calif., the hometown a heartbroken Joanna left 20 years earlier. As both Joanna and Ashley settle into life in the idyllic small town, Joanna comes face to face with Nate, the first love who broke her heart, and must decide whether to take a risk that might lead to happily ever after or stay safely behind the emotional walls she’s erected. Joanna and Nate’s heart-wrenching path to rebuilding their relationship is buoyed by the scrappy Ashley and Joanna’s former best friend and Nate’s twin, Mel. This emotional romance is an easy choice to throw in the beach bag. (May)