Mermaid Inn

Holiday (One and Only) enchants with the sunny second-chance love story that launches her Matchmaker Bay series. After spunky librarian Eve Abbott’s beloved great-aunt dies, she inherits the kitschy Mermaid Inn in the quaint beach town of Moonflower Bay, Canada. Eve fled town in heartbreak a decade earlier and has no desire to return, but her great-aunt’s will stipulates that Eve can’t sell the inn unless she runs it herself for at least a year. Honorable, dedicated Moonflower Bay police chief Sawyer Collins has always put others before himself, from taking care of his younger sister to telling a well-intentioned white lie to keep Eve, his high school sweetheart, from prioritizing their young relationship over her dreams of higher education. When Eve comes back to town, their connection reignites. Holiday ratchets up the sexual tension every time the pair are thrown together, making it easy for readers to believe Sawyer’s realization that this time he won’t be able to let Eve go. This sweet contemporary romance is sure to win readers’ hearts. This edition contains a novella by Alison Bliss, not seen by PW. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. (Feb.)