Judith Keim

Ann Rutherford's and Rhonda DelMonte Grayson's lives continue to be full of surprises as they run The Beach House Hotel, their small upscale hotel on the Gulf Coast in Southwest Florida. Things heat up when Tina Marks (Valentina Marquis, a famous young movie star) is sent to the hotel in secret to lose twenty-five pounds in eight weeks for her next starring role. As much as Ann and Rhonda want to help Tina succeed, the hotel is known for its delicious food as well as its promise of anonymity, and Tina's impossible to deal with. Then, when Rhonda is faced with a "mysterious illness," Ann's role becomes even more stressful as she tries to find time for her fianc , Vaughn Sanders, the star of a television soap opera, who deserves the attention she can't give him. As Ann discovers, life is about choices, and she's determined to make the best ones she can to keep Vaughn in her life.

Readers of the Hartwell Women Series asked for more. I listened. Baby Talk is Book 4. When Marissa Crawford and her husband Brad decide to start a family, Marissa has serious doubts about her ability to be a good mother--she was raised by one of the worst. Torn between telling Brad the truth and hoping she doesn't get pregnant, Marissa's life is completely upended when a baby girl is left in a basket on the front porch of her large home in Maine. Caring for the baby given specifically to Brad and her, Marissa must decide what her role in life is all about. Attempting to overcome her past, she's faced with agonizing decisions. As she opens her heart to those who need her, she is challenged in unexpected ways and discovers a joy greater than she's ever known.

When Ann Rutherford's husband dumps her for the bimbo in his office, unfairly leaving her without a home or a job, she reluctantly joins forces with Rhonda DelMonte to convert Rhonda's Florida seaside estate into the small upscale hotel it once was. Ann, quiet and reserved, is no match for brash, bossy Rhonda, who left the family's New Jersey butcher business after she won the lottery. Amid their struggles to succeed, The Sins of the Children, a soap opera, films a number of episodes at the hotel and things get complicated in unexpected ways when Ann falls for Vaughn Sanders, the star of the show.

The Talking Tree - Book One in the Hartwell Women Series.... Following her estranged mother's death, Marissa Cole returns to her hometown. Her mother has left a request for Marissa to scatter her ashes in New Hope, Maine. Marissa doesn't understand why; she's never heard her mother talk of such a place. In Maine, Marissa is thrilled to discover a family she never knew she had. But the family isn't what she thought, and helping her grandmother keep her share of the family fortune might cause Marissa to lose the only man she's ever trusted enough to love.

Straight Talk - Book Three in the Hartwell Women TrilogySamantha Hartwell's life changes completely when she's attacked by a client's boyfriend. She leaves Boston and Straight Talk, her consulting business, and escapes to California wine country to heal and to help her sister and brother-in-law with their vineyard's growth. But she can't escape the desire Derek Roberts, a world-wide photographer, had sparked inside her. The two challenge each other in ways they've never experienced and end up with more than they ever expected.

Following her divorce Allison Hartwell leaves Maine for California to become a partner in her college roommate's art gallery. She's out to prove she can succeed in business, get along without a man and have fun along the way. But things quickly fall apart - the business is financially insecure and she's left with the care of her roommate's eight-year-old daughter, Daisy. When Blake Whiting, owner of Silver Goose Winery becomes involved with Sweet Talk, a wine and chocolate bar Allison opens, things become more complicated even as Daisy teaches her to open her heart to loving again.