Join five women connected only by their growing friendship and the road that runs like a lifeline between their cottages in a run-down Florida development called Happiness Key.
Tracy Deloche finally gets a chance to swap business for a romantic evening with Marsh Egan, but dinner goes cold when she spots her ex-husband prowling outside her cottage. CJ is supposed to be in prison and out of her life for good. Exactly what is this modern-day pirate seeking and what will it mean for Tracy's future?
Janya Kapur envies every pregnant woman she sees, but Rishi, her husband, is suddenly reluctant to talk about children. Is he disappointed in her inability to conceive? Their marriage was a contract between strangers. Can they ever hope for anything more?
Waitress Wanda Gray loses her job after new owners turn the Dancing Shrimp into a tapas bar. Wise neighbor Alice Brooks's suggestion that Wanda start her own business seems like a brilliant solution, until Wanda starts Pie War I with the owners of the local bakery.
When the empty cottage at Happiness Key is rented by single mother Dana Turner, everything seems perfect. With Alice volunteering to watch Dana's daughter while she works and Wanda's offer of a job, this spit of Florida Gulf Coast land should be a fortunate harbor for a mother and daughter who have moved far too often. Except for Dana's shocking secret.
As the women of Happiness Key struggle to discover the truth in time to help their new neighbor, their only weapon is friendship. But will friendship be enough?
Happiness Key was meant to be a stand-alone novel. Take four very different women, throw them together at a difficult time in each of their lives, and trouble ensues. As a novelist it was my job to entangle the problems from the personalities and resolve them. End of story.
Only not quite. My publisher liked Happiness Key. So did I, and happily, so did my readers. Stories about unlikely friendships remind us what a large and diverse world we live in and how we can still reach out and learn from each other and offer support. So was there another story-or two-in this place, among these characters?
The answer was simple. Absolutely. There were so many threads still untied. Did Tracy and Marsh find common ground after all? Were Alice and Olivia able to move on after the traumas detailed in Happiness Key? Were Rishi and Janya able to find love, despite a rocky start to their arranged marriage? And Wanda? What was next for Wanda after a new start with husband Ken meant that "extra" job she'd undertaken to get even with him had to end?
Of course there was also the empty house, Herb's house, that needed a new renter. Who would apply, and what would happen to the community of Happiness Key with a new neighbor or even two in residence?
The possibilities were too delicious to overlook. Fortunate Harbor was the result of that new exploration, and afterwards, not quite ready to let go, I began the third and final book of the trilogy, Sunset Bridge, to be released next summer. Sequels are so much fun. I rarely "plant" plot threads to resolve with another book. They always plant themselves, then I have the joy of figuring out what to do with them. These three novels truly were and are a joy. I hope you find reading them to be one, as well.