Ali Skovbye
It’s July 1895 and the New York elite have decamped to Newport, Rhode Island for a summer of balls, garden parties, and yacht races. Covering these events for the women’s pages of the Newport Observer is Emma Vanderbilt-Cross, a fearless twenty-one-year-old writer with family ties to the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
Jackie Turner is a straight-A college student, who was abused, abandoned and starved as a child. Although she has resolutely turned her life around, the holidays are still very painful for her. Facing another lonely holiday break on campus, Jackie takes an ad on Craigslist for My ONE CHRISTMAS Wish – a family for Christmas – and even offers to pay $8 an hour. To her surprise, responses flood in. Among the numerous heartfelt invitations and letters of support, she also hears from other young people struggling with the same overwhelming emptiness that comes with spending the holidays without loved ones. Moved and inspired, Jackie decides to throw a big Christmas party – with the last-minute help of her adviser, friends and support group – to find families for all those troubled folks who emailed her, and finds one for herself as well.
Famed culinary consultant Henry Ross is a charming food industry insider in San Francisco. When suspicious sabotage ends in a shocking murder at his friend’s five-star restaurant, Henry is put on the case with strong-willed police detective and single mom, Maggie Price. Despite Maggie’s protests, they must work together to decipher the clues and investigate all of San Francisco’s top culinary pros.
When Henry is invited as a guest speaker at a luxury resort spa, he quickly finds himself at the center of another murder. With Maggie at his side, our favorite duo must not only find the killer but be careful they don’t become his latest victim.
San Francisco homicide detective Maggie Price and former, world-class chef Henry Ross are on the case once again. The crime-solving odd couple investigates the murder of Henry’s friend, a well-known local chef found dead in his kitchen. As they begin to unravel an old family secret, Maggie has to stay one step ahead of a mysterious man in the shadows who appears to be stalking her, while her blossoming relationship with Henry is threatened by the arrival of an ex-love from Maggie’s past.
Walter is a rising star in the NCAA wrestling world until his life is ripped apart by the brutal murder of his sister. Returning home to console his mother Gloria he seeks vengeance on the man who is accused of the crime. A chance meeting with a beautiful mature woman gives him solace to the situation. Will this unlikely pairing bloom into a romance and heal a wound the world cannot see or will the loss of his sister push him over the edge?
Feeling disconnected with her teenage son, a protective mother decides to step outside of her comfort zone and take him camping. But as soon as she arrives, she begins butting heads with her cabin neighbor, a single father and outdoorsman who is also in search of a connection with his teen daughter. Stars Danica McKellar and Paul Greene.
Henry and Maggie attend the birthday party of a local publisher, where his son and stepson reenact a historical 18th century dual. Someone, however, has loaded the antique pistol with a real musket ball, so when son pulls the trigger, he kills his stepbrother in front of a roomful of witnesses. Henry and Maggie have to figure out who wanted the stepson dead and why.
Allison and her daughter Abigail return to Allison’s hometown after the death of Allison’s beloved aunt. While there, they encounter Bart, a man who knew Allison when she was a teen. But Bart’s friendliness soon turns into something more sinister.
When he was 14, Smith drowned in Lake St. Louis and was dead for nearly an hour. According to reports at the time, CPR was performed 27 minutes to no avail. Then the youth’s mother, Joyce Smith, entered the room, praying loudly. Suddenly, there was a pulse, and Smith came around.
