Serendipity

July 11, 2011
Prolific bestseller Phillips (the Bachelor Blog series) kicks off a trilogy with this sexy, thought-provoking contemporary romance. The tide turned for spoiled rich girl Faith Harrington when her father pleaded guilty to massive financial fraud. Everything the family owned was sold to pay back investors, and Faith's philandering husband abandoned her. Shadowed by her father's crime, Faith heads home to Serendipity, N.Y., and finds one person willing to give her new interior design business a chance: Ethan Barron, local bad boy turned successful entrepreneur. But the house Ethan wants Faith to redecorate is her childhood home, which he purchased. As the two explore the sexual tension lingering from high school, family dramas threaten to split them apart. Phillips creates likable characters with realistic problems and conflicts that don't smother them in angst, and readers will root for the happy ending that Faith and Ethan have earned.

August 1, 2011
Faith Harrington is back in her hometown where she grew up with wealth, status, and privilege. But now she's starting over as an interior designer, trying to prove that she's nothing like her father, who scammed the town's citizens out of their hard-earned money. Ethan Barron, the local bad boy when they were teens, has also returned as a successful entrepreneur living in Faith's childhood home, and trying to mend fences with his younger brothers and face his troubled past head-on. When his 14-year-old, unmanageable half-sister, Tess, shows up at his door and he needs help, Ethan soon realizes that Faith has matured from an attractive good girl to a woman of spirit and good sense. Phillips' newest contemporary romance shows her at the top of her game with its small-town setting and complex and vibrant characters facing significant challenges. Hints about Nash Barron's attraction to Tess' half-sister, Kelly, point to a forthcoming sequel, Destiny (2012).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)