A GIRL TRYING TO LEAVE HER PAST BEHIND I was a normal teenager who loved music and dancing, until the day I was attacked in my favorite record store. A few years later when my mom succumbed to depression and took her own life, I couldn’t stay in my hometown with all the memories and the curious stares. I decided to get in my car and just go – except my car decided it was done going outside a tiny place called Evergreen Grove. That’s where I found Jake. Or I guess Jake found me. A GUY WHO CAN’T LET HIS GO For the last eight years, all I can think about is the day I ended another man’s life. Then I manage to save Cassie’s, and I feel like maybe I’ve got some kind of second chance. To do what I couldn’t before, or maybe even for something bigger. Something like love. If only I could feel like I deserve her...

He’s living a lie. Dante Ramos: Champion. Ladies’ man. Party animal. Women want him, and men either want to be him or put his lights out for sleeping with their girlfriends. It’s all an act. Inside, he’s so full of self-loathing he’s on a fast-track to self-destruction. She’s living in the shadows. Meeting Michelle at a support group for assault survivors shows Dante a new world of possibilities. Finally, someone in his life might understand him, and she creates in him a fierce need to protect. Trouble is, Dante lives his life in the spotlight, and the only thing Michelle wants is a place to hide.

He thinks I want him because of the rumors around town. Because I think he’s easy. I want AJ, because he’s AJ. No liars. No suits. Absolutely no straight guys… AJ Fabin’s list of rules keeps him safe. Since getting kicked out of his parents’ home and a vicious attack by a former escorting client, his rules and his life in the tiny town of Evergreen Grove provide a quiet haven. He may be lonely, and he may stick out like a sore thumb, but the folks like him well enough. When he’s not dodging his old pimp, things are peaceful. Hayden Price is having a quarter-life crisis. Engaged to a woman he can’t connect to and working a job he secretly hates, he comes to Evergreen Grove to help his mother through a health scare. Returning to his childhood home makes Hayden re-evaluate a lot of things, including himself. When he meets AJ and finds he can’t stand the mouthy jerk—almost as much as he can’t stop thinking about him—he has a lot more to change than his career. To be together, they’ll both have to break all of their rules.

ETHAN’S HIT A ROUGH SPOT So I caught my dad in bed with my ex-girlfriend. My best friend cancelled our plans to celebrate my birthday. Decided to drink away the betrayal. Made out with a cardboard cutout of a celebrity in front of my new roommates. Got in a bar fight. Hooked up with that pretty bartender whose sad smile I’ve secretly been painting pictures of since forever, but she shoved me out the door without a word. Did I mention the tattoo I don’t exactly remember getting? And that’s only Saturday. Now I need to pick up the pieces of my messed-up life. LEEANNE’S HAD A TOUGH LIFE What do you do when you’ve lived in the same small town your whole life and you feel as if you’ll always be stuck in the same rut, like a piece of busted wagon wheel? Well, maybe you start by hooking up with the first decent guy who walks into your bar. Maybe once you do, it’s hard to get him out of your head even though you try. And maybe, just maybe, you find out he makes you laugh even more than he makes you want to shout his name. If you’re me, you don’t even know what to do with a guy like him. A little piece of happiness…that feels downright dangerous.

Dante Ramos will win at love if it's the last thing he does... Since I retired from boxing, I’m fighting to keep my life off the damn ropes. Lately, one thing after another’s falling apart. First there’s the road-trip on Valentine’s weekend that coulda gotten me and my girl both killed. Then came the unspoken secrets that keep putting so much distance between us. My love for Michelle is everything that keeps me human. I can feel her slipping away. I’ve got one last shot. A desperate proposal. And it’s all about to go wrong.

He’s already blown his shot… Tyler Thacker threw away his MMA title. When his brother died and he lost the girl he loved, getting his career back seemed impossible. Now that girl is in the picture again and so is his chance to set things right. Kate Flynn hasn’t been the same since the accident that killed Tyler’s twin and left her injured. When their best friend drags her to Evergreen Grove, she comes face to face with her first love. Being around Ty pushes her to get her life in order, but it also brings up pain she’d rather have kept buried. Tyler needs to reclaim his future. Kate needs to let go of the past. Maybe, together, they can fight through the agony of what they’ve lost. Maybe, together, they’ll win something truly amazing.

Left behind by everyone he’s ever loved, Alonzo Grover lives as if he’s got no tomorrow. The discovery of a letter from his deceased boyfriend breaks him out of his rut and spurs him to right an old wrong, but the local stick-in-the-mud sheriff’s lieutenant seems determined to ruin his plans. Lieutenant Sebastian Haas despises tangling with his small town’s most promiscuous party kid. Alonzo’s youth and recklessness drive him crazy in more ways than one… So does the uncomfortable secret they share. But when Haas’s estranged family arrives in town to throw a wedding he wants no part of, he jumps into Alonzo’s car to avoid the family drama. Together, they wind up on an unexpected road trip. With one setback after another, it looks like they might kill each other before they make it home to Evergreen Grove. That is, unless they find something better to do than fight.