Heartwarming books with characters you'll love: have you been to Pajaro Bay? The dream of finding the perfect little cottage by the sea kept her going through the darkest days of her illness. But now that she's finally made it to her new home, she finds the reality is a lot more complicated, starting with the secretive—but undeniably intriguing—man next door. Get away to the little California beach town where the cottages are cute, the neighbors are nosy, and it's always possible to find your personal Happily Ever After. The Pajaro Bay novels can be read in any order.

Robert R. Pyle Our sense of place and community is made up of memories—personal memories of first-hand experience; oral memories that recount our ancestors’ experiences; and f- mal, codified civic memories set down in laws, ceremonies, and rituals. Together they are vital building blocks of citizenship. In a vivid and meaningful way this book p- serves memories relevant to understanding the roots of communities on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The surnames of many of Mount Desert’s earliest settlers are still found in today’s telephone directories. In these families many oral traditions are passed down from generation to generation, building outward from a historical core like the rings of a tree. “Dad used to farm this field,” Fred L. Savage’s great-nephew Don Phillips told me once, gesturing toward an alder growth. “His father grew vegetables for the hotel, and my great-grandfather grew grains. This road used to go right on up over the hill, and they used it to move the cemetery up there from where the hotel is now. ” Describing the field, Don ignores the alders and the towering evergreens beyond them, for in his mind’s eye he sees yellow, waving wheat and rye, bare ground, and a narrow cart track leading up the hill into the distance, on which his ancestors tra- ported the remains of their own forebears to a new resting place. Oral traditions, living memory, set the stage for him, and he accepts the reality of things he has never seen.

Heartwarming books with characters you'll love: have you been to Pajaro Bay? Hallie Reed has given up on fairy tale dreams. They only lead to pain. Now she has a new rule: stick to the safe path. But when her friend disappears from a summer job at a funky old amusement park, Hallie has to break out of her protective shell and take a chance on something bigger than herself. The Madrigal family was shattered when a fire swept through their oceanfront boardwalk a dozen years ago. When outsider Hallie comes to town, she learns the place is haunted by tragedy, and she's soon swept up in the decades-old mystery of the Madrigals. Is she the one who can help Kyle Madrigal finally make peace with his family's legacy? And could this be the key to unlocking her own lost dreams as well? Get away to the little California beach town where the cottages are cute, the neighbors are nosy, and it's always possible to find your personal Happily Ever After. The Pajaro Bay novels can be read in any order.