Miracles happen where you least expect them...

Beach Roses brings back a most memorable character, Rita Blair-Rollins. Rita reluctantly meets three courageous women whose struggles ultimately change her life and reveal startling truths about people and places she only thought she knew...

RITA: Lifelong Vineyarder Rita Blair-Rollins is surprised at old Doc Hastings' proposal. A former waitress, summer cottage housekeeper, and real-estate saleswoman, now a harried mother of twins, daughter of a cantankerous mother, and wife of a saint, Rita is far from the perfect role model to head a breast cancer support group. But her help could result in a much-needed island Women's Center, so Rita sets aside her hectic life and plunges into a world of secrets, lies, and hope, where even her own past can't stay hidden long.

The women begin as strangers: KATIE, the vibrant, violet-eyed rock star who must choose between saving her own life or that of her unborn child... HANNAH, the selfless housewife who fears exposure of her secrets more than she fears her illness ... and FAYE, the wealthy executive who thought she'd already survived the greatest fight of her life...

Before the summer ends, these women will form a lasting bond.  For Rita, it will be a season of bittersweet discovery, a summer when old hurts are finally healed, and love becomes rekindled as life begins anew...

For me, book ideas often come over food, in this case, a Cha-Cha Burrito. I was having dinner with my friend, Linda, in Northampton, and she began to tell me about a wonderful book she agented written by four women –– each of whom had a different stage of breast cancer.

Four women. Breast cancer. I shot up in my chair. "That's my next book," I said.

She smiled -- my friends are accustomed to my unexpected outbursts.

And while the book didn't exactly turn out that way (it's about three women with breast cancer, one without), I've become a big fan of burritos, always in search of that next great idea...

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