Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits.

"A young workaholic avoiding home for the holidays discovers that you can't run away from who you are. Everly Lancaster always dreamed of leaving her hometown in rural Illinois. Now she helps run a burgeoning startup in Chicago, where her professional goals leave little time for friends...or a vacation. When a massive snowstorm hits, Everly's mother urges her to come home for Christmas, but she hesitates to return to the life she's worked so hard...

Like most people Frank Bascombe of New Jersey, a divorced realtor, has plans for the Fourth of July weekend: find a new home for a client, see his semi-girlfriend and take his son to a sports hall of fame. Instead, one disappointment follows another, but he takes them in his stride--philosophically. By the author of The Sportswriter.

Realtor and amateur sleuth Darby Farr is back in her Maine hometown for the highly anticipated wedding of her fellow real estate associate, Tina Ames. But the festive mood on the snow-swept island of Hurricane Harbor is darkened when the body of Lorraine Delvecchio-- the police chief's assistant-- is found tangled in a lobster trap near the abandoned lighthouse on the Manatuck Breakwater. Darby uncovers evidence that the death was more than just a...

Madeline Pruett is shocked from her cocoon when a father she never knew dies and leaves her an inheritance, and two unknown sisters. Madeline intends to fly to Colorado, meet these sisters, and quickly return to Orlando. Luke Kendrick is called home to Pine River to rescue his family, again, and reclaim the ranch his father has inexplicable lost. Madeline knows what she wants, until Luke teaches her a thing or two about breaking down walls, finding...