Nantucket Beach Plum Cove series--first five books

The first five books in the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling Nantucket Beach Plum Cove series, beginning with The Nantucket Inn.

In The Nantucket Inn, fifty-something widow Lisa Hodges learns that her dead husband hid a gambling problem and her savings is almost gone. She decides to turn her waterfront Nantucket home into an inn, so she can afford to stay near her four adult children and friends.
 
See why over 250k readers have fallen in love with this series! The Nantucket Inn was a runaway bestseller, spending three weeks on the USA Today list. Every book in the series since has also hit the USA Today or Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. 

This most common comment I hear about this series is "The characters are like my friends and I look forward to each new release to see what they are up to."

Why I wrote this series--I grew up on Cape Cod and my best friend has lived on Nantucket for over twenty years. I wanted to write a series with women like me--in their fifties and their adult children and friends and their lives. I wrote the book that I wanted to read and it changed my life--as it turns out lots of readers wanted to read it too. =) 

I hope you enjoy these books. There are eight total in the series and I am working on a ninth book, to be out in 2024. Every book is a complete story so they can be read out of order, but are probably better enjoyed in order as characters visit from book to book.

These are ebooks and will be delivered to your device of choice by my delivery partner, Bookfunnel. You will receive an email upon purchase and it's very easy. If you run into any issues, please either reply to your Bookfunnel email and they will be happy to help or email me and I will put you in touch with them. The folks at Bookfunnel are super nice and just a quick email away.

Thanks so much!
Pam

Read on for an excerpt from The Nantucket Inn,

The money was running out. Lisa Hodges sighed as she sat at her kitchen island and looked over the month-to-date transactions in her checking account. How did it disappear so quickly? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d bought herself new clothes, and she’d cut way back on going out to dinner with friends. But living on Nantucket was expensive, especially now that her husband Brian was gone—food, cable, insurance, it all added up too fast.

They’d been married for just over thirty-three years when Brian learned he had stage four colon cancer. Six months later, he was gone. That was almost a year and a half ago and when she’d finally been able to push aside her grief long enough to look at the bills, she’d been shocked at the state of their bank account.

Brian had always handled all the financial matters in their relationship. He earned the money, managed the banking accounts and paid the bills. She had access to their main checking account of course and knew there was always plenty of money in it to pay their day-to-day expenses. She also knew they had a healthy savings account that Brian regularly contributed to.

They’d always lived a comfortable lifestyle. Not extravagant, but there was always money for one or two vacations a year, college for the kids and dinners out a few times a month. And she’d assumed there was still a life insurance policy. She knew that at one time, there were million dollar policies on both of them. Brian earned his living as a financial planner and she’d always deferred to whatever he suggested as she’d never been good with numbers.

Lisa had been an English major in college and an elementary school teacher until she had the twins and then Brian pointed out that the math didn’t add up for her to go back to work. They would pay as much in day care for Kate and Kristen as she’d earn teaching. So, the decision was made for her to stay home with their children. And she’d loved doing it. In the next few years, they had two more children, Abby and Chase.

Brian’s only vice was that he was a bit of a gambler. He’d loved to go off-island with his buddies to visit the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos. And he and his friends always had poker nights the first Saturday of every month. She’d always assumed they played for small amounts and that it was all in good fun. It wasn’t until Brian was gone and she dug more deeply into their finances that she discovered he actually had a serious gambling addiction.

Brian had stopped paying the premiums on their life insurance policies several years ago and the balance in their savings and retirement account was shockingly low. The retirement account was gone. There was nothing there at all. He’d withdrawn everything that was in their 401k, paid the penalties and used the money to settle debts that she’d never even known about.

There was money in their savings account still, but Lisa knew she’d have to cut way back on her normal spending habits to make the money stretch. By her calculations, if she did that, she might be able to make it stretch for almost two years, if she was lucky.

She wasn’t too worried at the time though, as she figured she’d be able to get a job and the savings could be her safety cushion. But, she quickly found out that the market for fifty-something women with no recent work experience was nonexistent. And Nantucket was a small town, with limited opportunities.

She could possibly get a job as a cashier in one of the shops, but those paid minimum wage, which wouldn’t go far. Restaurant work paid better. She knew that servers could do very well on tips, but she’d never worked in a restaurant and everyone wanted experience. It was almost time for her to make a big decision, one that she’d been putting off for as long as possible.

She sighed as she closed her laptop, stood up and peeked in the oven. The artichoke and spinach casserole was just beginning to bubble. In a few more minutes, the cheese topping would be golden brown and it would be done. Her two best friends, Paige and Susan, should be along any minute. They’d suggested going out to dinner, but she’d talked them into having appetizers at her house instead before they went downtown for the festive Nantucket Christmas Stroll.

It was always held the first weekend in December, and they looked forward to it every year.  She’d been living on the island for over thirty years now and the stroll had been around even longer than that. It had started as a way for local shops to drum up a bit of business in the off-season and to prevent the locals from doing all their shopping off-island. It always felt like the official kickoff to the Christmas season.

Lisa stepped outside to check her Christmas decorations before her friends arrived. She’d just decorated the house earlier that day. She took a deep breath as she surveyed the house. Nantucket Sound was just a few hundred yards away, and she could hear the waves as they crashed on the beach, a sound that she always found soothing. The air was cool and crisp, and she could smell a whiff of smoke coming from the fireplace of the house next door. She breathed in deeply as a gust of salty air blew her shoulder length hair back. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Paige and Sue coming down the walk.

“The house looks gorgeous! Where did you find that blue wreath? I love it!” Paige exclaimed.

“Do you really like it? I made it this morning.” She’d walked along the beach and collected scallop shells and sea glass and used fine wire to wrap it around several pieces of driftwood that she’d glued into a circle and spray painted a pale blue. A snowy white bow at the top was the final touch. It had been a fun project, and she’d been pleased by how well it had turned out.

“It looks like you bought it at a fancy boutique,” Sue said. “I brought my baked scallops,” she added as Lisa opened the front door and they followed her inside. Paige was holding a platter and set it on the kitchen island and removed the tin foil cover. A selection of cheeses and sliced salami surrounded a small bowl of spiced nuts. She reached into her tote bag and pulled out a bottle of red wine.

“Peter said this one is supposed to be good. I haven’t tried it yet.” Peter Bradford was about their age and owned Bradford’s Liquors, which was the only place to buy alcohol in Beach Plum Cove, the area of Nantucket where they all lived.  Lisa found a wine opener and poured them each a glass. She set the bubbling spinach and artichoke dip in the middle of the island and opened a box of crackers to serve with it.

They sat around the island, nibbling on everything as they sipped their wine. Sue’s baked scallops were buttery, fresh and sweet, and Lisa was glad to see that her dip was a hit. When they were just about done, she brought up the subject that she’d been putting off as long as she could.

“If you were to use a realtor who would you go with? Missy Cunningham or Trevor Eldridge?”

Paige raised her eyebrows, “Who needs a realtor?”

“I might,” Lisa said.

“I thought you said you’d never sell?” Sue looked confused. “You’re not thinking of moving off-island?”

“I don’t want to sell. But I may not have a choice. My money is running out, and even though the taxes on Nantucket are low, the real estate prices are high.”

“But Brian was a financial planner. I thought you were all set for retirement,” Paige looked both furious and worried at the same time.

Lisa sighed and then told them about the gambling debts and the retirement account and savings that had been drained.

“You didn’t know about any of it?” Sue asked.

“I had no idea. Brian always handled that, and since it was what he did for work, I never thought to question him. I thought I would have been able to find a job by now. I really hate the thought of moving.”

“Even if you sell, everything else on the island is expensive. You might have savings for a while, but you’ll still need money to live,” Sue said.

“I know. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to stay, but I am at the point now where I just don’t think it’s possible. At least there’s no mortgage, so once I sell, I’ll have a little time to decide what to do next. I could always rent for a while, maybe.”

“Nantucket rentals are ridiculously expensive.” Paige looked thoughtful as she added more wine to their glasses. “Your house is awfully big for one person. How many bedrooms do you have?”

“Six total. Five upstairs and the master on the first floor.”

“Have you ever heard of Airbnb? You could make some money renting out the rooms.”

“To strangers?” Sue sounded appalled at the idea of it. “That doesn’t sound very safe.”

“People do it all the time. It’s the newest way to travel.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Lisa said.

“You’re a great cook and you love to entertain and to decorate. You could turn the house into a bed and breakfast and still have plenty of room for yourself.”

“A bed and breakfast, that is an interesting idea.” Over the years, Lisa had thought more than once that it might be fun to own a bed and breakfast someday, to serve some of her homemade favorites to guests. But dreaming about it was one thing, actually doing it was another.

“Would you actually consider it?” Sue sounded surprised.

“I don’t think so. I love the idea, but I would imagine it would take a lot of money to get it up and running.”

“I don’t think it would. Your son is a builder. He could probably help you out. All you’d really need to do is close off most of the bottom floor so guests could only access the dining room and stairs to the second floor. And you’d still have your privacy.” Paige made it sound so simple. Lisa didn’t think that it would be, but she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to at least act like she was considering the idea.

“I’ll ask Chase to stop by one day this week and see what he thinks.” She was pretty sure that he’d think they were all crazy.

“Have him over for dinner and make something delicious. Can’t hurt….” Paige laughed.

“I’ll do that. So, are you ladies ready to go strolling? I need to walk off this dip.”

Thanks for reading this excerpt, I hope you'll decide to read the rest of the series!