Böcker av Heather Wardell

Melissa and Owen met on New Years' Eve and he proposed on Valentine's Day. Now it's March, and they're about to set sail on a two-week Caribbean cruise - and get married on the last day at sea. Though their relationship's moving fast, Melissa's wanted to be married for years and she knows the smart stable Owen is a great catch so she's sure they'll be fine.At least, she's sure until she meets his brothers on the cruise and discovers she's dated both of them: Austin, the fun-loving flirt whose kisses still haunt her dreams, and Nicholas, the sweet horror movie fan whose lack of ambition upset her in ways she still doesn't understand.Melissa expected to spend tons of time onboard with her fiancé, but he instead spends nearly his every waking moment in the casino displaying a previously unseen love of gambling. This surprise, and the time she spends with Nicholas and with Austin, makes her question everything she thought she wanted.Her relationship with Owen was just fine before, but suddenly 'just fine' doesn't seem good enough to keep a marriage alive for a lifetime. Melissa has two weeks to decide: stay with Owen or jump ship."All At Sea" is book 9 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

When Candice's in-laws were killed eight months ago buying a huge faux polar bear rug for her Christmas present, she lost more than just two of her favorite people: she lost her husband Ian as well. After only two years of marriage, their guilt and pain have left them living together but apart, unable to really talk for fear of what they'll say to each other. Ian leaves for a month-long contract overseas, and Candice plans to use the time apart to decide whether her marriage can be saved. When her ex walks back into her life as the new client at work, ten years more attractive yet saddened by his own recent loss, she's left wondering what she really wants from life and love. "Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo" is book 1 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

Nothing ever comes easily for Larissa, a makeup artist who both loves and fears pink and all things feminine. She longs to start her own business as her late dad had wanted but never quite gets there, her attempt to host her best friend's son's christening is a disaster, and the only dates she can get are dreadful. When she's offered a job teaching English in Kuwait, at first she says no because her life is bad enough at home without throwing sand and camels into the mix. But when everything goes wrong at once, she can't stay in Toronto another second so accepts the job in the hopes that she will be a new and better person there. But can she really leave her psychological baggage behind, or is it true that 'wherever you go, there you are'? The sequel to "Good to Myself"! "Pink is a Four-Letter Word" is book 11 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

"I'm doing the right thing, not feeding myself. It's the only thing I can do, so I will do it. Gloria can somehow have the energy I don't take in, and it will help her stay alive." Twenty years ago, fourteen-year-old Valerie rushed off for lunch with her boyfriend instead of properly putting away a packet of balloons, and her little brother choked to death on his third birthday. In response, Valerie locked down every aspect of her life so she could never lose control like that again, and she's still doing that today. So when her sister Gloria is found comatose after an apparently random attack, Valerie is desperate to do something, anything, to save her only remaining sibling. But as a financial controller for a "nothing bigger than a size six" fashion designer, she has no medical background and no idea of how to help. But she has to find a way. Since Gloria has always wanted to be a size zero, Valerie hits on food as the answer: by eating less, she will lose the weight Gloria now can't and somehow save her sister that way. But when "eating less" turns into a frantic starvation diet to reach size zero before Gloria dies, will Valerie's self control save her sister or destroy her own life?

Thirty-something Rhiannon is an obsessive planner and goal-setter, but somehow nothing she achieves ever seems good enough to her. Determined to lose forty pounds for her best friend's August wedding, Rhiannon flees her parents' house in a Christmas-day blizzard to avoid the temptation of all her favorite foods, but her car skids off the deserted road into a tree. Unable to escape the car, with her leg trapped and bleeding and her cell phone out of reach, Rhiannon is at first certain she'll be rescued and writes notes to her friends and family to pass the time. As the weather cools and her condition deteriorates, though, she recognizes the possibility that her life might be over. Interspersed with increasingly desperate escape attempts, her letters become deeper and more heart-felt as she comes to see what really matters in life. She's spent her whole life planning but hasn't ever really lived. Will she get the chance to change that? "Planning to Live" is book 3 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

The fiercely private Madeleine-Cora Spencer is the last person who should be on a reality TV show, but when she's shunned by a friend's new wife because "you can't trust desperate single women" her pain and humiliation drive her straight to the "Find Your Prince" dating show's web site. Armed with date-appropriate clothes and a detailed game plan she arrives to meet her potential loves, only to be dumped... on a remote island with seven ex-boyfriends. Seven exes! Could this be any worse?

Amy's a hobbyist songwriter with big dreams, but not the usual 'making it as a musician' kind. No, Amy wants to honor her late best friend by finally starting the support center for teenage girls they'd dreamed of when they were just girls themselves. She doesn't know where to start, but when one of her songs becomes an overnight internet sensation she sees a quick path to the money she'll need to make the center a reality. As white-hot pop sensation Misty Will, Amy finds a whole new world opening to her and realizes she loves being on stage holding an audience spellbound. She also loves how her young fans look up to her and draw strength from her songs, but of course they don't know the awful thing she did after her friend died and how badly she could have used a support center herself. She knows, though, and also knows that she simply has to leave her new pop princess identity behind and become Amy the center director as she's dreamed of for eight years. Doesn't she? "Live Out Loud" is book 6 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

If thirty-year-old Megan were any more of a doormat, she'd have footprints on her back. She helps anyone and everyone, no matter the cost to herself, and she's always been that way. Even the thought of withholding her assistance makes her feel sick. Worse, it makes her feel like she's a bad person, selfish and unkind.She takes up running purely to avoid gaining weight, but as she trains with her cute but heartbroken coach Andrew she becomes more able to do things she'd never thought she could, both physically and emotionally.The day before she runs her first marathon, though, her best friend's demands result in the biggest challenge yet to her developing assertiveness and Megan must decide: cave in as she always has before or stick to her new-found 'happy pace' in running and life."Finding My Happy Pace" is book 8 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

Massage therapist Tess Grayson has long dreamed of turning her hobby of building intricate miniature dioramas into an art career. She's finally ready to grab for that tiny brass ring, but her potential new massage client shakes her resolve. Forrest Williams had finally healed from the car accident that killed his fiancée, but a new injury now threatens his professional hockey career. Even allowing for everything he's suffered, the depth of the emotional and physical pain Tess senses in Forrest at their first meeting shocks her, and she puts aside her artistic aspirations for two months to help him recover. When Forrest shows Tess's dioramas to his mother, who owns a top Toronto art gallery, she agrees to sell Tess's work but her rules and restrictions stifle Tess's creativity. Giving up the career of her dreams is unthinkable, but losing the freedom and joy she'd always found in her art is unbearable, and Tess can't seem to find a way to have both at once. "Go Small or Go Home" is book 2 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

The much-anticipated sequel to ALL AT SEA brings back Melissa and the trio of brothers that vied for her heart, and a brand new heroine to root for in Corinne Kostopoulos. All Corinne has ever wanted was the role of clarinetist for the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra. The clarinet, and working to master it, is all she has left of her father, who abandoned the family when she was a little girl. But after failing to clinch an open spot in a heated audition, her life-plan soon goes overboard. Not only does she break up with her longtime boyfriend, Clay, she also makes a decision that will alter her destiny in ways she never imagined... After a medical procedure and a couple of months of changing everything in her life, a pregnant Corinne meets Melissa and her gorgeous flirt of a brother-in-law, Austin, on a cruise. The heat of the Caribbean sun soon combines with a mutual attraction to create a sizzling connection neither Corinne nor Austin can deny. But when the truth comes out about Corinne's condition, will lifelong playboy Austin man up? Or will Corinne's hope for a future beyond a shipboard romance prove yet another PLAN OVERBOARD? "Plan Overboard" is book 14 in the "Toronto Collection" set of loosely connected novels. While most of the books are not sequels, your favorite characters will reappear across the books in the collection, letting you follow their lives after their original book ends.

Two young immigrant women. One historic strike. And the fire that changed America.In 1909, shy sixteen-year-old Rosie Lehrer is sent to New York City to earn money for her family''s emigration from Russia. She will, but she also longs to make her mark on the world before her parents arrive and marry her to a suitable Jewish man. Could she somehow become one of the passionate and articulate "fiery girls" of her garment workers'' union?Maria Cirrito, spoiled and confident at sixteen, lands at Ellis Island a few weeks later. She''s supposed to spend four years earning American wages then return home to Italy with her new-found wealth to make her family''s lives better. But the boy she loves has promised, with only a little coaxing, to follow her to America and marry her. So she plans to stay forever. With him.Rosie and Maria meet and become friends during the "Uprising of the 20,000" garment workers'' strike, and they''re working together at the Triangle Waist Company on March 25, 1911 when a discarded cigarette sets the factory ablaze. 146 people die that day, and even those who survive will be changed forever.Carefully researched and full of historic detail, "Fiery Girls" is a novel of hope: for a better life, for turning tragedy into progress, and for becoming who you''re meant to be.