Chocolate-Box Sweet Hearts

Judging a chocolate-making competition for the women’s shelter’s annual fundraiser should be an easy, even pleasurable, assignment for Maise, new food critic for the Bloomingfield Daily Dispatch. Too bad just the smell of chocolate makes her stomach roil. By the time she reaches the last table, she hopes her face isn’t as green as her holiday sweater. But the tall, square-jawed man behind piles of fudge makes her want to linger, even savor the moment along with his chocolate-coffee-flavored confection.

Fresh pasta isn’t the only specialty that takes extra time...The extra time and expense of Julie Elliot’s old-school cooking methods are worth it, but that means The Pasta Junction’s bottom line is often stretched thin - much like herself. Even during the holidays, the restaurant’s busiest season. When she carves out time in her brutal schedule to meet with Bloomingfield weatherman Lorenzo Rossi, she crushes her reaction to the tall, blue-eyed charmer quicker and harder than a clove of roasted garlic.

Owning a candy store should be a fun and delightful profession. Besides, what candy could beat Sally’s Elliot’s signature coffee chocolate fudge? None, except for the unique infusion candy she designed for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, the signature chocolate required for the candy won’t be delivered on time. No problem. She’ll pick up the order herself.

A disillusioned widow longing for a change. A hard-working truck driver looking for love. Will Emily and Joe find their happily-ever-after in a forgotten summer breeze? Widow Emily Varon doesn’t believe in love anymore, and she isn’t wasting her time trying to find it. At her age, she’s learned that life is a daily routine. Rinse and repeat. Safe and secure. And she’s not about to change her ways now. With her hard-won affluence, succumbing to a truck-driver’s invitation to spend a summer weekend together means only one thing. Friendship.

In Cora Carpenter’s small California hometown, Christmas is tailor-made for couples. Unfortunately, Cora is a party of one, thanks to a con man who stole her heart, then bilked her out of thousands of dollars. What’s on her Christmas wish list this year? Nothing whimsical. She’ll take a new vacuum cleaner, thanks - and no dating for the foreseeable future. But when she meets a stranger with a broken-down car, his warm smile and perilously blue eyes almost make her want to tweak that list. If only she could get over the pain and humiliation of her past.

Colum O’Brien, a professional ballet dancer, is still hurt from a breakup four decades earlier. All this time, his heart has gravitated toward the woman who left him behind. Sure, he’s moved on with his life, but he’s never forgotten his childhood sweetheart Keira Murphy. That is, until he meets her again. Because, his father is marrying her mother.