The Rainy Day Bookshop by RaeAnne Thayne

Rosie Lucas barely has time to catch her breath. Between caring for her elderly mother after her roller skating accident (why again did a 72-year old think that would be a good idea?!?), helping her daughter Emma with her beloved 3-year old granddaughter, Olive, and desperately trying to turn around the family construction business, Rosie barely has time to sleep, much less explore a romantic relationship. And if she were to do that, Andrew Morgan is the absolute last person she’d choose. After all, he’s an arrogant, reclusive author and they’re at totally different phases of life. Rosie is juggling her granddaughter while Andrew is managing his own young kids after his wife died a few years ago. But Rosie would be lying if she said she wasn’t interested. If only it were that easy…

Ten years ago, Rosie’s husband, Gary, died in a car accident and her entire world slipped off its axis. She lost her partner—her love, her kids lost their father, and she had to put her long-held dreams of running the Rainy Day Bookshop aside to save Gary’s construction business and keep the family afloat. And it wasn’t long after that that then teenaged Emma succumbed to addiction and their long estrangement began. She’s relieved to have come out the other side now and hopes they can repair everything that was broken, but she can’t deny there are scars. And as Rosie lets herself engage in a mostly harmless flirtation with Andrew, there is something she can’t quite put her finger on, something that keeps her at arm’s length from her daughter, a secret she can’t quite unravel.

Emma isn’t proud of her past, but she’s pulled herself up by the bootstraps, raising Olive as well as she can, and protecting her mom at all costs. Just like she always has. She never told her mom what she knew about her dad and his relationship with the woman from his office. And she never will. The guilt about that and about her father’s death has haunted her ever since. But she’s back in town to make amends and hopefully start a new life for herself and her daughter. She just never thought she’d find the possibility of a new love as well.