Devon Trilogy

Flora McIntyre is going home. She boards her train, overcome with relief as she leaves behind the ordeal of having reunited with her sister after fifty years.Rachel Benson is running away, for the second time. When she steps onto a train going north, her life changes forever.Gabrielle Carrington is a runaway bride. From the moment she boards the train that will take her away from everyone and everything she has ever known, she becomes a different person, a person whom she can respect.Coming Home to Morningside is the story of three women from disparate walks of life who come together to find their common ground and to form an unlikely friendship.Flora, having rebelled against her austere upbringing, embraced life as a flower child of the sixties. She has recently lost her beloved husband and has reunited with her sister.Rachel, who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and was all but invisible, has just turned eighteen. She is on the run, but this time not from a mother who does not see or want her, but rather from an abusive man who preys on young girls.Gabi, an entitled princess, is on the run from a domineering family who is insisting that she marry an equally entitled man whom they have chosen for her. Because they will not hear her protests and do not care that she doesn't love the man, her only escape is to run.Due to nature's inclination and perhaps the guidance of those looking down on them and very possibly synchronicity, these three women are brought together on a train and later in a hotel where they are temporarily stranded. Recognizing their fear and desperation, Flora invites the two young women to come home with her. They create an unexpected family, one that includes Flora's grandson, Camden, and her chauffeur, Luke, another of her rescue projects. The frumpy woman who turns out to be anything but, ends up giving the two younger women something invaluable. Instead of simply finding the escape they had been seeking, they are accepted for who they are. They too give Flora a great gift, one of appreciation and love and deep friendship. With one another's help, they all find what they didn't know they were looking for. Rachel finds her courage. Gabi finds her voice. And Flora finds a way to rebuild her life. They are indeed kindred spirits who have found home.

The second book in the Devon Trilogy is the story of three women who find friendship in the local pub.Rachel Benson, who we met in the first Devon book, Coming Home to Morningside, is struggling to work through her fears. She spends time at The Shamrock and Thistle, trying to become comfortable in noisy crowds. She forces herself to face her fears because she realizes that only when she overcomes her past experiences will she be able to be in a relationship with the man she loves and has chased away.Sarah Fitzgerald, who is running from a past that she would just as soon forget, is a new server at the pub. The first time she sees Rachel, she takes a disliking to her simply because she reminds her of her own mother. But once she recognizes that they have something in common, she warms to the young woman who manages to see the best in everyone, even the server with a chip on her shoulder the size of Half Dome.Darcy Murphy, who is running the pub while her parents are vacationing in Ireland, wonders if she made a mistake hiring the defensive and antagonistic woman. She has a limited amount of time to turn the unpleasant server around. But Sarah is not the only distraction in Darcy's life. Jamie McIntyre, her childhood best friend and the true love of her life, has returned to Devon after several years. it doesn't take long for Darcy to realize that, despite being married now, the feelings she had as a teenager for the reclusive and kind-hearted son of her parents' best friends, Flora and Daniel McIntyre, are still very much intact.The three women form an unlikely friendship due to their common ground--abusive relationships. They grow close enough to support one another and help each other through difficult times and challenging decisions. In the end, that support saves one of their lives. It helps them all find a way to let go of the past. it also gives them hope for the kind of future they desire and realize they deserve.

Coming Home to Killarney is the third book in the Devon Trilogy. It too takes place in the tiny town of Devon, a town that was founded by the McIntyres and the Murphys, a Scottish and an Irish family. Both families are aware that there was a third founder, an Englishman, but they know nothing about the man who arrived in America, along with their own ancestors or why he left the idyllic village that he helped create.When Claire Manning's grandfather asks her from his deathbed, to visit Devon, although bewildered, she agrees. For her grandfather, she will make the trip from Bainbridge Island, Washington, to the tiny town in the Northern California foothills. Her grandfather explains that his grandfather, her great great grandfather, made the same request of him. However, he neglected to follow through. Claire agrees to do it for her beloved and guilt-ridden grandfather. Her brother Grant insists on going with her. Together, they follow the bread crumbs of a journal to discover that their ancestor was indeed the third founder of the town.While Grant, the ever-cynical detective, sees the worst in people they meet, Claire looks through the rose-colored lens of her artist eyes and sees the best and embraces the kindness with which they are greeted. What Grant does not expect when he meets psychologist, Catherine Carter, at the local pub, despite his bias against psychologists, his life will forever change. For the better. Nor does Claire expect to fall in love with Darcy Murphy's cousin, Ryan Gallagher, the cynical journalist who is determined to keep Claire, for her own good, at a distance.As they get to know the descendants of the other town founders, the Murphys and the McIntyres, as well as their friends, the brother and sister realize that maybe that wasn't the only reason they were sent on and guided through this journey. Claire wonders if her grandfather had become psychic on his deathbed. Perhaps he sent them on this mission because he knew their destinies were here, and that they would find love and their true home.