Sebastian Sisters

There's nothing wrong with lying - until the truth comes out. For her sixteenth birthday, Evvie Sebastian got her own room - a room she doesn't have to share with her three sisters. There's only one problem: It's a dump, just like the rest of the family's new house. Evvie has hardly moved in when her dad, Nicky, asks her to spend the summer at the seaside with her great-aunt Grace, who's had a bad fall and needs cheering up - and who is snobbish, ill tempered, and very, very rich. Evvie reluctantly agrees. When she arrives at Eastgate, she finds Aunt Grace just as fierce as she remembered, but she has to admit that the place has some redeeming qualities. Like the handsome and charming Schyler Hughes... and Sam Steinmetz, who works in the town bookstore and makes smart jokes about the local culture of conformity. But it's not all romantic sailing trips and walks on the beach. Evvie soon finds that some people like to tell old stories and share old secrets a little too much - and some of those secrets may hit closer to home than Evvie expected.

Thea would do anything to make the people she loves happy... but how much can she give away and still be herself? The Sebastians have a tradition of falling in love at sixteen, and Thea is ready for it to happen to her, but so far she hasn't met anyone except the moving-van driver who deposited her and her family in their new home. As the sisters and their untraditional parents, Nicky and Megs, unpack yet again, Thea dreams of whispers, longing glances, and romance. But what she gets is a volunteer job at the local hospital. Thea figures she'll be fluffing pillows, playing with children, and reading books aloud, and it will help Nicky's chances of striking a business deal with community leaders. So she doesn't mind when she's matched up with Gina, a young leukemia patient. She minds even less when she meets Gina's big brother, Kip. Kip is devoted to his sister, and he and Thea are quickly drawn together by their fight for Gina's health and happiness. But their alliance is soon tested by illness, family, and a tragedy in Thea's life - one that will make demands of her heart that she never expected.

When Claire fears her family might be falling apart, she knows she'll have to fight her own battles - and she plans to win. Always the beauty of the family and often the most ambitious, Claire Sebastian doesn't feel sixteen, and she doesn't dream of romance - she dreams of diamonds. Diamonds and emeralds and anything else that will pay for the best doctors to treat her sister Sybil, now an invalid after a terrible accident. Claire knows that her cheekbones and charm are her best assets, but she'll also need a shrewd strategy if she's going to save her family from their financial troubles. And she's on her own: Her parents, Nicky and Megs, are completely wrapped up in Sybil's recovery, and Claire's sisters just aren't as ruthless as she is. A visit with Aunt Grace and a chance look at an old photograph give Claire the ammunition she needs to pull off her plan. But as it starts to unfold, she realizes that people are going to get hurt... and one of them may be her.

Always the youngest but never the baby, Sibyl sometimes wonders, What good is inner strength if only you know it's there? Sybil loves Aunt Grace's dark, old house, even if the upkeep is a burden the Sebastians can't entirely afford. It feels like home, and after years of surgeries and therapy, all Sybil wants for her sixteenth birthday is to be surrounded by her crazy family in a place of their own. But Evvie's been keeping a secret, one that puts her at risk, and when the truth finally comes out, it throws the whole family into turmoil as they struggle to face the facts. Sybil may not have Evvie's charm, Thea's patience, or Claire's beauty, but she does have herself: quiet, perceptive, and absolutely determined. When her father, Nicky, declares that he's found a solution to their troubles, Sybil faces a difficult choice - and her heart tells her there are some betrayals that can never be forgiven.

Young Margaret Winslow had beauty and a family name, but inside she felt empty... until Nick Sebastian gave her his heart and the strength to stand up for herself The Sebastian women grew up on the story of their parents' great love - how their mother had been an orphan, raised by a forbidding aunt, and then, contrary to all expectations, danced with the love of her life at her sixteenth birthday party. Her aunt Grace called her Margaret, and her daughters would call her Megs, but to her loving parents and her cherished Nicky, she would always be Daisy. Nicky and Meg's love never faltered - in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, through dingy apartments that Meg always made beautiful, joined by family, stricken by tragedy, through it all: Nicky and Meg had each other, and that was more than enough. This is their love story.