Showing results by author "Monica Murphy" in All Categories

Caroline Abbott loves her job - helping engaged couples pick out the perfect save-the-date cards and invitations for their dream wedding. Working at Noteworthy means she has to deal with the occasional bridezilla, but Caroline’s always up for the challenge. Until one particular bridezilla, whose fiancé happens to be the boy Caroline shared her first kiss with, walks into the stationery store. Alexander Wilder is all grown up now, helping run his family’s successful luxury hotel chain, and is somehow even better looking than she remembers.

Whit Lancaster burst into my life like a storm. Dark and thunderous, furious and fierce. Cold, heartless, and devastatingly beautiful, like the statues in our prep school gardens. The school with his family name on the sign. He can do no wrong here. This is his domain. He’s a menace on campus. Adored and feared. Hated and respected. His taunting words carve into my skin, shredding me to ribbons. Yet his intense gaze scorches my blood, fills me with a longing I don’t understand.

Wren Beaumont is many things. Beautiful. Smart. Sweet. Innocent. At Lancaster Prep, the girls love her. They all want to be her friend. Only I see Wren for who she really is. A repressed little virgin who keeps her feelings locked up so tight she’s probably close to bursting. She thinks she’s above us all. Even me. I shouldn’t be drawn to her. She’s not my type. Until we’re forced to work together in class and realize we might have more things in common than we originally thought.

I’ve had a thing for Gavin Maddox ever since I was a freshman, but it’s a mission doomed to fail. Of all the guys I could have picked on campus, I had to go too far with the quarterback, my brother’s best friend. We’ve spent the last two years avoiding each other. It’s not that easy when you have the same friends, not to mention I can’t forget the way it felt to be with him. But I can be civil. Polite. Detached.

Knox Maguire is the king of our college campus, the star offensive tight end on the football team. He is the complete opposite of me in every way. I'm quiet. He's loud. I'm shy. He's definitely not. Everyone loves him. No one knows me. Fresh out of a breakup, I don't really trust him, and why should I? Knox is the ultimate player. When I become his English tutor, I tell myself we need to keep things between us strictly business. Watching my mother deal with my ex-athlete father long ago taught me to stay far away from that type of man. Yet Knox is impossible to resist.

Spencer Donato. My brother’s best friend. My dirty little secret. We fell for each other at Lancaster Prep. Sneaking around. Not wanting anyone to find out. He was my first love, my protector, my knight in shining armor. We were made for each other, and I truly believed he was my forever. But then I did the unthinkable, and betrayed him in the worst possible way. I thought I lost him for good … Until I saw him at my brother’s wedding. Now he’s older. Crueler. Unbearably handsome. We’re drawn to each other still, but will Spencer be there for me when I need him the most?

Brought to you by Penguin. Monica Murphy goes back to Lancaster Prep with a new generation of Lancasters, kicking it off with the daughter of Crew and Wren from the BookTok sensation A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime...

I've moved through life doing what's expected of me. I'm the middle daughter, the dutiful daughter. The one who braved a vicious attack and survived. The one who devoted herself to her family's business empire. The one who met an ambitious man and fell in love. We were going to run Fleur Cosmetics together, Zachary and I. When Zachary got a promotion, however, he left me in the dust. Maybe it's for the best, between his disloyalty and his wandering eye. But another man was waiting for me. Wanting me.

He’s always been off limits because I know a relationship with him could never work. Like, ever. He’s too perfect, too sweet, too good-looking. Taking what we have a step further has the potential to ruin everything, and his friendship is too important to me. So I keep it friendly, always with my feelings locked up tight. We talk. We date other people. Until the beginning of senior year, one night at a party. When lines are blurred and eventually crossed. It was the best night of my life. A night I will never forget. Or regret. It’s all I can think about. He’s all I can think about.

Candice Gaines loves Christmas. Not only does she bask in the twinkling lights, sing Christmas carols, and go crazy with the decorations, she’s also in the giving spirit - donating much of her time and wealth to various charities in the local area. Charlie Sullivan despises Christmas. Though it keeps his family afloat, considering they own Sullivan Family Christmas Tree Farm, the main provider for Christmas trees on the Monterey Peninsula. He’d much rather work among the trees than deal with people.

Am liebsten hätte Summer Savage die Lancaster Prep sofort wieder verlassen. Denn ausgerechnet Whit Lancaster – heiß, reich, grausam, unantastbar – hat es auf sie abgesehen, weil ihre Familien ein Skandal verbindet. Doch als Summer nachts von einem Mitschüler angegriffen wird, rettet Whit sie. Im Gegenzug versorgt sie seine Wunden auf ihrem Zimmer. Aber mitten in der Nacht verschwindet er mit ihrem Tagebuch.

My first crush. My first kiss. The boy who ripped my heart out of my chest again and again. Over and over. I let him have it every single time. Willingly. We are that toxic high school couple you hear about, the one you witness in the hallway as they avoid each other. You laugh at them in class when they’re forced to work together, their gazes full of hatred. We are the couple you gossip about when they win homecoming prince and princess their sophomore year.... The back and forth is what kills me the most. I’m not his princess, I’m the girl he toys with when he’s bored.

Eden: Josh Evans and I have been best friends forever. He knows all my secrets, and I know all of his. So when he randomly asks me to help him lose his virginity, I sort of flip out. That's a question that sends your mind to places you've seriously never considered before. Like, you know. Having sex. With your best friend. Except Josh doesn't want to have sex with me-he wants me to help him find a girl. A nice girl who's funny and smart and cute. Except he already knows a girl just like that.... 

Stella Ricci is bored. Her overprotective family barely let her out of their sight, despite the fact she’s a grown woman. Yes, she loves her job at her family’s café, and she’s the best barista in the entire Monterey Peninsula, but is that enough? She’s thinking no. But what else can she do? Enter Carter Abbott. Burnt out after the never-ending grind of selling high-end real estate in Los Angeles, he’s returned home, unsure of what to do next. He needs someplace to crash temporarily until he gets back on his feet.

Ava Callahan. Love of my life. Wrecker of my soul. I would have sworn on anything that what we shared was real. But she broke my trust. And then my heart. I don’t think I can piece it back together without her, but I’m sure going to try. I’m better off on my own, anyway, right? Who needs girls when you have football? If only I believed that. Look, when you need someone in your life, you don’t want to let her go. And I can’t let go of Ava. I love her. She loves me. Nothing can convince me otherwise.

People say the youngest child has it easy, but nothing can be further from the truth. Unlike my two sisters, Violet and Lily, I'm never in the limelight. I just work my butt off for Fleur Cosmetics and get little to no thanks for it. I've been pushed too far one too many times, and I'm finally brave enough to do something about it. Maybe my newfound courage has something to do with the amazing pink and white diamond necklace I wear to the party in Cannes.

Working at Bliss, Sarah Harrison deals with all sorts of...interesting clientele. Yet no one sparks her interest more than Jared Gaines, the ultra-rich, ultra-sexy businessman who frequents her shop, buying delicate little “gifts” for the women in his life. But one day, Jared sends Sarah a gift from Bliss. Then another - and another. So when Sarah walks into his office demanding to know why, he makes her an offer she somehow can’t refuse: be his fake girlfriend for the weekend while attending his brother’s engagement party.

Ace Townsend is the biggest player on campus. The sexy new quarterback on the football team. I should probably mention he's also a complete flirt. The life of the party wherever he goes. Someone I should avoid at all costs. It's difficult, though, when I'm on the social media crew for the football team, and we're out on the field during practice almost every day, filming them. On the sidelines at games. Hanging out with them at bars. The more I spend time with Ace, the more I'm drawn to him. The attraction is there, but it's more than that. I actually like him.

Twenty-two-year-old heiress Rachel Henderson has one goal this summer: hide out at her family’s lake house and recover from the most mortifying breakup Manhattan society has ever witnessed. Sun, swimming, and zero paparazzi—what could go wrong?

Camden Fields is the star quarterback of our college football team. Quiet. Smart. Absolutely gorgeous. He's the man all the women on campus rave about. While he's had a few casual hookups over the years, it's never anything serious. Cam doesn't do serious. He also doesn't do me. See, I'm his best friend's little sister, and whenever we're around each other, he's always warning me that I'm off limits. That nothing can ever happen between us. But I see the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not watching.