Beloved

A cottage by the sea: it's a dream come true for Jane Drew. Too bad it comes with a ghost -- and a soulfully seductive neighbor who'd just as soon boot Jane off the island.


When you're seriously unattached and recently unemployed, the inheritance of a cottage on Nantucket Island might seem like a really Good Thing. The fact that the house is ramshackle and possibly haunted? Mere details. Jane Drew never actually believed the neighbors' murmurs about her great-aunt being either a psychic or a witch, much less a psychic witch. Still, a series of eerie events soon has her convinced that the spirit of a beautiful Quaker is roaming the place, and it seems clear that it will take more than a smile and a wave goodbye to make the spirit leave. If Jane is to move things along, she's going to have to think like an islander. But she's a Boston graphic designer with no experience of the island or its history, and she could use a little local knowledge in her quest


There is no one more local than the aloof, wary, and impossibly seductive Mac McKenzie. Descended from generations of hard-working islanders, Mac has very clear opinions of off-islanders, and he's not afraid to express them. He has little patience for New Age types, moneyed types, and those for whom "antiquing" is a verb. He regards spaghetti as noodles, not pasta, and he drinks water from a tap, not a bottle. He's suspicious of people who design graphics, whatever those are. And he doesn't believe in ghosts. Period. When he finds himself up against the insistent, persistent, infinitely irritating Jane Drew with her knack for complicating his life, he does what any self-respecting islander would and shrugs her off -- for a while, anyway. But Mac understands, as Jane does not, that not every force is benign ... and not every force is otherworldly.


Reviews:


"Beloved has charm, romance, and a delicious hint of the supernatural. If you loved the film 'Somewhere in Time,' don't miss this book."

--LaVyrle Spencer, New York Times bestselling author


"Beloved is great ... a lively, engaging, thoroughly enchanting tale. Ms. Stockenberg is an exciting voice in the romance genre. Her writing is delicious; I savored every morsel of Beloved."

--Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author


"Antoinette Stockenberg is pure magic! She does a wonderful job of evoking mood out of setting. The love story between the hero and heroine was complex and moving; what appealing characters!"

--Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author


"A delightfully different romance with a ghost story -- a great combination that was impossible to put down."

--Johanna Lindsey, New York Times bestselling author


About the Author


Stockenberg's books have been published in a dozen languages and are often set in quaint New England harbor towns, always with a dose of humor. She writes about complex family relationships and the fallout that old, unearthed secrets can have on them. Sometimes there's an old murder. Sometimes there's an old ghost. Sometimes once-lovers find one another after half a lifetime apart.