On the windswept shores of Willet Island, some promises are meant to last forever... and some loves are impossible to forget.
Marine biologist Kate Monroe has dedicated her life to protecting the island's delicate ecosystem, finding solace in its wild beauty and the memory of her beloved father. But when wildlife photographer Ryan Carter returns after breaking her young heart all those years ago, he brings with him memories of broken promises and a love that never truly died.
Now a renowned photographer with his own scars to bear, Ryan has changed. A recent heart attack forced him to confront his mortality and the choices that led him away from the only woman he's ever loved. His return to Willet Island was meant to be temporary, just long enough to capture the island's rare shorebirds. Instead, he finds himself drawn back into Kate's world, where the past and present collide like waves against the shore.
As a catastrophic hurricane bears down on Willet Island, threatening to erase everything Kate has fought to protect, she and Ryan are forced to confront the tempest within their own hearts. With time running out and the storm closing in, they must decide whether to hold onto the past or risk everything for a second chance at love.
For fans of Nicholas Sparks and Buck Turner, a powerful story of first love, second chances, and the courage to face life's fiercest storms. The Last Promise reminds us that in nature, and in love, the most beautiful moments often come after the storm. A breathtaking tale of love, loss, and redemption that will sweep you away like the tide and leave you breathless long after the storm has passed.
He thought he had all the time in the world. Until his heart told him otherwise.
For fourteen years, Ryan Carter has chased the wild—snow leopards in the Himalayas, monsoons in the Amazon, deserts that swallow men whole. Behind every award-winning photograph is the same unspoken truth: he’s running. From the promises he broke. From the girl he left behind on Willet Island. From the life he was too afraid to choose.
But when a sudden heart attack brings him to his knees in the middle of a foreign desert, Ryan is forced to face a terrifying truth—he’s out of second chances. Unless he’s brave enough to make the hardest journey of all: the one back home.
Haunted by memories of Kate Monroe, the girl who believed in forever, Ryan returns to the island that shaped them both. He doesn’t know if forgiveness is possible, or if love can survive so many storms. But this time, he’s ready to find out.
The Long Way Home is a poignant prequel to The Last Promise, a story of reckoning, redemption, and the kind of love that never truly dies.
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The Last Letter
She thought she knew their love story. The second letter changed everything.
Every year on her birthday, Claire receives a letter from her husband—written before he died seven years ago. They’ve been her lifeline. Her proof that love can survive even the cruelest goodbye.
Until this year, when two letters arrive.
The first is everything she expects: his gentle humor, his quiet faith in her strength, his reminder to keep living.
The second contains just three words that upend everything she thought she knew:
Ask Dawson why.
Dawson Winters—her late husband’s best friend. The man who held her through the worst nights. Who fixed her leaking roof at midnight. Who taught her daughter to ride a bike. The man she’s been falling for despite the guilt that keeps her awake at night.
Some secrets are meant to protect us. Some truths break us to set us free.
And sometimes, the greatest act of love is letting someone go… even after you’re gone.
About
Nora Hawkins spends her time in a cottage by a lake, thinking up new ways to make readers cry, while her cat walks across the keyboard. She is a beloved storyteller, best known for delivering emotional, satisfying, break your heart stories. She is not on social media, preferring to spend her time writing more books, but you can always follow her on Amazon to find out when the next release is coming out.
Some summers change everything. Some secrets last a lifetime.
In the summer of 1998, Catherine Sheridan thought she had found forever in a whirlwind Caribbean romance with Mark Winston. Their days were filled with sun-drenched laughter, their nights with promises whispered under starlit skies. But when his family's lies tore them apart, Catherine returned home carrying both a broken heart and a secret that would shape the rest of her life.
Twenty-seven years later, Catherine's daughter, Marigold, discovers her mother's hidden journals—and with it, the truth about the father she was told had died before she was born. Drawn into the story of that unforgettable summer, Marigold sets out to find the man who never knew she existed.
When Mark and Marigold finally meet, he sees Catherine's spirit staring back at him through her eyes. As father and daughter begin to build the connection stolen from them, they discover that some reunions are bittersweet—and that the time they have together may be shorter than either of them imagined.
A story of lost love and found family, of secrets buried and truths unearthed, of living fully in the face of impossible odds. The Secret is a deeply moving tale about the courage it takes to forgive, the grace required to let go, and the transformative power of love—even when it comes too late.
Perfect for readers who love emotional, tearjerking stories of family, second chances, and lives forever changed by a single summer.