Smitten Book Club
ALSO BY THESE AUTHORS
Smitten
Secretly Smitten
C
OLLEEN
C
OBLE
Under Texas Stars novels
Blue Moon Promise
Safe in His Arms
Butterfly Palace
The Hope Beach novels
Tidewater Inn
Rosemary Cottage
The Lonestar novels
Lonestar Sanctuary
Lonestar Secrets
Lonestar Homecoming
Lonestar Angel
The Mercy Falls series
The Lightkeeper’s Daughter
The Lightkeeper’s Bride
The Lightkeeper’s Ball
The Rock Harbor series
Without a Trace
Beyond a Doubt
Into the Deep
Cry in the Night
The Aloha Reef series
Distant Echoes
Black Sands
Dangerous Depths
Midnight Sea
Alaska Twilight
Fire Dancer
Abomination
Anathema
K
RISTIN
B
ILLERBECK
The Scent of Rain
A Billion Reasons Why
Split Ends
The Ashley Stockingdale novels
What a Girl Wants
She’s Out of Control
With This Ring, I’m Confused
The Spa Girls series
She’s All That
A Girl’s Best Friend
Calm, Cool, and Adjusted
D
IANN
H
UNT
Bittersweet Surrender
(available as e-book only)
Be Sweet
For Better or For Worse
Hot Tropics & Cold Feet
RV There Yet?
Hot Flashes & Cold Cream
D
ENISE
H
UNTER
The Chapel Springs series
Barefoot Summer
Dancing with Fireflies
The Nantucket Romance series
Surrender Bay
The Convenient Groom
Seaside Letters
Driftwood Lane
The Big Sky Romance series
A Cowboy’s Touch
The Accidental Bride
The Trouble with Cowboys
Sweetwater Gap
© 2014 by Kristin Billerbeck, Colleen Coble, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Kristin Billerbeck is represented by the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, www.alivecommunications.com.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors’ imaginations or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smitten book club / Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4016-8716-8 (trade paper)
1. Love stories, American. 2. Christian fiction, American. I. Coble, Colleen. Love by the book. II. Billerbeck, Kristin. Shelved under romance. III. Hunt, Diann. New chapter. IV. Hunter, Denise. Happily ever after.
PS648.L6S538 2014
813’.08508--dc23
2013029519
Printed in the United States of America
14 15 16 17 18 RRD 5 4 3 2 1
In loving memory of our sweet Di.
You taught us by example, you inspired us with your beautiful spirit, you made us laugh until we cried. But most of all you loved us, just as we are. We’re so grateful God brought you into our lives. You will forever be in our hearts.
"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." Proverbs 31:25
Patricia "Diann" Hunt
August 2, 1955–November 29, 2013
CONTENTS
Love by the Book
by Colleen Coble
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Shelved Under Romance
by Kristin Billerbeck
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
A New Chapter
by
Diann Hunt
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Happily Ever After
by Denise Hunter
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Reading Group Guide
Acknowledgments
An Excerpt from Secretly Smitten
About the Authors
Love by the Book
Colleen Coble
No well-bred lady should eagerly receive the attentions of a gentleman, even if she admires him. And his reputation must be taken into account before you ever entertain letting him escort you anywhere.
P
EARL
C
HAMBERS
,
The Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship
CHAPTER ONE
M
ountains of donated boxes teetered against the west wall when Heather DeMeritt entered the Smitten library. The building had been renovated a few months earlier and still held a trace of that new smell in the brown carpet. The oak bookshelves that housed the library’s growing collection and the matching tables still shone with newness. Several businesses had donated the bank of computers lining one wall.
Heather spoke to several friends, then turned to eye the job she’d come to do. She was prepared to work, but the sheer number of books surprised her.
Her friend and fellow book club member, Abby Gray, motioned to her. Abby was the Smitten librarian, though she was much too pretty to fit the stereotype, even with her blond hair perpetually up in a bun.
Heather threaded through the throng to reach Abby’s side. “This is going to take awhile.”
Abby’s cheeks were flushed. “Isn’t it exciting? So many people want to help Molly.”
Their good friend Molly Moore had recently lost her husband in a tragic fire. He was the only volunteer fireman to die in recent memory, and Smitten was still reeling. As was Molly.
Abby waved vaguely. “You can start there.”
Heather opened the nearest box and began to lift out the books to put in sale piles ranging from one dollar to five. Five dollars was too much to pay for some of these books, but it was for a good cause, and everyone would feel great about helping.