Maya Parker has come a long way since the days of living in her car and listening to recordings of Alan Rickman’s delicious voice to drown out the noises of the street surrounding her. Between her job as manager of Bishop’s Books, running a Naughty Book Club full of the senior citizens of Carlisle Creek, and taking care of Nana Bishop, the bookstore’s owner and her neighbour, she has her hands full. Add to that cleaning up after Harold, the huge, grumpy shop cat she adopted who enjoys leaving mountains of dead mice by the back door, and she doesn’t have a lot of spare time.

There is one thing thing she’ll make time for, though: telling Nana’s good-for-nothing grandson exactly what she thinks of him if he ever gets his butt back to Carlisle Creek to visit his elderly Nana. If there’s one thing she can’t stand, it’s people who turn their backs on family.

When Liam Bishop finally makes it to Carlisle Creek after working night and day for the last three years to repay pay his debts, he’s surprised to find an attractive young woman working in the bookstore in place of his Nana. He knew his Nana was getting a little older, but the idea that she’d ever stop working in the store is crazy to him. That his Nana hired this woman and she’s been running the store, and making changes, for years and he had no idea? Well, let’s just say it’s a good thing the verbal tongue lashing he got from Maya when he walked in served to make him interested rather than guilty. Because he feels guilty enough on his own, and he’s determined to make it right.

And if he gets to know Maya better in the process, well, that’s alright too.

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