cover image Love on Beach Avenue

Love on Beach Avenue

Jennifer Probst. Montlake Romance, $12.95 trade paper (360p) ISBN 978-1-5420-1591-2

Probst (All Roads Lead to You) opens her Sunshine Sisters series with an effervescent rom-com. Avery Sunshine and her sisters, free-spirited Taylor and single mother Bella, run Sunshine Bridal, a wedding planning firm in Cape May, N.J. When Avery’s college best friend, Ally Ross, gets engaged, she asks Avery to plan her dream wedding in just four months. Avery agrees, but instantly regrets it once Ally’s control-freak brother, Carter, insists on helping. When the Rosses’ parents died over a decade ago, then 19-year-old Carter put off his own life plans to raise his 10-year-old sister, and it’s left him overprotective. Carter remembers Avery as the party girl who was a bad influence on his sister in college, and Avery remembers him as the jerk who judged her for it. Though they initially clash over the wedding plans, sparks fly between them as each realizes how much the other has changed. The characters leap off the page, the love story is perfectly paced, and an adorable dog named Lucy adds charm. Readers will eagerly await the next in the series. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Apr.)