Sweet Home Carolina // Home Town Rebel — Patricia Rice

She dreams of creating a home sweet home -- until a dashing stranger turns her life upside down.

Struggling to get back on her feet after a messy divorce, dark-haired beauty Amy Warren would love to purchase and fix up the historic cottage that has been her dream. But she needs something more than the meager income she earns running the kitchen at the Stardust Cafe, her sister's country diner, to seal the deal. Perhaps Amy can help both herself and her beloved North Folk by somehow bringing the old textile mill back to life. Her ingenious plan, however, soon encounters a major obstacle.

That obstacle is Zack St. Etienne, an outrageously handsome European businessman, with loads of charisma and cash, who arrives in the North Carolina town with his own plans for the mill. Though Amy fumes at this unexpected intrusion, she cannot deny her intense attraction to Zack. He's charming and smart, and even shows a fondness for her two young children. As this playful game of hard-to-get becomes a passionate love affair, Amy and Zack must clean out the cobwebs of their imperfect pasts so they can open their hearts to what just might be the perfect romance.