When the Stars Align

A woman on the run from an abusive husband returns to the island she abandoned over twenty years ago.

Amy Archer Ashwood is the younger sister of Holly and Rina Archer and twin sister to Randy. Like her siblings, she has little, if anything, to do with the Archer House where they grew up these days. After waiting till thirty and never meeting Mr. Right, she fell into a runaway marriage and drifted further and further away from her family.

And she turned her back on them for good when the abuse started.

She couldn’t face anyone she knew after that. She was embarrassed. She was frightened. And her husband had told her if she ever left him, he would make her pay.

But all of that changes now.

Holly Archer holds a seventieth birthday party for their mother, Nellie—and it’s the first beacon of light Amy has seen in years. When her husband, a cop, is on a case, she gets in her car and she drives as fast as she can, all the way to Islamorada.

But the bruises haven’t yet faded, and it’s not like Lucy, her siblings, and her mother can go back to how things were before they abandoned each other. Amy struggles to hide her true reasons for her appearance on Islamorada, and finds herself totally enveloped with the family she once loved.

The Archers don’t give up so easily—and it doesn’t take much for them to realize the depths of horror Amy has escaped from.

Slowly, Amy begins to piece together her life. She becomes part-time chef at the Archer House, removes her wedding ring, rekindles old friendships, and even finds herself out to dinner with a handsome old flame, a painter named Noah.

But no matter what, Amy knows she can’t escape her past.

Her husband promised her he would make her pay if she hurt him.

She knows he’s only waiting for the perfect time to attack.

Lose yourself in this new women's fiction series that revolves around friendship, love and loss among the Archer Clan. A heartwarming family saga that has the backdrop of the Florida Keys white sand and crystal blue waters.

Chapter One



It had been two years since the last time Amy was on this road to Islamorada and everything about it felt strange. The sun had hung over the ocean in the distance, shining bright, which didn’t help Amy’s headache one bit. She gripped the steering wheel tighter like her life depended on it and drove just a little over the speed limit, but kept a watchful eye on the speedometer. The last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself and get pulled over.
Life had been so different before. The last time she was in her hometown was when John had driven them down from Cape Coral for her father’s funeral. During the drive, John couldn’t help himself and had criticized Amy’s family, including her late father, Alvin, and insisted that they would sit in the back. Amy had also been instructed to keep her mouth shut and that as soon as the service was over, they would leave. Of course, Amy had agreed. The last thing she wanted to do was cause a fight she knew would not end well.
Even though it was a quick trip, she remembered the pain she felt having lost her father —the pain for her mother and her siblings, but the most memorable part of all was being slapped in the face on the car ride home by her husband. She had interrupted him during a conversation outside of the funeral home by accident, and even though she apologized just as fast, it did nothing to appease John.

“You always have to open up your damn mouth, don’t you!” John’s words rang through her mind as she gripped the steering wheel tighter. She could feel her eyes starting to mist at the memory but shook her head to focus on the road ahead.
It wasn’t difficult for John to convince her to leave right after the funeral, though. Amy hadn’t been eager to see her siblings anyway. None of them had bothered to stay in touch or even call. None of them knew anything about what Amy’s life was like now and the last thing she wanted was their pity or for them to judge her.
But now, times had changed, and so had her circumstances. Whether she wanted to or not, it was time for Amy to reunite with her family, if only to stay as far away from danger as possible. And that meant never returning to Cape Coral. The thought of seeing her family scared her stiff, but not nearly as much as it frightened her to stay put and at home with her husband. She barreled down the coastal highway, running away from her painful life with the ocean shimmering in her windshield.
A few minutes later, she drove around a curve, and there it was, the Archer Inn, looking just as it had when she grew up there. She wondered who helped her mom keep the place running after her father died. She imagined it was probably her twin brother, Randy, considering he was the only sibling that had not left the keys. The thought of her brother pulled at her heartstrings; she hadn’t spoken to her twin in years. Amy knew it wasn’t right, but she also knew that every single one of them was just as stubborn. Deep down, though, she missed them so much.
Past the Inn, closer to the lawn and beach, she saw the Archer house come in to view along with several cars parked from alongside the back. It looked like the whole town had come out to celebrate her mother’s birthday party. When she had received the first voicemail from her sister, Holly, asking her to come, she ignored her sister’s invitation out of habit. She never returned any of Holly’s calls, and no part of her had ever thought she would accept the invitation. Every year she had always mailed her mother a birthday card. As she pulled into the driveway, she scolded herself for not letting them know she was coming. She knew everyone would be in shock as soon as they laid eyes on her.

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