La Fleur de Blanc

A young woman with a little girl's dream. Two handsome suitors. And an adversary determined to crush her before she stands a chance.

Lily Whistler has a dream, birthed from the most fanciful Parisian memories of her late mother: to open a floral shop called La Fleur de Blanc, selling only white flowers. Back home in Kansas, such a fairy tale notion could never survive ... but in the fashionable seaside town of Cielo del Mar, California, Lily has gambled her inheritance that it will.

At first, the upscale shopping center of the Palms Couture seems fertile soil for Lily's dream. The weather is beautiful; the vistas of the ocean are breathtaking; the customers are elegant and wealthy. There are even two men who'd suit Lily's fancy if she had time for such things: charming Len, who operates a fine food cart, and dark and brooding Matthew Vitale, who runs Bella by the Sea -- an elite restaurant that hosts only a few couples per night at an exorbitant price -- with his father Marcello.

But the one thing Lily didn't anticipate standing in her way was a nemesis: Kerry Barrett Kirby, who owns nouveau house across the courtyard. Kerry seems determined to crush Lily into the dirt for a reason Lily can't imagine … and wields a power and seniority at the Palms that Lily (new, naive, and out of her element) can't hope to fight.

Lily only has one chance to make her shop work -- a tall feat, considering the prior shops Kerry has driven out of business, and the way the Palms always bows to Kerry's will. But Lily's charm has bought her a handful of unlikely allies … and as Kerry will find out, quiet little Lily Whistler has more than a few country girl tricks up her sleeve.

La Fleur de Blanc is women's fiction with an edge: part coming of age story, part underdog tale, part romantic comedy, plenty hilarious, and stuffed to the brim with empowerment. This new breed of down and dirty California fairy tale marks a new phase in the career of storyteller Lexi Maxxwell (multi-genre author of The Future of Sex, A Temptation in Time, MILF, Adult Video, Together Apart, and many others) ... with more like it yet to come.