Bøker av Shelley Tan

Valerie Parker and Kim Smith weren't exactly friends. Not that Kim had anything against Valerie for that matter, but Valerie was certainly not eager to begin a closeness with Kim after everything Kim had done to her best friend Char. Cheating on Char by screwing her husband? Despicable, Valerie had thought. But seeing as Valerie had moved past it (she was always so positive and mature about everything!) and the fact that there was no one else at Blue Ribbon to team up with for the Pas de Deux competition at the upcoming Dressage Championships in San Diego, Valerie decided to brush her personal feelings aside and spend time with Kim - strictly for enhancing her riding career, with a side-benefit of taking her mind off Duke, the low-life jerk of an ex-boyfriend who had recently broken her heart. It would take her mind off things, at least. Kim had been reluctant to show her face at Blue Ribbon for quite some time after the entire debacle with Char's ex-husband, Jim. But at the urging of the dressage trainer, Petra, felt that perhaps it wouldn't hurt to begin riding again, as long as she kept a polite distance from Char. Kim had decided to swear off men for a while, and practicing on her horse Di Maggio was just the thing to get her mind off her troubles - not to mention her slight "transgressions"- while she focused on better days ahead. Preparing for the upcoming dressage competition would be just the thing to positively re-focus her energy. Unsurprisingly, with so much in common between the horses and the recent break-ups with their boyfriends, Valerie found herself seeing Kim more as a friend who'd made a mistake than the adultress that she'd previously taken her for. I suppose that's why getting to know someone is so important, she surmised. It wasn't a surprise for Kim either, as she had vaguely known Valerie through Char and had seen her around the barn before the big "scandal," had occurred, and always thought she had seemed nice. What did come as a shock was when Kim began to realize that she could actually have feelings beyond friendship for her new Pas de Deux partner. Which only caused more confusion when Duke unexpectedly showed up again, disrupting the budding friendship- and preparations- for the all-important show. The resentment was beginning to build, and Kim wasn't sure she could handle it. Would Kim be able to get herself together and figure out her feelings before the big event? Or would she return to past habits and handle her feelings in a way that only caused more grief for everyone involved? Find out in book 4 of the Never Say Forever series: Better After Than Forever.

Char thought she had a perfect life. She was married to a successful surgeon who was kind, committed, and willing to provide Char with anything that made her happy. What made her happy, besides her perfect marriage, was her dressage horse, Mystic, (never mind the cost). And now that a new trainer was moving to Blue Ribbon from Hamburg, Germany, she would have the ability to take her dressage riding to the highest level possible. With everything going so perfectly, Char shouldn't have had any reason not to be happy. But something had been missing in her relationship with Dr. Kelley, (otherwise known around the hospital as "Dr. Dreamy"), and she couldn't figure out what it was. When Char finally met Petra, the new dressage trainer, Char became more than just a little star-struck. She was, quite frankly, infatuated, and wanted to spend every waking second at the barn…and with her. What was going on? Char was afraid of the answer. What would happen to her and her perfect life? How would she be able to afford her privileged lifestyle and her horse (including the dressage lessons,) that she had grown so accustomed to enjoying? Perhaps she was simply going through a mid-life crisis or was in awe of the new trainer from Germany. Ultimately, Char knew she must find out. She became more afraid of not knowing, than of what the truth might reveal.

After a visit up north to see her friend Char and Blue Ribbon stables, Valerie decides it is time for a change. She leaves her boyfriend Duke down in Southern California with the promise that he will join her up north as soon as he gets a transfer with the radio station that he works for. For a while, things are working out perfectly as Valerie shows a lot of talent for horseback riding, and she is able to help around the stable in addition to being a promising prospect with a future riding career. It all falls apart one afternoon when the horse she is riding, Erde, becomes spooked and Valerie falls off and ends up in the hospital, again, only this time with a concussion. While she is hospitalized, Duke, with the most imperfect timing, calls to confess that he really doesn't want to give up his surfer lifestyle and move up north anymore, essentially breaking up with Valerie. Hurt physically and emotionally, with no prospect of living on her own, Valerie is ready to throw in the towel and head back down south. She has no real job, no boyfriend, and no place of her own. In Better Before Than Forever, Valerie must decide if she should keep moving forward, or try to go back and piece her life together, the way it was before. Throughout it all, Valerie learns a valuable lesson about moving forward and learns that sometimes, things aren't necessarily better in the past…

Sofia Clark was newly divorced and looking to restart her life. Having spent summers on beautiful Balboa Island as a young girl and teenager, the magic that she felt as a child about Balboa Island had never left her, even after all these years. Now that her kids were grown and she found herself unexpectedly single, it dawned on her that she was free to move back to the place she had loved as a child, an opportunity that she never imagined she'd have. She quit her job as a principal in northern California and moved to Balboa Island to restart her life in the most magical and happiest place she had ever known. Once on the island, things went very smoothly for her until her heart led her to somewhere new, to a place she'd never even considered, until now. Katrina Anderson was the superintendent, and Sofia's boss in her new position as the principal of Harbor Street Elementary. At 50 years old, Sofia had never been attracted to women. So what was it about Kat that suddenly drew Sofia to her? What were these unprecedented thoughts that she found herself pondering about Kat? Her children thought it was some sort of midlife crisis. Sofia wasn't sure. The only thing that she knew was that life was too short. Sofia felt compelled to risk everything in order to find out.