MEGAN HOLLEY

Author of feel-good women’s fiction, small-town romance & later-in-life adventures.

For readers who love heart, hope, and second chances. I write uplifting stories set in charming coastal towns, cozy inns, and close-knit communities where friendship, family, and love help people rebuild their lives. Whether it’s a woman starting over, a family finding its way back together, or friends proving it’s never too late for a new adventure, my stories celebrate hope, belonging, and happy endings that feel earned.

WHERE TO START

• Seabrook Island — a heartwarming coastal series filled with family, friendship, romance, and second chances. Begin with The Beach Cottage, Book 1.

• Sunset Cove — a charming small-town series about healing, fresh starts, an old seaside inn, and finding home when life takes an unexpected turn. Start with The Summer Inn, Book 1.

• Silver Ladies — laugh-out-loud adventures about friendship, travel, later-life reinvention, and discovering that life’s best chapters can still be ahead.

WHAT I WRITE

• Feel-good women’s fiction: family, friendship, community, and second chances.

• Small-town romance: slow-burn love stories with emotional depth, low heat, and happy endings.

• Later-in-life fiction: uplifting stories about friendship, travel, fresh starts, and finding joy at every stage of life.

• Cozy coastal town setting: heartfelt emotion and witty banter that bring each book to life.

MY PROMISE TO READERS

• Feel-good stories filled with heart and hope
• Clean, low-heat romance (no explicit content)
• Strong female friendships and unforgettable communities
• Connected series with returning characters and easy reading orders
• Happy, emotionally satisfying endings

READING ORDER

Need the checklist? Visit the Series Reading Order page.

FAQ

Are the books standalone?
Each novel tells a complete story, but characters return throughout the series. Reading in order gives the richest experience.

Are the books clean?
Yes. My books feature sweet, low-heat romance with no explicit scenes or profanity.

What kind of stories do you write?
Heartwarming women’s fiction with small-town charm, second chances, found family, slow-burn romance, and characters you’ll want to visit again.

Will there be more books?
Absolutely. I love creating connected worlds where readers can return to familiar towns, beloved characters, and new stories for years to come.

For more questions/answers, visit the FAQs page here

A Note From Me

Dear Reader,

They say every story has a grain of truth at its heart. For the Seabrook Island series, that grain grew into something more substantial than I ever expected when I first set foot on the real barrier islands off the South Carolina coast nearly seven years ago.

I wasn’t looking for inspiration at the time. I was looking for refuge. After a particularly difficult year that included a career change and the loss of my brother, I found myself driving along the coastline with no particular destination in mind. When the ferry schedule showed a departure to one of the smaller, less commercialized islands, I made a split-second decision to board.

That decision changed everything.

The island I discovered wasn’t called Seabrook (I’ve changed names and geographical details to protect both the privacy of residents and to give myself creative freedom). But it had the same soul that readers have come to recognize in my books—a place where time moves differently, where community matters, and where healing seems to rise from the very landscape.

I rented a small cottage near the shore, intending to stay for a weekend. I ended up staying three months!

During those months, I met a local herbalist who reminded me so much of what would eventually become Grace Whitman that it sometimes startles me when I reread my own writing. This remarkable woman—I’ll call her Eleanor—had moved to the island in her forties after what she only referred to as “city exhaustion.” She grew herbs behind her cottage, made remedies for locals, and had the same quiet wisdom that Grace possesses.

Eleanor wasn’t Grace, of course. The real woman had her own story, her own family dynamics, her own relationship with the island. But she showed me how someone could rebuild a life in a place that supported slow growth and authentic connection.

Other island residents offered glimpses of what would become my fictional community. There was a woodworker whose pieces captured the essence of the coastline. A bookstore owner who hosted community readings during tourist off-seasons. A pair of sisters who’d inherited their grandmother’s bakery and couldn’t agree on a single recipe.

I took notes. I listened. I began to imagine what might happen if these separate lives intersected in ways they hadn’t in reality.

By the time I left that autumn, I had the beginnings of what would become Seabrook Island scribbled in three notebooks. The characters had taken shape, though they were entirely fictional—composites and imaginings rather than representations of any single person I’d met.

When I wrote the first book, I never anticipated it would become a series. I simply wanted to capture the feeling of that place; the way it had held me during my own healing, the way it existed both in and out of time. But readers connected with Grace and the community in ways I hadn’t anticipated. They wrote asking what happened next, whether Claire would find her own path, whether the festival would succeed.

So I returned, both literally and in my imagination. I’ve visited the real island that inspired Seabrook many times since, though my fictional version has taken on a life all its own. The real place continues to change, as coastal communities do, while my Seabrook remains somewhat suspended in a particular moment of transformation.

I’m often asked if the herbs and remedies in the books are real. Many are based on actual traditional practices I learned from Eleanor and later researched extensively. Some are embellished for storytelling purposes. I always recommend readers consult trained herbalists before trying any remedies mentioned in the books!

The heart of Seabrook Island—both the series and the fictional place—remains what I discovered during those three months of unexpected refuge: that healing often happens in community, that second chapters can be richer than first ones, and that sometimes the most important journey isn’t to a new place, but to a new understanding of yourself.

Thank you for walking these island paths with Grace, Ethan, Claire, and all the others who’ve become as real to me as neighbors. Their stories may be fiction, but the transformation they represent is wonderfully, beautifully real.

With gratitude,

Megan Holley

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