By Book or by Crook

For ten years Lucy has enjoyed her job poring over rare tomes of literature for the Harvard Library, but she has not enjoyed the demands of her family's social whorl or her sort-of-engagement to the staid son of her father's law partner. But when her ten-year relationship implodes, Lucy realizes that the plot of her life is in need of a serious rewrite.

Calling on her Aunt Ellen, Lucy hopes that a little fun in the Outer Banks sun—and some confections from her cousin Josie's bakery—will he...