In Marie’s first novel, For Best and Worst, Kristie Tidwell and Eric Channing attend a high school reunion in their hometown of Wentworth, Alabama. Both are single and embark on a relationship. In high school, they hung out in different crowds, and Eric’s old gang disliked, and often bullied Kristie because she had a weight problem during her childhood and early high school years. In Sunsets of Fire and Ice, a sequel. Eric and Kristie continue with their lives, and Eric continues his friendship with many of his high school friends, while Kristie remains friends with only a few folks in her graduating class. Even though most people grow up and change, the old gang members continue to resent Kristie for a number of reasons, some of which date back to their high school days. Then one day, Eric runs into his high school sweetheart and first love, Rita McDonald Fisher, who is in town visiting her mother. While their friends and classmates assumed they would get married, the couple broke up the year after Eric graduated from high school. While in college, Rita met a pre-med student from a wealthy Long Island family. They married, moved to Long Island, and had two children, a boy and then a girl. Three months after daughter, Maggie Elizabeth, graduated from college and began her career at a Manhattan bank, Dr. Hampton Fisher, III became seriously ill, dying shortly thereafter, leaving his millions to Rita and the children. Eric and Rita rekindled their romance, and Eric is convinced that she is the only woman for him. Rita, while physically attracted to Eric, cannot envision anything permanent. Her life was in Long Island, and Eric, a good ole boy from Alabama would never fit in with her lifestyle. In pursuing a career, where she has the potential to become rich and famous, Kristie has her ups and downs. One night, while alone in New York City, she contemplates taking her own life, thinking she has been nothing but a failure, both in love, and work. With Eric in love with Rita, and Kristie seeking fame and fortune, is it even possible that they could, once again, come together.