Woodrose Mountain

January 16, 2012
Thayne’s second Hope’s Crossing contemporary (after Blackberry Summer) is sweet without being cloying, and refreshingly free of the sex-manual minutiae that too frequently clog the genre. Tanked-up joyriding teens crash their vehicle, leaving one dead and another badly hurt. Brain-damaged Taryn Thorne is so surly she gets ejected from her rehab facility, so her father, gorgeous mogul Brodie Thorne, inveigles former physical therapist Eveline Blanchard into setting up Taryn’s home therapy. Evie accepts for “just a few weeks”; after the tragic death of her adopted daughter, she’d much rather be beading at the String Fever bead shop or exploring Hope’s Crossing’s stunning Colorado mountain scenery than returning to her old career. From the start, Brodie feels unsuitable lust and indefatigable longing for Evie, while she gradually abandons her initial resistance to his real estate development plans and yummy piratical looks. Plenty of tenderness and Colorado sunshine flavor this pleasant escape. Agent: Karen Solem, Spencerhill Associates.

March 15, 2012
After losing her daughter, Evie Blanchard gave up her physical therapy practice in Los Angeles to move to the small mountain community of Hope's Crossing in the Colorado Mountains. She likes the friendship she has found with the other beaders she encounters in her bead store job. When Taryn Thorne, a teenager who had been gravely injured in an accident that impacted the entire community, is sent home from a rehabilitation hospital after refusing to participate in her therapy, her father, Brodie, a wealthy businessman, begs Evie to temporarily take over management of Taryn's recovery. Physical therapy brings back the emotional loss Evie experienced, and working with Taryn is an enormous challenge. Thayne, once again, delivers a heartfelt story of a caring community and a caring romance between adults who have triumphed over tragedies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)