Sit Down Saturday: 5 Words for Smoky Mountain Sweethearts by Cheryl Harper

The first book in my new series set at the Otter Lake Ranger Station is Smoky Mountain Sweethearts. Let me tell you about it in 5 words (and if you believe that I have oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you).

Brave. My hero is a forest firefighter working at a nature reserve. He dreams of bigger challenges. My heroine is a widow desperate to find a part of herself she'd lost. 

Stubborn. Neither one of them gives up easily and neither one of them accepts a loss easily. The biggest time that's a problem? When they're going head to head in a race up the mountains.

Beautiful. I've lucky enough to have spent some time tromping through state and national parks with a camera, so it was easy to dream up a nature reserve that combined some of the prettiest places I've seen and some I'd like to see someday soon.

Romantic. Romance comes in a lot of different packages. Sometimes it's candlelight and roses. It could also be a moonlit walk to see otters.

Hopeful. This is one I hope applies to every story I write, but I have a hero afraid he'll never break out of his small home town and then afraid he'll lose everything when he does. But it's going to work out. Then there's a woman who's lost the husband she'd made all these plans with and a piece of herself, the piece that drove her to take risks and live life fully. But Averycan go home again, and surrounded by the people who really know her, she can find that part of her that she loves. 

If you're looking for a any of these words, consider Smoky Mountain Sweethearts. Here's the blurb:

How close is too close to the flame? 

Sam Blackburn excels at fighting fire with fire in Tennessee, whether it's putting out deadly forest blazes or rescuing his old friend, widow Avery Montague, who's lost her nerve on a steep mountain cliff. What happened to the daring, adventure-loving teenager who wasn't afraid of anything? As kids, Avery was always pushing Sam to be brave, to be better, so he's ready to return the favor. Except he's up for his dream job in Colorado as a hotshot smoke jumper, and he can't be in two places at once. His future is fraught with risk, but what's the point of living if you don't take chances? He just wants Avery to find the courage to go after what she wants, and he's hoping it's him…

And an excerpt:

The thing about epiphanies was that they never came when Avery wanted them to. After nearly a solid week of living under her mother’s extremely watchful eye, it had become clear they both needed a break from all their new togetherness.

Borrowing the car had been her first step to freedom. When her mother asked for a destination, only one place came to mind. It had been ten years since she’d made the easy hike up to Yanu Falls inside the park, but she would never forget the exhilaration of standing on the cliff that overlooked the falls which led to a cove of Otter Lake.

Since her mother was hovering again, Avery had grabbed a water bottle, waved her cell phone, and said she’d be back that afternoon. After so many years of living in the city, even driving the wide-open road winding up to the Otter Lake trailhead rolled off the weight of years.

The first inkling that not everything would go according to her plan was when she’d collapsed, panting, on the first bench along the trail, the one she and her friends had always called “Better Off Dead.”

Because anyone who had to stop there to rest already had one foot in the grave.

She and her friends had been punks, obviously.