Calla Fletcher wasn’t even two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan bush, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Calla's father, Wren Fletcher, in the process. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. But when Calla learns that Wren’s days may be numbered, she knows that it's time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town, to attempt to fix their estranged relationship.
She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasional-dear God-outhouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she can't help but care for. While she struggles to adjust to this rugged environment, Jonah-the unkempt, obnoxious, and proud Alaskan pilot who helps keeps her father's charter plane company operational-can't imagine calling anywhere else home. And he's clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that she's too pampered to handle the wild.
Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. As time passes, she unexpectedly finds herself forming a bond with the burly pilot. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, it's replaced by friendship-or perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents tried-and failed at-years ago.

(more…)

Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania: population two thousand outside of tourist season.

And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed attempt at a relationship, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has saved: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.

Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works.

For a time.

But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. What begins as an immediate friendship quickly turns into something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something that Catherine is afraid to trust.

Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine…before the spark fades?

(more…)