"A neat twist on long lost love"
When Wade Winslow left Millstown, Maryland he'd never
looked back. He hadn't belonged there. The folks there saw
him as "trailer trash". His abusive father had once killed
a man and the folks in town looked at him as though he
might just kill someone too. After his mother died he'd
been taken in by one of the few decent people who found
something worthy in him. Now Norm was dying and he owed it
to the man to be at his bedside to say goodbye.
There was someone else in Millstown who had seen something
special in him, the girl he left behind, Erin McCuen. Erin
had been born into one of the old wealthy southern
families, respectable, but like Wade she'd been abandoned
by her jet-setting mother left her to be raised by her
grandmother, which was just fine with Erin. Wade had been
her defender, and as Erin grew into womanhood, she'd fallen
hard for him. Even though she knew this town wasn't big
enough to hold Wade she'd given herself to him and watched
him ride away.
Wade had made a name for himself as a smoke-jumper, but
coming back made him feel like "White trash Winslow" all
over again. Still canny as every Norm sets Wade up and he
finds himself a boarder at Erin's house. The old attraction
is still there, but Wade soon realizes something isn't
quite right when he notices Erin is selling the family's
heirlooms. Athough he's definitely not going to stay, he's
determined to solve her problems before he moves on and
though Erin knows she can't hold him she's determined to
enjoy him for however long he stays. As much as he enjoys
being with Erin. Wade is determined to leave again once
he's settled her and Norm's affairs. There's no place for
him in Millstown, or is there?
It would spoil the story to go into detail but suffice it
to say that Norm was a very wise man. Wade has more to
contribute than even he knows, and even though it takes a
disaster to change his perception of himself, all ends
happily ever after.
Ms. Barrett's debut romance is a neat twist on the long
lost love scenario. The reader will learn more about smoke-
jumping in her second book Face the Fire which features
Wade's best man Cade McKenzie.
Posted August 29, 2006
Copyright © 2006
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted November 3, 2006
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