Music therapist Hannah Goodwin has built the perfect life in Shelter Springs, Idaho—or so she tells herself. After her first love shattered her heart a dozen years ago, she’s channeled all her energy into helping others find healing through music. She doesn’t need romance to be happy, especially not during the holidays when loneliness threatens to creep in. But when she unexpectedly runs into Wes Kenner at the local senior center, all her carefully constructed walls come tumbling down.
Wes never planned to return to the town that holds his most painful memories, but recovering from a recent knife attack that left both him and his K9 partner Kodiak wounded, he has little choice. Seeing Hannah again reminds him of everything bright and beautiful he pushed away in his quest for justice after his family was torn apart. As Hannah fights to keep two young children in Shelter Springs for the holidays and enlists his reluctant help with her annual benefit concert, Wes begins to wonder if it’s possible to heal more than just physical wounds this Christmas season.
I’m not one of those people who knew from birth she was destined to become a writer. I always loved to read and throughout my childhood I could usually be found with a book in my hands. To the disgust of my friends, I even enjoyed creative writing assignments that made them all groan. But I had other dreams besides writing. I wanted to be an actress or a teacher or a lawyer.
Life took a different turn for me, though, when my mother made me take a journalism elective in high school (thanks, Mom!). I knew the first day that this was where I belonged.
After I graduated from college in journalism, I took a job at the local daily newspaper and I reveled in the challenge and the diversity of it. One day I could be interviewing the latest country music star, the next day I was writing about local motorcycle gangs or interviewing an award-winning scientist.
Through it all — through the natural progression of my career from reporter to editor — I wrote stories in my head. Not just any stories, either, but romances, the kind of books I have devoured since junior high school, with tales about real people going through the trials and tribulations of life until they find deep and lasting love.
I had no idea how to put these people on paper, but knew I had to try — their stories were too compelling for me to ignore. I sold my first book in 1995 and now, more than 60 books later, I’ve come to love everything about writing, from the click of the computer keys under my fingers to the “that’s—it!” feeling I get when a story is flowing.
I write full-time now (well, as full-time as I can manage juggling my kids!) amid the raw beauty of the northern Utah mountains.
Even though I might not have dreamed of being a writer when I was younger, now I simply can’t imagine my life any other way.
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