Announcing my new arrival.
Just Shy of Paradise is different from my other more action packed suspense books. It's set in a different town. I've moved away from Grouse Creek for this novel and set it in my current town of Paradise. It's tricky when you decide to set a novel in your place of residence. You can't make the bad guy stand out as the true local bad guy. And yes there is a bad guy in this story, though not necessarily a rue bad guy in Paradise. We'll let you guess about that. tThere is action. There is romance. There is suspense, and even some mystery, but no one actually get's murdered in this book. And no one get's abducted. Some people almost get killed though. Hmmm. I do have a hard time telling people what this one is about without giving too much away. But here's a little. It's about Lily. When Lily was four years old, she was celebrating her birthday with her family on their family property on the Little Bear River. She waded out into the stream and was swept away--no one in the family noticed. But she was pulled out of the river by a "little angel" and set on the banks safely for her family to find. Most of Lily's life, she feels inadequate. She feels as if she doesn't live up to the miracle that saved her. People always tell Lily that God must certainly have something special in mind for her to have created such a miracle to save her. But she doesn't feel special. She has a hard time in social situations and is in therapy for anxiety.
This book is also the story about Sky. Sky is half Shoshone and half Swedish, though looks more Native American. He has just been served with divorce papers and his ex has taken their young son to live far away. He finds solace in fishing and especially likes a certain piece of property where he used to fish with his father who died when he was young. The property is owned by Lily's family. This book explores some Cache Valley history, culture clash, and prejudice. There is romance too. It's a tender story and one that is dear to my heart. I became aware of the Bear River Massacre when we moved here years ago and then read a wonderful book about Chief Sagwitch by Scott Christensen (USU Press). Sagwtich probably walked regularly right across the property we now own. He stood out to me as a man of great honor and I wanted to pay tribute to him in some small way. I don't write historical fiction (yet) so needed to find a way to write his story in a modern way. So Sky is Chief Sagwitch's great, great, grandson. He's heard the stories and dreams dreams. He and Lily keep getting thrown together in serindipitous ways and Sky wonders if his ancestors are orchestrating the events.
I hope this book finds new readers in Cache Valley and that my devoted readers will give it a chance. There's a contest to win a free book on Goodreads and it's available on
Amazon
