Wild Iris Ridge

Wild Iris Ridge - RaeAnne Thayne I received a free paperback copy of Wild Iris Ridge (Hope's Crossing #7) by RaeAnne Thayne published by Harlequin in exchange for fair review. It is almost four stars.

This endearing story is about Lucy Drake who returns to Hope after losing her job in Seattle. She has a troubled relationship with the fire chief Brendan Caine. They had shared a passionate & memorable kiss a decade before. Two weeks later he married Lucy's best friend.

He is now a widower struggling to make a life for his family.

While sharing another passionate kiss with him she thought: "How could she ever have thought him taciturn, distant, cold? He was all fire and flame, heat and hunger."

On the way into the grocery store, Brendan, Lucy & his children hear a whimper. Two tiny puppies are found inside a garbage dumpster. They took them to the vet & after a checkup, they each took a puppy home. The police chief discovered who had dropped the puppies there & described the man as "a few peas short of a casserole."

Describing to Brendan that Jessica might have wondered about living a life like Lucy had, she explained: "Regret and curosity are not at all the same thing, Brendan. Here's the thing about women. Sometimes even when we have everything we dreamed, we wonder about the road we didn't take, the choice we didn't make."

The premise of this charming story is learning to live & love in Hope. Can Brendan & Lucy discover their attraction to each other can lead to more? Can she fit into life in Hope?

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