Snowed Inn Author: Kate Palmer
Series: Western Hearts #1
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Format: eBook, Print
Pages: 116
Date: April 23, 2015
Publisher: Designate Media
A woman rancher hitches the community’s dreams to her sleigh ride business and ropes in a heap of trouble for them and her heart.
Jayne Gardner turned her family’s ranch into the successful Snowed Inn Lodge and Restaurant. After she learns the community has one month to earn funds needed for a grant, she donates her company’s sleigh rides for a community fundraiser.
When Jayne’s new volunteer sleigh driver turns out to be Forrest Hunsaker, the man who left her three years ago, Jayne sets up three rules to maintain a professional distance and protect her heart.
When vandals strike Snowed Inn, Jayne must team up with Forrest to prevent a fundraiser fail. Now Jayne must decide if breaking all her rules will break her heart. Again.
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About Kate Palmer
Kate Palmer believes in wholesome entertainment. Her books explore characters experiencing tough situations without compromising standards or becoming bitter. She likes the rush of emotions romantic suspense creates and strives to keep it clean. Her love of ranch life shines through in her books.
This was a cute, fairly short story. I liked the ranch setting. The mystery was revealed fairly quickly and I felt like the ending was pretty abrupt — I wanted another chapter or an epilogue. I also had a hard time with Jayne’s actions three years earlier – seemed fairly immature. But overall, I enjoyed it!
This is a sweet romance that’s part of the Western Hearts series, although they’re standalone stories. Jayne Gardner moved back to her small hometown 3 years earlier, after graduating from college, to help her parents turn their ranch into a prosperous business. It’s time for Snowed Inn’s annual sleigh rides that raise money for the local community. Jayne’s dad brings in another sleigh driver to help but he doesn’t know Jayne and Forrest Hunsaker have a history, and Jayne doesn’t know that Forrest has recently moved to town and started a local business.
Jayne sets up 3 rules for Forrest while they’re working together, which is good because she ends up having to work with Forrest more than she thought she would. The problem is Jayne never stopped loving Forrest, and it seems everyone around her can see it but her. (I guess she couldn’t see the ‘Forrest’ for the trees. Hee hee. Sorry, I couldn’t resist). Some things start happening around the ranch causing problems for the sleigh rides and Jayne ends up getting hurt. Of course Forrest is there to help and they finally have “the talk” they should’ve had a long time ago.
I enjoyed this sweet novella. Jayne’s family is close and they all work together and help each other run the ranch and the restaurant. Forrest sounded dreamy–tall (I mean Jayne had to look up to him and she’s 6’3″!!), with dark hair and eyes. I got frustrated with Jayne because she kept blaming Forrest for leaving after college, but she’s the one who made it impossible for him to contact her so they could try and work things out. I’ll chalk it up to the fact that she was 22 years old and you don’t always do the smartest things at that age. This is a quick, clean read.