By Stacy Finz
Hello, Nugget, California. It’s been a while. But I’ve missed you so.
It’s been a couple of years since I laid pen to page, revisiting my old stomping ground. I’d been busy over at Dry Creek Ranch, hanging out with a bunch of sexy cowboys. But Nugget came calling and Choosing You is my latest installment.
Not a lot has changed with the institution of my small fictional Sierra Nevada town since the last time you visited. The Baker’s Dozen is still snooping in everyone’s business and the Nugget Mafia is still under the illusion that nothing happens in town without its members’ stamp of approval. Rhys Shepard is still keeping the peace. And the Addisons, owners of the creepy Beary Quaint motor lodge, are still raising Cain.
Annie and Logan Jenkins have a little girl now. Griffin Parks is still trying to unload his fancy homes in Nugget’s only gated development. And though everyone has tried, Lucky Rodriguez won’t be talked out of calling his dude ranch anything other than a cowboy camp.
The big news, though, is the new resident in town. Good looking Ethan Daniels has lips wagging and hearts pattering the same way Clay McCreedy did before he went and got hitched to Emily Mathews.
Ethan, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and single dad, is nursing his heart after a bad divorce and trying to start over. And you know Nugget. While it may just be a spot in the road that’s easy to miss, it’s always been good about helping the lost and lonely find love.
Last year sucked and going to a place where everyone has one another’s back and the landscape is as beautiful as the men are gorgeous is a welcome respite. Spending time again at the Feather River, eating a burger and curly fries at the Bun Boy, and drinking an adult beverage at the Ponderosa helped get me out of the 2020 funk.
I hope Choosing You brings as much enjoyment to you. Happy New Year, y’all!
These newcomers to Nugget have left painful pasts behind them—just in time to embrace a future together . . .
Picturesque Nugget, California, couldn’t be more different than the glittering caverns of Manhattan, but Brynn Barnes is grateful for the change. After the accident that took her husband’s life and seriously injured her young son Henry’s legs, a clinical trial from a pioneering young doctor offers Brynn hope that Henry may walk again. And even as the magnificent landscape and the town’s hospitality help mend Brynn’s broken spirit, it’s a certain handsome surgeon’s compassion that soothes her aching heart . . .
Reeling after a bitter divorce, Ethan Daniels has brought his medical practice and his young daughter to Nugget, where he hopes its homey warmth will ease the transition to a family of two. A new relationship is the last thing he should be thinking about. But Ethan can’t help his immediate attraction to beautiful Brynn—or the feelings she’s awakening in him. For two people battered by life’s cruelest blows, love may be the perfect prescription . . .