First published 2014
Cressida Hartley retreats to her parents' rundown Sierra cabin in 1981 to write her economics dissertation. A bear presses against her sliding door, and she moves closer until only glass separates them. This moment captures what happens next. Cress abandons her academic work on art in the marketplace for the social world of her small mountain town. Lodge owner Jakey Yates draws her in with his magnetic personality. Builder Rick Garsh hires her to haul supplies up and down the mountain. Then she meets the Morrow brothers, two married carpenters who are clever and compelling. Cress tells her Pasadena friend that being the only single woman around feels like public service. She follows this logic into dangerous territory where she loses control of her situation. She discovers that love distracts and impossible love distracts most of all.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, contemporary-romance, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Sierra, Pasadena
Period: 1981
287 pages · Hardcover · Sarah Crichton Books