Finding Romance in Alaska, Part 1

Sometimes you head north – the far north – to find romance.

Cadence Whitmore has arrived in Sunset Ridge, Alaska, for a somber purpose – the reading of her great-aunt Patty’s will. Patty has left the town’s star resort to Cadence and her two sisters, one a chef in New York City and the other married to a surgeon in Hawaii. Cadence herself is an aspiring real estate agent in Kansas. She has strong memories of the summer she and her sisters lived with Patty; Cadence was 13, her mother had died, and her father was unable to cope with his wife’s death. 

The plan is to list and sell the resort as soon as possible. Next-door neighbor Ford Harris has a different idea. He wants to see the resort reopened, and he has an incentive. His young sister is preparing to leave for college in Boston, and her scholarship only covers about half of what’s needed. Patty, in a separate document the Whitmore sisters don’t know about, promised $50,000 to Ford if he can convince them to reopen the lodge. Convincing “them” means first convincing Cadence, who’s the one on the scene and in charge of working with the attorney.

Jacqueline Winters

Ford is not interested in romance. He’s never really recovered from the death of his wife, and he’s been content to serve as brother and surrogate parent to his sister Riley. He first meets Cadence when she has something of a confrontation with Ed the Moose, and while he’s putting in plan in place to convince her to stay, he finds himself falling, and falling hard, for her.

Moose Be Love by Jacqueline Winters is the story of Cadence and Ford and the first in the author’s Sunset Ridge series. She’s also written several novels in the Starlight Cowboy series and the Simply Scandalous series. A native of Nebraska, Winters spent a decade living in Alaska.

It’s a fun story that ends as expected (and hoped for – that’s what romance novels are supposed to do). It also introduces Sophie and Tessa, the other Whitmore sisters, and it’s easy to see what’s coming next in the series. And a favorite character has to be Ed the Moose.

Related:

Romancing the Cowboy, Part 2: Four Novels.