Sunrise Crossing. Jodi Thomas

Today is the publishing day for Sunrise Crossing by Jodi Thomas, #4 in her Ransom Canyon Series.

Jodi says...

I can’t wait for my readers to open SUNRISE CROSSING.  Once in a while stories come fast and full of life.  SUNRISE CROSSING did that for me.  I flew into the lives of my main characters loving the adventures.  Many nights I felt like I was hanging on to the laptop, trying to write as fast as the story was coming to me.

In this story I wanted to bring back a character I dearly loved in Ransom Canyon.  He was little more than a kid when he went to prison for a robbery and five years later, when he’s free, Yancy Grey heads to a little town called Crossroads, Texas.  He thinks he is worthless, but is taken in by a group of senior citizens and slowly finds his roots in town.  SUNRISE CROSSING opens with him beginning work on an old house called the Gypsy House where he was born.

Yancy works alone every night restoring the place where he was born.  When he hears a noise in the attic, he discovers a woman hiding there.  He calls Tori Vilanie Rabbit because that’s what he thought was in the attic.  She’s running from life and he’s afraid to step into living but somehow they build a gentle kind of friendship that grows into love.

For those of you who love a good love story SUNRISE CROSSING  is the book for you.  Maybe because I believe in love and I love reading happy endings, but this book was so fun to write.

So, saddle up and ride with me through SUNRISE CROSSING.

Jodi also shares with us the importance of setting.

Published: HQN books
Date: 30th August 2016
Pages: 384
Format: e-ARC
Genre: Romance
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Yancy Grey is slowly putting his life back together after serving time for petty theft. As he rebuilds an old house, he finally has a sense of stability, but he can't stop thinking of himself as just an ex-con. Until one night, he finds a mysterious dark-haired beauty hiding in his loft. But who is she, and what secret is she protecting?

The art gallery Parker Lacey manages is her life—she has no time for friends, and certainly not lovers. But when her star artist begs Parker for help, she finds herself in a pickup truck, headed for the sleepy town of Crossroads. A truck driven by a strong, silent cowboy…

Gabe Snow has been a drifter since he left Crossroads at seventeen after a violent incident. When he accepts a job in his hometown, he'll have to decide whether he can put the worst night of his life behind him and build a future in the community that raised him.

I always eagerly look forward to the next in any series by Jodi Thomas. Sunrise Crossing was no exception to that, as I knew it was going to contain further development of Yancy, the young guy who arrived in Crossroads in the first book. I loved him then and it was such fun to see him develop through the series until this book where he pretty much has star billing. He has had it rough, but he has made it through and is a kind and caring kind of person. And of course as we moved along the series he had more of a link to Crossroads than we first saw.

There are a few new characters - this book could be read as a stand alone but you would miss quite a bit of Yancy's story.  There is Parker, who thinks she may have limited time to live and is reassessing her life choices and so she too arrives eventually in Crossroads to discover how her next door neighbor has been caring for her house. 

Tori is the music artist who has been taken advantage of by her parents, they see her as a money machine. With the help of Parker she escapes and goes to Parker's house in Crossroads. She is delightful and I loved how hers and Yancy's lives started to intertwine. And there is also another surprise character who blows into Crossroads that just adds more spice to the story.

There is mystery, a little suspense, attempted crime and a delicious development of relationships. I thoroughly enjoyed my return visit to Crossroads.

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