It's The Only Home She's Ever Known

And Ruth Ann Blakely isn't going down without a fight! The equestrian trainer has lived and worked in the stables of The Hawkridge School her whole life.

She can't allow some big-city architect to tear it all down...even if Jonah Granger is as attractive as he is persuasive.

When Jonah moved to North Carolina to be near his stepdaughter, he didn't expect to be raked over the coals by an outspoken horse trainer. Passionately opposed to the new stable he's designing, Ruth Ann is a force to be reckoned with. In more ways than one...

A child of the North Carolina mountains, Lynnette Kent seems destined to find herself living anywhere but the mountains. Her family moved to Florida when she was nine, inspiring her with a lifelong love of the ocean and a long day spent at the beach. After marrying a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, she moved with him to Nashville, Tennessee, while he attended medical school and from there to Virginia, California, and Washington, D.C.

Along the way Lynnette and her husband were blessed with two lovely daughters, Elizabeth and Rebecca, and two different sets of dogs -- cocker spaniels Prudence and Chloe, and their successors, miniature dachshunds Schultz and Dooley.

Now settled pretty permanently in eastern North Carolina, Lynnette tries to remember that mountain flowers don’t grow well in the heat of a Sandhills summer, that fall isn’t an abrupt change of season but a gentle, lingering evolution, and that winter without snow can be…well, endured.

Involved with several local music groups, she plays bassoon for the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and directs a children’s choir at her church. Girl Scouts have been a part of her life for 12 years now, and she remains the leader for her younger daughter’s Cadet troop, emphasizing outdoor education and adventure.

Contrary to her husband’s preference for nice hotels, Lynnette would rather sleep in a tent than a bed, and would rather rake leaves than vacuum carpet. And she’d rather spend more time writing romance than raking or vacuuming. Or, for that matter, sleeping!