RANCHO DE AMOR

A New York book editor travels west to track down the reclusive author of a bestseller in this debut romance.

The prestigious titles published by New York’s Banter House Books don’t include anything like Rancho de Amor, a romance that’s become a huge, bestselling sensation by first-time author Loretta de Bonnair. With Banter House verging on financial collapse, it would love to publish de Bonnair’s next moneymaking novel, a difficult prospect since she’s older, gives no interviews, and has no contact information. All anyone knows is that she lives in tiny Sisquoc, California, so that’s where Banter House book editor Catherine Doyle, a 28-year-old brunette, heads when she gets the uncongenial assignment to find and sign de Bonnair. In Sisquoc, Catherine learns that no one knows how to contact the romance writer. No one, that is, but handsome, blue-eyed, brooding ranch manager Sam Wilson, who promises to act as go-between for Catherine and a rival press. Since Catherine first meets Sam as he’s getting thrown out of a bar, he doesn’t make a great first impression. To their mutual surprise, they’re attracted—but Sam has secrets of his own that could derail everything. In his novel, Harder tells a fairly familiar opposites-attract story that is boosted by its clever central mystery. The couple’s obstacles are unsurprising—she’s wary of passion; he hasn’t found the right woman to love—but emotional moments are described lyrically, and the book is insightful about issues like de Bonnair’s displeasing locals with her “environmentalism and socialism.” Quirky details also amuse: a B&B bedroom filled with taxidermic roadkill, an academic study titled “Hay Bales, Heifers, and a Feminist Hermeneutic of the Heroine in de Bonnair’s Rancho de Amor,” and a local poetaster.

An entertaining, thoughtful take on the odd-couple romance.