HOT IN HELLCAT CANYON

When a down-on-his-luck actor washes up in quaint Hellcat Canyon, it shakes up long-buried feelings for a lonely waitress. Will John Tennessee McCord land Britt Langley in hot water, or will he just add heat to her lukewarm life?

J.T. is fresh from being dumped and rejected for a part he was born to play when his truck breaks down in Hellcat Canyon. He stumbles into the local watering hole, the Misty Cat Tavern, and lands at one of Britt’s tables. They trade some sparkling dialogue and are immediately attracted to one another, but as is always the way, they both have a fair amount of baggage. J.T.’s is a Wikipedia page full of bad-boy stories. Britt’s is an abusive marriage that ended well before her husband died in a car accident. They settle into what Britt assumes is a temporary (and superhot) fling, and then real life steps in to complicate things. Woven into Britt and J.T.’s courtship are the stories of Hellcat Canyon’s citizens, who are as complex and nuanced as the language the author uses to describe them. Mrs. Morrison, Britt’s neighbor, is still handy with a shotgun at 92 and drinks her rum on the rocks with Dr. Pepper. Sherrie and Glenn, who own the Misty Cat, keep things spicy in the golden years of their marriage pretending to be a stranded mermaid and a sexy fisherman. This book is a treat to read. The author’s love of wordplay is evident in the snappy dialogue that the hero and heroine trade, and it’s damn sexy.

Long’s ability to create a love story that leaps off the page is as impressive as her characters are likable and dynamic. Let’s hope she keeps cranking them out for a long time.