Crowfoot Ridge

Avery Baldwin is going back to California.

This time the trip isn't just in her mind, as it has often been in the twenty years of marriage, memories, and heartache sine those bittersweet summers of her teenage years. Avery is finally ready to return to the mountains where she first knew love, friendship, violence, and shame, and where she may find the truth--however painful--among the shattered fragments of her past.

Every summer Avery's family went to stay at a farm tucked at the base of a small mountain range called Crowfoot Ridge. Never quite connecting with her older brother, Adam, Avery instead grew close to the son and daughter of the Marshalls, the nearest neighbors, unaware that the fateful events of those summers would shape the rest of her life and haunt her hopes of happiness.

Now a married, childless real estate broker in a Florida suburb, Avery constantly battles the stirring images of her youth. She and her husband live like strangers. He's a developer, willing to sacrifice the endangered wetlands for a hefty profit, while Avery spends too much of her time alone.

Suddenly Avery can no longer deny her need to escape. Back at Crowfoot Rise she'll have the chance to see her childhood friend, Sylvia Marshall, and the first love of her life, Sylvia's older brother, Mars. She will also have to confront the tragic, brutal act that ended their days of innocence and threatened to destroy those precious bonds forever.

Avery may not find what she hopes or expects, but she'll soon discover that the magic of Crowfoot Ridge is far from over.

Avery drove by the shop after dinner. His shop, a converted depot. The sign said MARS MARSHALL, WOODWRIGHT. Her hand trembled on the steering wheel. Her breath caught in her throat. Twenty-one years since she'd seen him. She'd spent all those years looking for life, while Mars had gone on and lived it. Avery wanted to stop, but couldn't. She would sleep. Prepare herself. Avery fought for a balance between caution and harebrained recklessness. She would see Mars tomorrow.

Ann Brandt lives in the mountains of western North California. This is her first novel.