Title FINDING ROSE ROCKS
Author KAREN GINTHER GRAHAM
Genre SEASONED ROMANCE
Publisher THE WILD ROSE PRESS
Book Blurb
When Jennifer Ellis’s furnished apartment business fails, she decides to leave Oklahoma in a cloud of the state’s red dust and return to her San Diego roots. Before she leaves, Troy Stanhope comes along with a long-term need for multiple apartments to house his construction crew Though Jennifer finds construction workers unsavory in her high-end complex; it’s an answer to her financial woes.
Troy is traveling to Oklahoma from out of state, and before they even meet face-to-face Jennifer is taken in by Troy’s velvety voice and confidence. Actually meeting strengthens both their feelings. Their relationship deepens, but Jennifer is called to the west coast on a family matter. While there, she decides to stay for the summer. She meets a new man named Ben and is drawn to his irresistible charm. There comes to exist in Jennifer a newfound self-awareness which mingles with salty ocean breezes and eucalyptus-scented air to place her in Ben’s arms. Their liaison is heartfelt but brief, mid-life’s last hurrah. Jennifer realizes her heart is back on the southern prairie, but she may be one adventure too late.
Excerpt
Jennifer refused to let Ben’s ordeal revive her old jellyfish phobia. She changed into her swim suit and grabbed a towel. She’d be most visible in front of the lifeguard tower so it’s where she entered the surf and forded the mild current until she reached the choppy calm beyond the breakers.
Alone save for a curious seagull, she let the sea rock her in their guarded reunion. There were fellow creatures in the water with her but she’d ignore them and let them do the same. Children’s squeals and deeper adult voices carried over the waves and reached her submerged ears in wavering echoes. She was at peace here. From time to time she drifted off course and a dozen lazy back strokes realigned her with the lifeguard tower.
Her astrological element was water, emotional and intuitive. She’d grown up with her mother’s belief in such quirky notions and she could never quite shake them. Troy was earth, strong and steady, grounded, of the land. Water and earth were compatible elements. She should have nurtured him, supplied him with life-giving sustenance rather than running off to let him face the summer’s drought without her.
Ben was air. She’d never asked him his sign, but she knew. He was a rare winged creature too elusive for her with his almost indiscernible touch and hint of scintillating breath on her bare breasts. She held herself to blame for his accident, at least in part. Before she’d come along he didn’t go into the ocean, instead content to stroll its shoreline. He’d wanted to be with her and followed her into her watery realm. She’d led him to danger like a siren. He’d mentioned bee stings in an off-handed way, making little of it. She should’ve honed in on the subject, asked what he carried in his faded blue backpack. The signs were there and she’d paid no attention.
Jennifer checked her position in the water, found all to be well, and returned to her thoughts. If she went back to the Lazy J Ranch, would she and Troy reunite or would she end up back in Oklahoma City where she’d started? Trading California for a cowboy? She’d have to be crazy, or crazy in love with a man whose only connection to an ocean were waves of flaxen wheat and a prairie’s endless sea of tall grass.
Something brushed her leg and she bolted upright. A piece of kelp bobbed beside her and she flung it away. She’d become chilly anyway, and made her way to shore.
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Author Biography:
Karen Ginther Graham is a long time Okie but hails from Southern California. Her writing often reflects these two places. Her livelihood includes management and renovation of apartments in a reemerging part of Oklahoma City’s inner city. She studied literature at the University of Central Oklahoma. She and her husband live in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Social Media Links:
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/karengraham
Twitter https://twitter.com/GintherKr