Alvin's Farm Book 1: Alvin's Farm

On the run for nearly half her life, Jenny Cope’s arrival in Oregon’s Willamette Valley touches all she meets. She most affects two men, one mentally challenged, the other emotionally strangled. Jenny falls in love with Alvin Harris, whose childhood tumble leaves him with few worries. Sam Cassel’s wounded heart pounds with unrequited love for Jenny, but his lifelong friendship with Alvin precludes Sam’s advances. That and a sense of familiarity, Jenny similar to Sam’s late wife, a woman brutally murdered.

Introducing the series, this novel weaves 1970s history through the lives of Alvin, Jenny, Sam, and Tommie Smith, Alvin’s best friend. Tommie carries his own injuries while balancing Sam’s hidden feelings. When Alvin and Jenny have a child, Sam steps away. Jenny learns some of Tommie’s burdens, a tragedy Sam also endured when his wife died. When Jenny’s horrific past emerges, she seeks Sam's comfort, not the man she truly loves.

Love and betrayal tangle with village feuds and narrow minds as a trio navigates roads rainy but lush, colors bright from thunderstorms which scare Jenny to death. The reason behind her anxieties can’t be altered, but in Alvin or Tommie’s arms Jenny finds solace. Yet in Sam’s grasp, whether on the dance floor or reliving her terrifying childhood, Jenny knows a deliberate calm. That peace threatens to unravel all Jenny and Alvin have built together on a farm harboring ancient secrets as disturbing as Jenny’s past.