High on a Hill

April 29, 2002
Prolific romance author Dorothy Garlock returns to 1920s Missouri in her latest historical. At 21, Annabel Lee Donovan leads a nomadic life, constantly uprooted by the urgent demands of her father's mysterious occupation. When they move to a house on a hill outside the small town of Henderson, she's determined to create a home. With the help of rough but loyal Boone, her father's best friend, Annabel plants a garden and buys a few chickens and a cow. The young woman's domestic dream is threatened by the suspicion (soon confirmed) that her father is a bootlegger and by the lascivious moonshiner who has his eye on her. Meanwhile, the whole town is curious about Corbin Appleby, the handsome lawman from Garlock's The Edge of Town, and no one is more interested than Annabel. This volatile mix of illegal alcohol and love at first sight culminates in gangster warfare and a passionate elopement. National bestseller Garlock is clearly comfortable with her gifts as a storyteller, and she knows her audience. The romance between Annabel and Corbin is sweetly nostalgic (they keep their passion in check until their wedding night), but Garlock isn't afraid to be earthy and funny, nor does she shy away from serious topics like rape and domestic violence. Advertising in
USA Today,
People and
Romantic Times.

May 1, 2002
Beautiful Annabel lives an isolated life as her bootlegger father moves from town to town trying to score enough money to set her up in style. She couldn't care less about society or riches; she just wants her beloved father to quit his dangerous business. Then Corbin Appleby, a former lawman, shows up in Henderson, Missouri, looking for Jack Jones, the ill, badly beaten young man Annabel took in after he turned up on her doorstep. Annabel falls seriously in love with Corbin, but she fears that he's still a lawman, and that he's on her father's trail. The prolific author of " The Edge of Town" [BKL Ap 15 01], which also features Corbin and Jack, Garlock is " the "writer to read for Americana Romance. She captures the essence of the rural Prohibition era, and she's such a good storyteller that the reader can feel the textures, hear the music, and smell the baking pie while rooting for love to triumph in the lives of Garlock's endearing characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)