RUN TO YOU – Rachel Lacey
Risking It All , Book 1
Hachette Book Group
ISBN: 978-1-4555-3754-9
ASIN: B01B1W0M8A
September 2016
Contemporary Romance

Haven, North Carolina – The Present

Ethan Hunter, a former Olympian swimmer and gold medal winner, wants to open an extreme outdoor sports facility in his home town of Haven. Haven is a small community known for its restful mountain resorts. Ethan is testing a zip line prior to his hoped for opening date. Everything has to be ready for the opening. His two friends, Mark Dalton and Ryan Blake, are traveling to Haven to join him in this business adventure. It has to happen soon. His grandmother, who didn't even know he was alive until she got him out of foster care and provided him the stability and love he needed, is dying. She has a brain aneurysm that could take her anytime, and he dreads the future. Ethan sees a girl trespassing on his property. She is sitting on a rock by the river. When he confronts her, he discovers she was only hiking, but a nest of yellow jackets attack her. She falls in the river, and then his chivalrous side insists he must take her to the ER.

The stings hurt! Gabrielle Winters–Gabby–is from Charlotte and has escaped to Haven to avoid her abusive ex-boyfriend and her parents while she finds herself again. For two months she has been staying in a cabin she rented just up the road from Ethan's soon to open business. Since she works from the cabin as an electronic game designer, she has avoided meeting many people in Haven. Things transpire, and Gabby meets Ethan's grandma Dixie, and they form a wonderful friendship. When Ethan first proposes a fake relationship to convince his grandma he will be all right after she passes, Gabby declines. But then, her attraction to Ethan makes her agree. Only trouble can ensue.

With teens trashing his business before it opens and making some already doubtful old ladies on the Haven Town Council leery of giving Ethan a business license, Gabby's fear of heights, her ex-boyfriend and then her parents showing up, and of course, Dixie's horrible condition and Ethan and Gabby's deceit, the pair have a very rocky road to romance. They may never reach the end of that road. Full of not only human shortcomings but also their determination and steadfastness, RUN TO YOU creates an enjoyable, engaging, and consuming read.

Robin Lee