On hot summer days, my six brothers and sisters and I used to love to jump in the streams that abound in the woods around our family homestead in small-town New England. Ice-cold water, rocks and mud didn’t phase us. Nowadays my running route (I signed up for another half-marathon!) takes me past a popular swimming hole near our home in Vermont. I snapped these photos last summer. It doesn’t look like this now! The ice has gone out of the river but the banks are still snow-covered. Before we know it, swimmers will back out here. Key, of course, is to stay safe!

In The River House, my new Swift River Valley novel, Gabe Flanagan and Felicity MacGregor restore their childhood swimming hole. She’s returned to their small New England hometown and happy there as a party planner, but he’s still restless, fighting what deep down he knows he wants. They’re both strong-willed, independent-minded characters, but nothing like a hot summer afternoon at a favorite swimming hole to get them to laugh and relax. I hope you enjoy the story.

Happy spring, happy reading and on to summer!