One More Gwynn Title

Hearts to Heal is yet another of my special stories. It was born out of an accident I had in 1999.
My husband and I were hiking in the Huachuca Mountains in the spring of that year with another couple. We got to the end of the current road up Miller Canyon and continued on foot to try to reach an old mine dump where we had found some nice crystals many years before. For those not familiar with hard rock mining, a mine dump is usually a cascade of rock running down a hillside from the shaft (vertical) or drift (horizontal) that was blasted and dug into the mountain to reach the valuable ore. I am not sure what minerals were sought in this area but molybdenum and some others were mined in the region.

While the two guys took a trail, the other lady and I tried for a shortcut. We came to a spot where a bulldozer had gouged a trench along the hillside. The steep drop to its floor was about ten or twelve feet. I sat on the edge and then slid off on my butt. At the bottom I landed wrong and my right ankle turned on a rock. I heard the two cracks like breaking sticks and knew what had happened. Esther scrambled down and said, "Get up. You're okay, aren't you?"

"No," I replied. "I think I broke my leg." Then she noticed that my foot flopped sideways at a very unnatural angle. She shrieked and then took off to find our husbands. I crawled a distance--maybe twenty or thirty feet--to reach a more comfortable place to sit and I waited. From the very first, I kept any panic at bay by thinking I had to take careful note of the whole incident because it was going to be in a book, sooner or later. The trip down the mountain in our SUV was rough but I had a mantra: "It's just pressure, not pain," for my foot was swelling to the maximum space of my hiking boot. I had to have an open (surgical) reduction and a piece of metal attached from the tip of my ankle about six inches up the outer bone. Both bones had both snapped right above the joint. I had a great orthopedic surgeon--who was darn good looking ;-) --and made a full recovery. The itch inside the cast was the worst of it!

So Hearts to Heal (originally published as Healing Hearts by a small firm that folded before it was out too long) came to be. I love the ethnic diversity of Arizona and the rest of the southwest and often reflect it in my fiction. The medical professions both fascinate and slightly repel me but I had to give my doctor a book, albeit fictitious and a somewhat backhanded compliment. Actually he was happily married and not a bit like Dr. Jerry! Bonnie is a composite of several spunky, go-getter type young Latina women I have known and admired. But despite the doubts some readers have expressed, the whole broken leg business is absolutely authentic because I basically lived it all!

So here you have the blurb and cover for Hearts to Heal, a slightly above PG-13 level romance! There are a few pretty steamy scenes but it is not quite erotica. You can find it at: http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1895-Hearts-To-Heal.aspx

Blurb: Raised by her father after her mother’s death, Bonnie Verdugo has grown into a focused and driven woman, her ultimate goal is to become a doctor. Meanwhile, she works as an EMT while taking courses to become a nurse practitioner, each effort a step toward her dream. Bonnie has no time for romance or a social life, until a hiking accident puts her in the care of Dr. Jerry Bertini, a fine orthopedic surgeon, but an alluring man known as a womanizer.

Jerry has always been a rebel, going against the family tradition to become a physician instead of a lawyer. He also enjoys being the black sheep. But despite his reputation as a playboy, he has a serious side. Nowadays, his career has almost become his entire life, apart from the hours spent trying to raise his motherless daughter. Jennifer is now a teenager and, suddenly, a handful of trouble. So is Bonnie, the saucy little Latina EMT who ends up under his care when she breaks her leg. Jerry doesn’t suspect how quickly Bonnie will get under his skin. And although he can heal her bones, what about her overly cautious heart?

When two determined healers bump heads and hearts, something is eventually going to give...