Up-Hill All the Way

by Jean Thompson

Five Star First Edition Romances are well-reviewed original romances that have been carefully selected and edited to appeal to a broad range of fans. They feature strong women characters who deal directly and honestly with issues that women have had to contend with for centuries. There will be a romantic relationship involved, but it may not be the focus of the story. This series will also include an occasional high-quality women's fiction title.All subgenres of romance will be contemporary, historical, regency, futuristic, fantasy, romantic suspense, and multicultural romance. This is a series designed to please fans of the Romance genre as well as mainstream women's fiction readers.Four people in Woodbridge, Oregon are connected by ties of community, past and present and their stories unfold in both times. They are lonely and at risk emotionally. They have desires, fears and secrets. Lee Jamison clings to romantic dreams of the mythical West while his former lover, Doris, is growing increasingly restless within the confines of a small town. Seventeen-year-old Charles is struggling with his own self-destructive impulses while Charlotte is balancing the need for nearly endless physical labor with her failing strength and a haunting secret from her past.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jean Thompson is a New York Times bestselling author and her new novel, The Humanity Project will be published by Blue Rider Press on April 23, 2013.

Thompson is also the author of the novel The Year We Left Home, the acclaimed short fiction collections Do Not Deny Me, and Throw Like a Girl as well as the novel City Boy; the short story collection Who Do You Love, and she is a 1999 National Book Award finalist for fiction as well as and the novel Wide Blue Yonder, a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection for 2002.

Her short fiction has been published in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize. Jean's work has been praised by Elle Magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions."

Jean's other books include the short story collections The Gasoline Wars and Little Face, and the novels My Wisdom and The Woman Driver.

Jean has been the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, among other accolades, and taught creative writing at the University of Illinois--Champaign/ Urbana, Reed College, Northwestern University, and many other colleges and universities.