Wolf River: A Novel

by Jill Gregory

New York City children’s author Erinn Winters is haunted by a past no one knows, and dark visions of death and danger that come to her without warning. But when a desperate search for her estranged sister leads her to Wolf River, Montana, Erinn suddenly finds her secrets, even her very life, at risk. And after meeting notoriously sexy Jase Fortune, Erinn finds herself in another kind of danger—she could lose her heart.

Jase Fortune is as committed to staying single as he is to running his booming family ranch––until mysterious, gorgeous Erinn shows up. But someone is out to destroy the Fortunes, and Jase finds himself willing to do anything to protect not only his family but Erinn too. As the peril mounts, so do Erinn’s and Jase’s feelings for each other, but the promise of love is threatened by deadly secrets and vicious enemies, and a killer who will stop at nothing….

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary Romance, Westerns, Contemporary, Suspense, Adult

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

About the author

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Jill Gregory is the award-winning author of more than thirty novels. Jill has been awarded the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence and her novels NEVER LOVE A COWBOY and COLD NIGHT, WARM STRANGER were honored with back-to-back Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice awards for Best Western Historical Romance.

Jill Gregory's novels have been translated and published in Japan, Russia, Norway, France, Taiwan, Sweden, Italy, and Germany. Jill grew up in Chicago and received her bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Illinois. She currently resides in Michigan with her husband.

Reviews

[Boobootrunde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I thought the way events played out were done well and it had me surprised in the end.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another awesome book by Jill Gregory!

I love how she writes. She can suck you into the story with the first chapter and not let go of you until the last. Her characters are never boring, all with different personalities, making them each unique to one another. She knows how to describe the scenery so that the reader could swear your smelling the fields, hear the thunder of horses hooves, including the hearts of those terrified. She can grip you with her suspense, and there's a twist in this story I didn't see coming, not one bit.

I thought Erinn was a great character. Strong, she's built a wall around herself as self-protection. And no matter how much she tries, Jase still manages to get under her skin, just as she does him.

Jase is the typical 'hurt' cowboy, determined to keep his heart locked away. Try as he might, it still didn't work. And although that part was typical, I still love how Gregory manages to have her characters break each other's shells. She creates a powerful spark you feel between the characters.

I thought the 'danger' in the book wasn't the best of Gregory's ideas, but you can still understand the point of view of the bad character(s) in not wanting to get caught and stop at nothing to get away with it. But it's that twist that you don't see coming that packs a punch. And the ending - classic Gregory.

[Sridhar Babu · Rating 4 out of 5]

AUTHOR..
JILL GREGORY...
CHARACTERS...
Erinn Winters, Jase Fortune, Devon, Lily Fortune, Clay Fortune, Mick Wheeler, Hank Wheeler, Don Culpepper aka Culp, Ginny,and Frank Wells.
LOCATION...
New York, Wolf River (Montana )
GENRE...
Romance, Suspense...

PLOT...
Erinn Winters is a New York city based children's author. After witnessing the suicide of her mother Erinn is haunted by mysterious visions...dark visions of death, haunted images of a dark tunnel comes to her all of a sudden without warning.

Erinn's father Dane Stanton was a powerful man. He was what people call a control freak, in every sense of the word. He criticized,demeaned and controlled Erinn's mother. Finally she could not take it anymore. She could not go on the way things were. So She killes herself in her bedroom. Erinn lived for the day until she turned eighteen, when she could legally run from tension filled silent house, controlled by her father. So she ran away to her own frantic break for freedom. From that day on Tiffany Erinn Stanton, eldest daughter of banking mogul had ceased to exist. She changed her name, got a degree in English literature and started taking classes in New York University.

After running away from her father, even after witnessing her mother's suicide, Erinn had ceased being intimidated by him long ago, but she had never stopped hating him. After Dane Stanton's death, the newscasters reported that Devon Stanton, Dane's fifteen year old daughter had run away from home and mysteriously dropped from sight a year before his death - following same pattern as her older half sister Erinn. Erinn, before running away for freedom had promised her little half sister Devon, that she will definitely come back for her, to rescue and save her from father and she could keep in touch with Devon, by sending birthday gift and cards. Erinn could not keep her promise to her little sister, and let her to suffer under her control freak father.

There had been one thing she had been not able to control. The dark visions, the sight that kept grip on her, even after she fled to New York.

Erinn hiers a private investigator and discovers that her half sister Devon is in found in a place called WOLF RIVER, on the outskirts of a small town in Montana. She also discovers Devon lives in a small shack with Wheeler Brothers, Mick and Hank. She learns that the Wheeler brothers had trouble with law. Serious charges are against Mick for assaulting a woman.So Desperate search for her enstranged sister leads her to Wolf River, Montana.

Assisted by Jase Fortune, she rents his cabin surrounded by beautiful wildflowers and a creek at the rear side at an isolated place of Wolf River. Her meeting with her half sister Devon at Wheeler's shack and insisting her to come back to New York yields nothing. Devon hates Erinn for not coming back and rescuing her from father. She asks Erinn to go back to New York and carry on with her life..Devon refuses to leave Hank Wheeler with whom she came to Wolf River. Mick wheeler warns Erinn not to come back for her sister whenever he finds her near their shack.

After seeing her half sister Devon's pathetic living condition,and Mick's violent attitude, Erinn takes a pledge to convince Devon and take her back to New York. If that needed time She should stay in Wolf River as long as possible.

Jase Fortune is the richest cowboy living in Wolf River, with his father Clay, brother Colton and sister Lily. After his father's heart attack Jase takes the responsibilty of successfully running the Fortune Ranch. He is as committed to staying single, because of failed marriage.After the arrival of mysterious,georgeous Erinn everything changes for Jase..He agrees to rent his cabin and finds himself willing to do anything to protect Erinn and her sister. After meeting notoriously sexy Jase Fortune, Erinn finds herself in another kind of losing her heart to Jase. After listening to Erinn's tragic flash back and about her purpose of visit to Wolf River, Jase gets even more attached to her.

Devon miraculously survives in a car wreck, while returning from a ranch party at mid night. The wheeler brothers suffers serious injuries requring them a long hospital stay. Availing the opportunity, Erinn takes her sister Devon to her cabin.

Whenever Jase finds time, he takes both Erinn and Devon to Fortune Ranch and makes them well acquainted with his family. Knowing the obsession Devon has towards riding horses, Jase's father Clay becomes deeply attached towards Devon.

After taking her half sister , Erinn finds something that scares Devon. She trembles with fear whenever Mick Wheeler and Frank Wells names are mentioned.At Fortune's ranch some vicious enemies, killes ranch's cattles and kidnaps Jase's sister Lily.

After Lily was kidnapped, Devon tells Clay, that Mick and Frank Wells are involved in producing fake passports and documents in bulk and cashing them. Mick was found murded in his shack when Jase and Erinn goes to enquire him about Lily. Frank Wells abducts Devon from Fortune ranch and kills Hank Wheeler in the process.

When Erinn was alone in her rented cabin discovers to her surprise that a hired hand in Fortune's ranch, named Culp had kidnapped Lily and hidden her in cabin's celler for demanding ransome money to pay his gambling debts. Finally Jase rescues Lily and Erinn from Culp.

Erinn's obsession and love for Jase and Devon's love for Wolf River's beauty, makes them to stay there forever.

My Comment:

WOLF RIVER....FLAWLESS FLOW..

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this at a hotel book exchange and read it since I can't get to the library. It was compelling enough that I finished it--the story did move along enough to keep my attention but there were a lot of eyer rolling moments. Another reviewer mentioned that she tried to tackle everything in one book: mystery, thriller, paranormal, romance, etc. It's true. She really tried to pack it all in there to the point where it just got too much. The plot was completely ridiculous. Certainly not the worst book--characters were well developed and their past was explored but they were cliche and avoided exploring deep emotional trauma and healing to glaze over that to keep an upbeat tone and keep the story moving to make room for another unnecessary genre packed into a novel. I wouldn't read it again and I'd be a bit embarrassed to recommend this to anyone.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like the author bit off more than she could chew with this novel. She tried to go mystery/suspense/psychological thriller/romance/paranormal, and it just felt like a hot mess to me. The characters suffered from lack of development. The back story took up too much space and really didn't impact the plot in any relevant way. The twist at the end was definitely unexpected, but in more of a head-scratching way. There was just too much going on for me to get invested in any of it.

[chris]

Great book

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story. Romance and murder/mystery.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the whole book with the feeling I have read the book before, which is entirely possible, or it could be that I have read a story very similar to this one. Erinn is a writer of children's stories inspired by her long lost younger sister. Erinn's mean father passed away and her sister missing. A detective finally tracks down the missing teenager and she is involved with men involved in some unknown criminal activities. Erinn also has moments of visions of people in danger to top off her problems. She meets Jase, a rancher with his own problems. They are pulled together by chance meetings, then they find they need the help of one another to get through the course of events.

[Sandra Dagg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a contemporary romance w/a good measure of suspense and a bit of the paranormal thrown in as well. Contemporary is not my favorite genre, but I thought this book looked interesting, and it didn't disappoint. I was dragged in almost from the start, and completely caught off guard by one twist near the end, so that was a bonus too. The heroine is extremely independent and the hero a considerate alpha....I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in this genre, and even if you're not!

[Pamela(AllHoney) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erinn Winters is a author of children's books and goes to Wolf River, Montana to look for her sister. Jase Fortune is a local single rancher and intends to stay that way.

Not bad. I actually liked it. I would recommend to fans of Romantic Suspense set in small towns with paranormal elements.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first novel by Jill Gregory that I have read and I think I've found a new favorite author. The characters are very engaging and the story sucked me in right away. I would definitely recommend this book to romance/suspense readers. Loved it!

[Cleo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a better than average romance novel - the sex scenes are a little more explicit than they needed to be. But the mystery and suspence and relationships of the characters is an interesting read. Not too many susprises - but a good change of pace

[Christel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story!! I really like how Ms Gregory gets you totally involved with the storyline and the characters.

[Primadonna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read this one in the past, and I gave it a high rating. After rereading it, my present self can't really enjoy this book.

[Egonce Gonce · Rating 4 out of 5]

hot book

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 1 out of 5]

just could not get into the plot or the characters. did not find them appealing at all. failed to hold my interest.

[Staci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story. This should be a movie!

[Ruby Tickle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked this story about ranch living. Romance and mystery was also a plus. One if my fav books I have read by Jill.

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is first book read by Jill Gregory and I really enjoyed it. The ending was really not what I had imagined.

[Pamela Kinslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved it :)

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typical non-real romance.