Love blooms once more in the quaint town of Mystic Creek, Oregon, from the New York Times bestselling author of Strawberry Hill.Erin De Laney came to Mystic Creek hoping that the slower pace might rekindle her enthusiasm for law enforcement. Instead she feels as frustrated as she did in the city and when her disillusionment with the job increases, she takes a position on her uncle’s ranch. Her … position on her uncle’s ranch.
Her life has enough complications without her attraction to handsome, deaf cowboy, Wyatt Fitzgerald, the foreman on the ranch. Wyatt has sworn off dating, and Erin fears that nothing she does will ever change his mind. Yet while working with an abused horse under Wyatt’s guidance, Erin comes to better understand herself. She also learns that love can heal almost anything.
Wyatt yearns to take Erin into his arms, but he’s hesitant to pursue a romantic relationship. When their work sends them out alone together into a wilderness area, Wyatt is even more determined to hold Erin at arm’s length.
But out of their time alone together on the mountain blossoms a chance for a once-in-a-lifetime love if only he’s willing to give her his heart and make her his.
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The setting of this book is different than others that I’ve read, and including a deaf character is a first in my reading. This is a good story and I highly recommend this book.
I love Diane Palmer
I really enjoyed this book!!! I was hooked from the beginning and hated to see it end. I was captivated by Erin and Wyatt’s story and how they worked through their ups and downs to have their happy. I really enjoyed the side story that was happening with Blackie and Julie….I was rooting for them from the beginning! I couldn’t put this book down and I highly recommend it to all. Well done!!
Good book. This continues the story of Wyatt and Erin that began in Strawberry Hill. It is full of deep emotions, self-discovery, and facing some hard decisions. Some lighter moments show the good side of living in a small town.
Erin is an attractive but intense deputy who seems to look at life as a competition that she has to win. There were many times in the first part of the book when I wanted to shake her and tell her to lighten up. But the more I learned of her past, the more I understood where she was coming from, and rooted for her to let go of her past. Erin moved from the city to the small town because her experiences there made her question her role as a cop. Unfortunately, though the pace is slower and the crime rate lower, she still questions her future. She also is attracted to her uncle’s ranch foreman, Wyatt. However, nothing she does gets a similar response from him.
Wyatt is the ranch foreman. He has been deaf his whole life, but reads lips and has taught himself to speak almost as well as a hearing person. He’s great with horses and has been known to gentle the most stubborn animals. He also watches out for his younger brother Kennedy, who works on the ranch part-time while he goes to college. Wyatt is attracted to Erin, but a life-altering event seven years earlier made him swear off women and relationships. Resisting Erin becomes more difficult the more often he is around her.
I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Wyatt and Erin. After a major misunderstanding brought on by well-meaning, but erroneous information from Kennedy, Erin and Wyatt agree to be friends. I liked seeing their friendship blossom once Erin gave up the constant come-ons. Wyatt’s deafness allowed him to develop in other ways, and his empathy ratings are off the charts. I loved the way he saw Erin so clearly and tried to help her understand how her past still affects her life. When Erin hit a wall in her law enforcement career, causing her to reevaluate her life, Wyatt was there for her. At first, he wasn’t too happy about her working for him on the ranch, as her proximity was a greater temptation. He also had to deal with her competitive nature, and find a way to get her past it. I loved the method he found, and how well it worked.
I ached for Erin almost as much as I wanted to smack her at times. Her entire life was spent trying to please her father. She went into law enforcement because of him. She has bottled up her emotions because of him. Her need to be better than everyone else is because of him. She is miserably unhappy as a cop but sticks it out because she doesn’t want to disappoint him by quitting. That is until one heart-breaking event turns out to be the last straw and she turns in her badge. Her Uncle Slade gives her a job as a ranch hand and turns her over to Wyatt. Erin still can’t let go of her need to be the fastest, smartest, best, and puts herself and others in danger because of it. Her stubbornness makes her ignore all attempts to help her, as she sees them as slurs on her capability. It takes nearly being fired for her to realize that she needs to change. I loved how Wyatt used an abused horse to get through to her.
Both Wyatt and Erin have let their pasts define their lives. I loved seeing the changes in Erin as she realizes how badly her parents’ actions have affected her. Once that barrier is broken down, Erin finds it much easier to let go of her intense need to be the best. I loved her patience with the horse and how she sees parallels between them. The event in Wyatt’s past that affected him so profoundly is heartbreaking. His reason for avoiding relationships is understandable and I ached for his belief that happiness is not in the cards for him. He has gone seven years successfully avoiding temptation, but Erin puts an end to that. She stirs him up, and resisting her becomes more difficult. A little matchmaking interference from Slade and Vicki throws Erin and Wyatt together in the wilderness, where there’s no way to get away from each other. I loved seeing the sparks build between them. There’s a slight hiccup when Erin confesses something to Wyatt, but Wyatt’s anger is short-lived when Erin ends up in danger. It’s an intense time but helps break down the final barriers between them.
There is a secondary romance going on between Erin’s friend Julie and the pawnshop owner, Blackie. Julie has been interested in him for a long time, but he seems oblivious to it. She is surprised to discover that he is also interested, but is resistant because there is a twenty-year age difference between them. I enjoyed seeing their relationship grow. Blackie is young for his age, and a really sweet guy. He also becomes very protective of Julie. There is a fantastic section as he takes care of her when she goes down with a virus. There are some rough patches as they work their way through what each is looking for in a relationship, but it’s easy to see that they belong together. Though they see their lives going down a particular path, it’s always fun to see when Fate throws a bump in the road. This specific bump was a complete surprise and forced some self-examination on both their parts. The conclusion was not unexpected, and I look forward to seeing them in future books.
Wyatt’s brother, Kennedy, has some page time of his own. He is a terrific young man, responsible, kind, and with a good head on his shoulders. I liked his dedication to his studies, and to the work he does on the ranch. On a rare trip into town, he rescued a young woman who was being threatened by her ex-boyfriend. Though she’s only a senior in high school, Jen is just as focused as Kennedy, and they develop a friendship. Kennedy is a bit wary because he’s older than she is. I liked their interactions as Kennedy frequents the hamburger drive-in where Jen works. It’s Kennedy’s friendship with her and knowing the type of person she is that makes him realize that something is very wrong when he arrives one evening and she isn’t there. I ached for them both because of what happened. Kennedy’s kindness and maturity are showcased in the following days and weeks, as he is there for Jen when she needs him. I hope that there will be more about them in future books.
There are also some fun moments with the ranch’s rescue bear, Four-Toes. His story began in the previous book when he was rescued as a cub. His encounter with Jen is pretty funny and unexpectedly leads to a change for him, too.
Such a captivating, educational and uplifting story. Thank you to Catherine Anderson for bringing to light the obstacles the deaf community encounters on a daily basis. Something as simple as a deaf child trying to ask for a drink of water or something to eat and how frustrating that must be for them. This story also brought to light the damage of emotional abuse suffered at the hand of a parent’s “good intentions”. Well done Ms. Anderson.
I’m a huge fan of Catherine Anderson. When she writes about a physically challenged person as she has in this book you end up discovering things about those challenges you would have never thought of.
Loved this story! I love the way Catherine Anderson has taken human diseases, illnesses, and impairments and created stories of people dealing with them and finding love in the process. Each has been very heartwarming and illuminating!
Really enjoy this book. Can’t wait for the next one.
In Catherine’s latest Mystic Creek novel, we follow three couples all with their own issues although the main couple is Erin De Laney and Wyatt Fitzgerald. Erin moved to the small town of Mystic Creek as a sheriff’s deputy to be near her uncle, Slade, who owns a ranch there. She left the big city’s police force to join the sheriff’s force in Mystic Creek thinking she might get more from the career her father forced on her there. But she’s still very unhappy with her career and when a young girl is brutally attacked twice by her ex-boyfriend, Erin quits her job and goes to work on Slade’s ranch. Wyatt is Slade’s foreman and happens to be deaf. He’s sworn off women due to a tragic event that happened seven years earlier. The two are attracted to each other but must each work through their own issues before they can enter a relationship. When Erin begins working with an abused, former parade horse, she begins to see the abuse she suffered as a child that she must get beyond.
Each of the couples come together and deal with life’s curve balls, learning their strengths and weaknesses so they come to the relationship ready to be a partner and friend. In addition to the human couples, Slade’s black bear, Four Toes, gets his own companion, a young black bear named Ginger.
I love Catherine’s books and have them all. The Mystic Creek series is a great one and this book is no exception. Catherine has the ability to make you feel what each of her characters are going through and you root for them as the story develops. I laughed out loud at parts of this story and cried at others. I absolutely loved Huckleberry Lake. She captures the emotions and proves that there’s no age limit to true love which is often wonderfully imperfect. I highly recommend both book and series which I suggest you read in order.
Always good to come back to Mystic Creek…
I always look forward to a new title by this author. The natural writing style, the gentle storytelling. It mixes heaps of family with love in all its facets. This time out Erin and Wyatt fought through a rough start to grow something meaningful together. Erin was trying to find her right place in the world and Wyatt tried to resist her as she did. Their lives continued to collide but uncertainty was at the heart of each interaction. So much conflict but the ups and downs meant they were trying to figure it out…
If that wasn’t enough (and it was), there were two sub-plots percolating alongside that meant love wasn’t in the cards for just Erin and Wyatt. While a bit distracting, there was a lot going on with three different couples finding their way, the totally different story arcs melded together into a read that was full of hope and, of course, love…
*Reviewed for 1-Click Addict Support Group
**Thank you to NetGalley
“And sometimes not being completely honest can destroy what might be absolutely perfect.”
“Sometimes,” Julie said softly, “being too honest can do more harm than good.”“And sometimes not being completely honest can destroy what might be absolutely perfect.”
Catherine Anderson is a favorite romance author of mine. I haven’t read all of her books but I’ve read a good portion of them.
This offering wasn’t a total winner for me. The dialogue seemed stilted and the ending feelers rushed. Anderson writes about imperfect characters but in this case I felt that the imperfections were way too stressed as compared to the romance.
Erin DeLaney moves to Mystic Creek in central Oregon and becomes a county deputy, a job she hates but one she feels pushed into by her father.
Sparks fly when she meets Wyatt Fitzgerald, the ranch foreman at her uncle’s ranch, who also happens to be totally deaf.
But even though there are feelings of mutual attraction, Wyatt pushes Erin away.
I really loved a lot of Anderson’s earlier books. This is the fourth book out of a series of six that I’ve read about Mystic Creek. One other I didn’t like much at all and two others were great – so not too consistent.
But Anderson’s books on a bad day are better than a lot of romance authors books on their good days.
I received this book from Berkley Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
I enjoyed this entertaining read. There are plenty of emotions woven through the engaging story line. I found it easy to like Erin and Wyatt and to become fully invested in this couple getting a HEA. I will say that I thought that this book had a different flow to it. This was not a bad thing it just gave this book a very unique feel. If you are a fan of heartfelt reads with lots of charm and an overall feeling of genuineness, I don’t think that you can ever really go wrong by grabbing one of this author’s books.
Catherine Anderson’s Huckleberry Lake is sixth book of the Mystic Creek Series but not your typical romance novel. There are many things going on, especially with two sub-plots piggybacking on the main plot. The main story is about a deaf cowboy Wyatt Fitzgerald, and Erin De Laney struggling to overcome the demons of their past and their attractions toward one another. Along for the ride are these two sub-plots of the secondary characters: Julie, Erin’s friend and her love interest Blackie, and the other is Wyatt’s brother, Kennedy, with his love interest in a 17-year-old Jen.
Huckleberry Lake is 539 pages long to read through emotional and physical abuses, the subplots, and details of ranch life. Being a deaf person, I can relate to Wyatt’s struggles in the hearing world. Huckleberry Lake is a good story, and Catherine Anderson has done a fine job with the details. I received this complimentary ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Fantastic, emotional read. Having said that, you should really read Strawberry Hill before reading this book. This story carries over 2 characters from the previous book. I had originally thought Strawberry Hill was going to be Erin and Wyatt’s story. Thank goodness it wasn’t. These 2 characters needed 2 books to truly evolve their story arc. They are both damaged souls who are struggling to find each other. They are both awful and wonderful. I am so glad Ms. Anderson gave them the care and time these 2 challenging people deserved.
The story also contains many secondary characters we have previously met in Mystic Creek. This story is very intricate and involved. I loved the way it was written and the beautiful story arc. I am so glad nothing was rushed for these 2 people and that they finally got their HEA.
Thank you for a beautiful story.