Riverfront Romance

Travel blogger Cara Durant has collated all her travel experiences into her first novel centered on the theme of female empowerment. She is excited that the publishers have accepted her manuscript, less excited about the changes her editor, Marianne Cooper, wants her to make, namely to add an element of romance for the lead character. Regardless, with the advance in hand, Cara returns to her small hometown of Windfields to do what she’s wanted to do since she was a child: purchase the big house on the riverfront that she’s always admired, the house which will be her sanctuary to do her writing. Her quiet is literally interrupted when a construction crew sets up next to her property, the city, unknown to her or most people in town, having OKed the construction of a hydroelectric dam located within spitting distance of her house. Her initial ire is directed toward the face of PowerGen, the power company, that face being the lead construction engineer Riley Evans, but she comes to the realization than just vocally protesting, a better tact would be to outline how the dam in that location would ultimately lead to the ruin of the town, and also, with Riley’s help, to find a better alternate location for the dam that would still serve the needs of the community. Riley agrees at least to investigate the possibilities with her. In spending time together, a romance seems to be burgeoning between them, it which Cara quietly uses as the basis for the romance in her novel. What happens between them and if there is a happy ending for her novel’s lead character is what role Riley plays in whatever happens with the dam.—Huggo