Second Hand Rose - Part of the Smoky Mountain Series

The Smokey Novel Series by Lin Stepp
Canterbury House Publishing
Newest Story - Second Hand Rose
Published April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9829054-7-0

I have received the 5th book in the series and thought it would be nice to give you an overview of the entire series. These are "wholesome contemporary romances". Rather like a Hallmark movie in book form. These are nice books that can be read for that romance hit without getting into racy or overly angsty scenes. You also get the visualization of the Smoky Mountains. The only negative I will give this series is that the cover design and printing style make the books look self-published and amateurish. Unfortunately this could make a reader turn away from the books without giving them a real chance.

I have previously reviewed the third book in the series and that review can be found HERE. 

The Smoky Mountain Series is a linked series of upbeat, sentimental contemporary romance novels. Each novel is set in a different area of the Smoky Mountains so that the reader gets to experience a visit to a new area of the Smokies along with the rich pleasure of a good Southern story about memorable characters. Familiar characters and places tie the stories together in an enjoyable way for readers who like a series they can settle into. The Foster Girls is the first of twelve novels in the series. The second book, Tell Me About Orchard Hollow, came out in the Spring of 2010. For Six Good Reaons, the third book in the series, was released early in 2011. The fourth book, Delia's Place, was published in 2012, and the latest novel Second Hand Rose, set in Wear's Valley, will be available in April 2013.
All titles are available in Print and Ebook formats.

The Foster Girls - Book One

The deep secrets – that restrict us and limit our lives – are at the heart of this first, engaging novel in the new Smoky Mountain series.
Vivian Delaney – in The Foster Girls – arrives in the quiet Wear’s Valley, on the backside of the Smoky Mountains, carrying a heavy load of hidden problems – and eager to find a quiet place to escape the recent troubles of her past. However, secrets are hard to keep, and right away Vivian encounters unexpected challenges with her landlord, Scott Jamison. From Vivian’s first meeting with Scott – at the end of a rifle barrel – Scott seems purposed to push past all Vivian’s defenses and to find a way into her heart.
Just as Vivian begins to trust Scott – and is able to share her secrets with him and new friends in the valley – love for a little foster girl, Sarah Taylor, challenges Vivian and Scott’s new relationship. When Sarah is lost in the mountains, the suspense and conflict build – with the lives of several characters caught tantalizingly in the balance.
Readers will quickly become wrapped up in the magic of this heartwarming story set against the backdrop of the beautiful Smoky Mountains National Park. They will heartily enjoy the likable cast of main and secondary characters along with the sprinkling of Appalachian flavor that generously enhances this inspirational regional story.

Tell Me About Orchard Hollow - Book Two

It is difficult to recover when hurt by those we love and trust - but in this second novel in the beloved Smoky Mountain Series, a young woman finds healing and new confidence while staying in a mountain cabin on the quiet side of the mountains.
New Yorker Jenna Howell has spent many pleasant hours listening to her older neighbor, Sam Oliver, spin stories about his beloved home place on Orchard Hollow Road in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. This rural world is far removed from Jenna's life in downtown Manhattan, but when several shocking events and marital betrayal come her way, Jenna - a previously sheltered girl - decides to take Sam up on his offer to visit his cabin in the mountains.
At Sam's place in Townsend, Jenna meets many new friends, including her good-looking neighbor, artist Boyce Hart. A quick attraction sparks between Jenna and Boyce, proving to be both exciting and confusing at this time in Jenna's life. It is not the right time for a new relationship for either Jenna or Boyce. However, as spring blooms in the Smokies, Jenna blooms. She gains a new appreciation for unselfish love and simple pleasures, develops confidence in herself and her talents, and begins to find new understandings about faith. Just as she is finding happiness and beginning to heal, an unexpected tragedy forces her to return to New York City. Here she has to test out her new-found strengths, resolve the problems in her life, and decide on the direction for her future. Choosing the right course proves to be more difficult than expected - as two very different lives vie with opposite allures for Jenna's heart.

For Six Good Reasons - Book Three

A young woman with six foster children, under twelve, hopes for patience, peace, and a bigger
house – but love? Not hardly. However — sometimes fate deals an unexpected hand.
When Alice Graham came back to look at the sale property at the base of the Smoky Mountains in Greenbrier, it was absolutely not because of that recurring dream of the cowboy. She’d seen him high on the ridge top in the winter and felt a peculiar drawing and attraction flash between them – but she never expected to see him again.
When she did, a month after buying the rural property, that odd attraction still sizzled in the air. However, it seemed unlikely that anything romantic would develop, because Alice had bought the property and its house as a home for herself and the six Stuart siblings she’d agreed to foster. Six kids were enough to scare any man off – especially a confirmed bachelor like Harrison Ramsey with unsolved mysteries and unpleasant rumors floating around in his past.

Delia's Place - Book Four

Just when Delia Walker’s life reads like a fairy tale come true, the bottom falls out of everything, leaving her desperate, devastated, and directionless—worrying through a rush of anxious fears and tears whether life can ever turn right again.
Delia Eleanor Walker’s life is perfectly planned—the wedding date set, the invitations mailed, and her family gathered at the North Carolina beach house ready to celebrate—when Delia receives Prentice’s unexpected fed-ex announcing he’s married someone else! What on earth will she do? She’s centered every aspect of her future around her upcoming marriage and Delia knows her family will somehow blame the break-up on her. They always do. They’ll call it one more immature botch-up by the baby of the family.
In her lap, among the mail just received, Delia seizes on an answer—an invitation from Maureen Cross for a last visit to her Aunt Dee’s old cottage behind Gatlinburg. It’s cowardly to run, but Delia does, hoping to find in the mountains time to heal and space to chart a new direction for her life.
Instead of peace and quiet, Delia finds a troubled cousin she’s never met hiding out in her aunt’s house and an old childhood playmate and heartthrob, Tanner Cross, back in town, reminding her of yet another time she made a fool of herself romantically. To top it off, a criminal is soon on the loose, along with an increasingly complicated array of new problems that Delia never, in a million years, expected to encounter.
Come see how Delia finds her way… and follow her through surprising twists of sorrow, suspense, and sweetness—amid the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains and the charm of Gatlinburg—in this warm, contemporary romance.

Second Hand Rose - Book Five

Surely a girl can be forgiven a moment of fantasy dancing with a tall dark stranger? And surely nothing can come of it? Wrong. Life’s chance, indulgent moments always find a way of coming back to complicate everything.
Life is sometimes hard as a widowed, single mother with three young children, a business to run, bills to meet, and debts to pay. Despite it all, Rosalyn McCreary tries to count her blessings. She cherishes her shop, Second Hand Rose, her family and friends. A practical woman by necessity, she seldom indulges in impulse and fancy—except for that crazy spring day she danced with a total stranger she’d never met. Whatever was she thinking? And to learn later that her mystery stranger, Kendrick Lanier, planned to move to Wear’s Valley. Great. Just one more problem she doesn’t need. Kendrick soon pursues her, despite Rosalyn’s efforts to crowd him out, finding ways into her life, and into the lives of her children, and creating complications Rosalyn simply doesn’t want to deal with. Especially since the more she learns of the man’s life and secrets, the more she realizes how ill-suited they are. With Rosalyn and Kendrick’s troubled pasts, and Rosalyn’s temper, you’ll find it a toss-up to decide if these two stubborn, determined individuals should, or shouldn’t, ever get together.