.......Set amid the charm of Bryson City, North Carolina, in the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains, Lin Stepp's DADDY'S GIRL is a warm-hearted, small town story proving you can go home again--and that it's never too late to leave behind painful memories of the past. Olivia Benton is happy with her life in small town Bryson City. She loves her downtown floral business, her family home shared with her father, and the lavish formal gardens that sprawl behind their rural mountain property. Only a niggling restlessness alerts her to how life might change one summer day when Warner Zachery drives back into town. No one had ever thought Weird Warner, or his big dreams, would ever amount to anything, especially Olivia's father and grandmother. Even Olivia, who loved him, felt reluctant to risk everything and leave behind her familiar life to follow Warner's dreams. Now he's returned to Bryson City, famous and widowed, and as soon as Olivia sees him, she realizes she still loves him--a dilemma she is not prepared to deal with. Warner Zachery, now better known as W. T. Zachery for his famous Geeky Gilmore books for kids, has avoided even visiting Bryson City since his high school graduation ten years ago. Even though his parents still live there, unhappy memories linger of being bullied in school, never fitting in with his peers, and being spurned by his childhood neighbor and sweetheart, Olivia Benton. After his wife Nelle's murder, Warner grew discontent in New York and headed home to spend time with his family, to see old friends, and to take a well-needed vacation. He knows he will probably see Olivia Benton again but expects time will have healed his broken heart--and his anger.

Daddy's Girl

Literature & Fiction

Stepp, Lin

Genre Fiction

Mountain Hill Press

Tennessee is one of America's most beautiful and popular travel destinations and this unique guidebook introduces readers to the fifty-six state parks scattered from the East Tennessee mountains to the Mississippi River on the state's western border. It offers a complete recreation guide to the opportunities available in Tennessee parks and is the perfect guidebook for families, tourists, hikers, nature lovers, campers, anglers, history buffs, golfers, and outdoor enthusiasts. Native Tennesseans and best-selling authors J.L. and Lin Stepp visited all fifty-six state parks in the state of Tennessee to create this distinctive and informative guidebook. In a format similar to their previous guide to Smoky Mountain hiking trails, The Afternoon Hiker, the book provides detailed descriptions of each state park along with a wealth of color photos. The guidebook focuses on introducing readers to the multitude of recreational opportunities and activities available in each park. Clear directions to parks are provided, along with details about amenities, practical tips, local insights, and suggestions for interesting things to do and see. The Stepps have compiled a remarkable portrait of the amazing diversity of Tennessee's state parks, each one unique and fascinating in its own way. The book is organized into three regional sections so readers can easily locate and read about parks in the specific area they wish to visit. Indexes list the parks by state region and also alphabetically by name. Through the detailed and personal accounts portrayed, the book offers a joyous celebration of a unique and colorful state.

Discovering Tennessee State Parks

Travel

Stepp, J. L.

Food, Lodging & Transportation

Set amid the charm of downtown Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains, Lin Stepp's LOST INHERITANCE explores how shattering loss can lead to happiness and gain. It was a comedown for Emily Lamont to arrive at the small mountain gallery in Gatlinburg after running the prestigious Newman Gallery for so many years. Still, it wasn't as though she had many other options. The Newmans never made a clear will leaving her the gallery, although they meant to. With the Newmans' only nephew inheriting their property, and the gallery, Emily felt moving to Gatlinburg to manage the Creekside Gallery her only option. Now she simply needed to make the best of it, including banging heads with the man who felt his mother should have inherited the gallery instead of her. Garrison Log Homes owner, Cooper Garrison, felt bitter when the Creekside Gallery changed hands without his mother getting an option to buy it. She'd managed the gallery since he was a boy, and now some woman, not even a relative of the Newmans, had inherited it. Grudgingly, Cooper agrees to fix up the apartment above the gallery for the new owner, but when she arrives, she is not at all what Cooper expects. Despite being attracted to her, problems from the past keep Cooper running from a deeper relationship. When an unexpected event sends Emily back to Philadelphia, Cooper is forced, at last, to examine his heart.

Lost Inheritance

Too much work, too much pressure, and too much heartache can lead even a strong young woman like Mallory Wingate to the edge of a nervous breakdown. Now her doctor and employer have insisted that she take a space to heal and rest, so like it or not, she's heading to her grandparents' resort in the Smoky Mountains. Hoping to sleep and rest on the flight home, Mallory is entertained instead by an unexpectedly charismatic stranger, making her forget many of her problems and even making her feel deliciously female again.
Lucas James, flying home from a pro golfing event, hadn't expected to enjoy an interlude of flirting with a pretty stranger on the plane. A stranger he never expected to see again but turns out to be the granddaughter of his boss at The Millhouse Resort. Worse, he quickly learns she's passed through a recent history of emotional problems that remind all too painfully of his past wife. The last thing Lucas wants is to get involved with anyone like Cecily again. Surely it won't be too hard to keep his distance while Mallory is at the resort.

The Interlude

Standing in grief and shock at the grave of her young husband, Claire Avery wonders what she and her young daughters will do now. They live in the church parsonage they need to vacate. She hasn't worked since her marriage twelve years ago. Old issues and complications hinder relationships with her family. Struggling for answers, Claire accepts her brother-in-law's offer to stay at his beach house at Edisto to give her a season to heal and think. But even the peace and beauty of the coastal island bring new problems along with unexpected joys as Claire seeks to find her way.
Parker Avery always promised his brother Charles he would look after Claire if anything happened to him. Charles stood by him three years ago when his wife Ann died and Parker is determined now to be a help to Claire and the girls. As time passes, instead of feeling like a hero, he feels like a heel instead as he realizes he's developing feelings for his own brother's widow. To make things worse, he watches with pain and jealousy as Miles Lawrence waltzes into Claire's life. What can he expect though? It hardly seems right that Claire, even after a season of mourning, would ever fall in love with her own brother-in-law.

Claire at Edisto (Edisto Trilogy)

With Grandpa suffering a heart attack, Juliette Hollander saw little choice but to head back to their Tennessee mountain farm in Happy Valley to help out. She didn't expect, or want, to leave behind her life and work in North Carolina to return to her grandparents' home so soon. Nor did she imagine meeting, and working with, the mysterious man she met briefly last summer and never thought to see again. Walker Logan spent the last two years traveling the United States, seeing the beauty of the country and running from his past. But an old rock house he sees while hiking near Abrams Creek Campground unexpectedly calls to his soul. With danger close behind, he never stayed in one place long enough to put down roots. Yet now, with a new vision, he decides to take the risk.

Happy Valley

It was a long trip back to Edisto Island, South Carolina, and the beach house that shaped so much of Mary Helen Avery's early life. Now her mind flashed between anger and hurt over the difficult situation she'd left behind at the job she loved. Was she doing the right thing to leave? Should she have stayed to fight? She hoped at the quiet, beloved island she knew so well, she'd find the answers she needed and peace from all this turmoil. J.T.'s heart took a familiar lurch when he saw the car with New Jersey plates parked at the Avery's beach house. Even after ten years, the memory of Mary Helen Avery still tormented him. Finding her on the porch weeping lit old fires he thought long dead. Was he a fool to hope for something more between them with all their problems of the past? Probably so, but if she stayed long enough, he'd find one more chance to try.

Return to Edisto (Edisto Trilogy)

The deep secrets - that restrict us and limit our lives - are at the heart of this first, engaging novel in the Smoky Mountain series. 
Vivian Delaney - in The Foster Girls - arrives in the quiet Wears 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. 
The Smoky Mountain Series 
Starting in 2009, the novels in the Smoky Mountain series began to come out. All of the novels are contemporary romance - with a dash of suspense, a touch of inspiration, and a big dollop of Appalachian flavor. Each of the twelve books is set in a different place around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park so readers get to enjoy a visit to a new location in the mountains along with a good, heartwarming story. The Foster Girls is the first of the twelve stand-alone novels in the Smoky Mountain series. To read more about these and other books, visit the author's website at: www.linstepp.com

The Foster Girls

Literary

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. Townsend is far removed from Jenna's life in downtown Manhattan, but when several shocking events and marital betrayal come her way, Jenna decides to take Sam up on his offer to visit his cabin in the mountains. At Sam's place, 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. It's 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 gains new understandings about faith. An unexpected tragedy forces her to return to New York City. Here she must test 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. Editorial Reviews: "Lin Stepp creates a heart-warming tale of love and redemption, family and faith ... Readers will fall in love with not only her charming characters but the picturesque setting...The Smoky Mountain series is sure to garner fans across genre offering a plot filled with romance and suspense, set amidst the backdrop of the breathtaking Smoky Mountains." - Christy Tillery French, MIDWEST REVIEW "Tell Me About Orchard Hollow, Lin Stepp's newest book in the Smoky Mountain Series, is a sweet, heartwarming story that is difficult to put down once you start it. Even the secondary characters will steal your heart as you follow the heroine's touching journey from heartbreak to healing. A wonderful, new Southern voice." - JOAN MEDLICOTT, best-selling author of The Ladies of Covington series "Stepp's story packs intriguing surprises ... with lovingly crafted descriptions, strongly lined characters, and well-paced action." - Schuyler Kaufman, CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE magazine "This is a lovely love story about having a second chance at love...one of those books you can't put down." - NIGHT OWL REVIEWS "Well, I've finally come across someone that believes in all the things that I do." - DOLLY PARTON

Tell Me About Orchard Hollow

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.\nWhen 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 back in the winter and felt a peculiar drawing and attraction flash between them - but she certainly never expected to see him again. When she did, a month after buying the rural property, that odd attraction surprisingly still sizzled in the air. 
It seemed unlikely though that anything would come of any romantic feelings, because Alice had bought the property as a home for herself and the six Stuart siblings she'd agreed to foster. Six kids were enough to scare any man off right away - especially a confirmed bachelor like Harrison Ramsey with unsolved mysteries and unpleasant rumors floating around in his past. However, fate soon pushed Harrison into mixing with Alice's and the children's lives despite his best intentions. His nearby riding stable proved a natural draw for the kids, and he soon found his life more and more entwined with Alice, as well, and having no idea how to handle it.\nPRAISE FOR LIN STEPP'S SMOKY MOUNTAIN NOVELS\n"Stepp has a grasp of character and a love for the mountains of Tennessee." 
- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Book Reviews\n"Lin Stepp has an amazing way of making the reader feel like they are sitting in a rocking chair, taking in the Great Smoky Mountains, whether they can physically see them or not. Descriptive writing, characters that embrace you and an amazing storyline make Stepp's novels highly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyable". 
- Jennifer Alexander - WKJB-FM Radio - Popular Midday Host B97 and 
creator of the Book of the Month Club reaching over 100,000+ listeners\n"I love the Smoky Mountains so it is such a treat for me to read your stories especially since you are so wonderfully talented in weaving them... Can't wait to read the next one!" 
- Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, SOUTHERN WRITERS MAGAZINE\n"Lin Stepp is a gifted storyteller who skillfully captures the mystical and enduring history and beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains and the faith, loyalty, and resilience of the people who call them home. ...Stepp's writing is smooth and easy, bringing the reader into the hearts of her characters. I'll be returning for more of Lin Stepp's engaging and heartwarming stories." 
- PJ, ROMANCE DISH Reviews

For Six Good Reasons

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Mountain Hill Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mountain Hill Press