I want to live in Grace Valley. I want to go there and meet these wonderful, lovely, funny, serious, hard-working, sensible, tolerant people, and be one of them. If Just Over the Mountain had been a true romance, it would have been my first grade-A Keeper in a long, long time. As it is, this is more of a soap opera/potboiler without the soap, the opera, the pot, or the boil. Just a glad mix of memorable characters I enjoyed spending the weekend with. While there isn’t one central love story to speak of, it is thoroughly and completely romantic.

Dr. June Hudson is the central figure, the heroine, of this story. In her late thirties, June is one of two doctors in Grace Valley, California, the other being Dr. John Stone Deep in the Valley. June has never married, having lost her long-time love, Chris Forrest, to a rival just after high school. But Chris has come back home, divorced, with his twin teenage sons in tow. The whole town wants to know if June and Chris will take up where they left off years ago. But June has a secret, and Chris doesn’t stand a chance.

Jim Post, and undercover DEA operative, met June in Deep in the Mountain, and they began a secret affair. Because of the delicacy of Jim’s work, June can’t tell anybody about him until his last assignment has been completed. I fell in love with Jim the minute he appeared. He and June have wonderful, albeit brief, moments together. For example, Jim has just shown up unexpectedly, and the couple has just had I’ve-missed-you-so-much sex. Jim says:

“I guess this means you can’t get away for a couple of days…on short notice.”

“If we’d met when we were much younger,” she began, “would you have chosen another line of work?”

“Would you?” he countered.

“You’d have made a terrible husband.”

“You’d have made a dynamite wife.”

“Flattery has never worked on me,” she insisted, wondering if he could feel her smile against his chest. Hell, her whole body was smiling.

I adored Jim, until I fell in love with Sheriff Tom Toopeek. Tom is a reasonable, charming, smart guy and his interactions with the community and his common sense in the face of his many challenges raise him to status of hero right along with Jim. Of course, I abandoned both Jim and Tom when I met Tom’s teenage son, Johnny. Then there’s the new pastor in town, and Dr. John Stone, and Aunt Myrna’s young lawyer, Cutler. Well, as you can see, for a small town, the place is just brimming over with heroes.

There are crises that arise, real ones, situations people face every day. Nothing about the inhabitants of Grace Valley is sugar-coated or manufactured. Everybody in town has a storyline, and in Ms. Carr’s very capable hands, every one works. The dialogue is clever and complete, the characters quickly drawn with a deft hand. Though Jim isn’t in much of the story (sadly, since I wanted to see a lot more of him), when he’s there, the reader knows he and June are made for each other.

June’s doctor father has sage words for her, but doesn’t ever tell her what to do. Aunt Myrna, an aged writer of blood-curdling mysteries, has a mystery of her own, which she solves very well. John Stone and his wife hit a glitch in the marital road which is solved with humor and feeling. Other couples face other challenges, and the reader is right there with them all the way.

While he still looks good, Chris Forrest isn’t quite what he seems, but quick-witted June handles him with aplomb. Chris’s teenage sons bring about one of the story’s major plot points, and Tom’s handling of a mentally disturbed Vietnam vet is another. The book culminates with the town’s annual harvest festival, which brings all the story elements and characters together, including June’s happy dilemma over Jim.

When I closed this book, I felt good. Is there anything more a reader can ask from a book? Sure, this isn’t exactly a romance, but it isn’t exactly not a romance, either. Well crafted, gentle, true as an arrow, Just Over the Mountain earned my devotion from start to finish. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.