Sugar Creek
Destiny series. Book 2
“Sugar Creek is fun, sexy, and sizzling hot! It’s not too often when a book like this comes across your path. It’s so good, it will make you want to rush out and risk getting a speeding ticket - just to find your own sexy cop hero!”
Welcome to Destiny, Ohio- Where coming home means finding your true heart and maybe even your true love.
Tessa Sheridan came crawling back home to Destiny after her big city interior design career crumbled. Now not only must she struggle to make ends meet, she has to contend with a biker next door and the roar of Harleys shattering the serenity of her cabin in the woods. Worse still, her sexy bad boy neighbor makes her feel breathless and weak—and shy, petite Tessa knows what a major mistake it would be to get involved with someone so…dangerous.
They say that former teen rebel Lucky Romo has a dark, secret past—that he’s trouble with a capital “T.” Still, Tessa feels all tingly when she sees how well he fills out a pair of tight jeans. And when Lucky invites her into his world, she knows the intense heat sparking between them could lead her somewhere wild and wonderful…and, yes, dangerous!
A Note from Toni
Awards & Honors
2012 Booksellers Best Award Winner
Featured Title for DoubleDay Book Club Envelope
Book of the Week by readers at Long and Short Reviews
Trivia & Extras
Whisper Falls is featured on page 110 of First Magazine as one of their editors' reading picks. Editor Krista Winston calls it, "a story of getting what you really need from life rather than getting what you think you want."
As a rule, I try to write heroines I like and can relate to, but I don’t ever base a character on myself. However, Tessa in Whisper Falls has a lot more in common with me than many of the fictional women I’ve created, and though I didn’t plan it that way, it’s made Tessa very near and dear to my heart. I had mentioned in previous Destiny novels that Tessa suffered from a long-term illness, and I knew that writing about living with a chronic health condition would be a big part of telling her story. Not only did I see this as a great challenge for me as a writer, but it also relays a message I personally wanted to share.
When I told my editor I wanted to write a character with Crohn’s Disease, she was understandably concerned that it would be a downer of a book, but I then explained to her that my goal was just the opposite: I intended for the story to be uplifting, and to show that a person can deal with a difficult health problem and still come out on the other side leading a truly happy, productive life. I appreciate her entrusting me with this task, and the truth is, it turned out not to be as hard as I thought because Tessa’s story somewhat mirrors my own. I don’t have Crohn’s Disease like Tessa, but my doctors tell me I have all the symptoms of it – just not the diagnosis. And the first few years after the sudden onset of this were easily the most challenging of my life. Many of the issues Tessa deals with in Whisper Falls were taken straight from my own journey, as is her methods of dealing with them. My hope is that readers will find this aspect of the book as positive and life-affirming as I intended and that they will find Tessa’s attitude inspiring in ways that extend beyond physical health.
And as for Lucky … well, I knew I wanted to write about him almost from the moment I learned that One Reckless Summer would be expanded into a series. I’m known for writing bad boy heroes, and I wanted to make Lucky one of the baddest ever – because the badder they are, the more powerful their redemption. I loved bringing these two characters together because as different as they are, they’re able to draw on one another’s strengths and bring out the best in each other.
