HIS HOMETOWN GIRL brings Jodi back to Cedar Bay, Vermont, home for the summer with her kid Tyler as she attempts to purchase dairy land from the locals for her big Midlands agri-firm. Waiting to greet her is a local farmer, Daniel Gleason, who went to school with Jodi and now wants to form a farm co-op and apply for organic farming grants. His problem will be getting other, older farmers onside. While he's delighted to meet Jodi again, he just hopes their business affairs can remain separate.

Jodi tells Daniel the business case for consolidating; half of New England farmers have another job off the farm, and a third of farmers are over 60. Farm labour is hard to hire and afford, so farms are often kept to an easily managed size. Jodi's own father had a farm accident which left him physically impaired, so Jodi knows all about hard work. Daniel is modernising, with a wind turbine and solar panels providing free power.

Socially life is not clear-cut as Jodi attends a ten-year class reunion - all the country girls have a few kids by now, while the bachelor men are highly appreciative of an attractive single lady. Trying to teach Tyler and protect him from hazards like lakes, occupies a lot of Jodi's mind. Daniel's sister Sue asks to work with Tyler outdoors to prove her child psychology thesis and help him interact. Daniel admires Jodi more than ever, but the thorny issue of selling farms threatens to divide the community, and Jodi finds herself at the heart of the conflict - maybe even in danger.

I enjoyed HIS HOMETOWN GIRL from the start and even more so as the challenges and options kept increasing. Joanne Rock gives us credible characters with modern issues which need to be discussed; as the feelings deepen to a shaky romance I found myself willing Jodi and Daniel to find a way to make it work. This is a romance which can be read without blushing and it's all the stronger for that.

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