Author: Jennifer Snow
ISBN: 9781335041500
Publication Date: 9/24/2019
Publisher: HQN Books
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In Alaska, it’s always a white Christmas—but the sparks
flying between two reunited friends could turn it red-hot…
If there’s one gift Erika Sheraton does not want for Christmas, it’s a vacation. Ordered to take time off, the workaholic surgeon reluctantly trades in her scrubs for a ski suit and heads to Wild River, Alaska. Her friend Cassie owns a tour company that offers adventures to fit every visitor. But nothing compares to the adrenaline rush Erika feels on being reunited with Cassie’s brother, Reed Reynolds.
Gone is the buttoned-up girl Reed remembers. His sister’s best friend has blossomed into a strong, skilled, confident woman. She’s exactly what his search-and-rescue team needs—and everything he didn’t know he craved. The gulf between his life in Wild River and her big-city career is wide. But it’s no match for a desire powerful enough to melt two stubborn hearts…
If there’s one gift Erika Sheraton does not want for Christmas, it’s a vacation. Ordered to take time off, the workaholic surgeon reluctantly trades in her scrubs for a ski suit and heads to Wild River, Alaska. Her friend Cassie owns a tour company that offers adventures to fit every visitor. But nothing compares to the adrenaline rush Erika feels on being reunited with Cassie’s brother, Reed Reynolds.
Gone is the buttoned-up girl Reed remembers. His sister’s best friend has blossomed into a strong, skilled, confident woman. She’s exactly what his search-and-rescue team needs—and everything he didn’t know he craved. The gulf between his life in Wild River and her big-city career is wide. But it’s no match for a desire powerful enough to melt two stubborn hearts…
My thoughts:
An Alaskan Christmas is the first book in the Wild River series. If you enjoy stories with characters who figure out that the path they were on ends up not being the path they really wanted, then you will love this story. I ended up really enjoying Erika and Reed's romance. I liked that they had a history and were willing to see how much each other had changed since they were younger. It's a sweet holiday romance and one I would recommend. I can't wait to read Cassie's story!
Enjoy this excerpt:
CHAPTER
ONE
Her
arms full of patient files, Dr. Erika Sheraton tipped her head back as Darren,
her premed intern, poured a double shot of espresso down her throat. The hot
liquid delivered the instant adrenaline boost she needed to get through the rest
of her fourteen-hour shift.
Dinner?
A quick glance at the clock on the wall above the nurses’ triage station
revealed it was almost nine. A late dinner.
“How
are you not vibrating? That’s your third in two hours.” Darren crumpled the
paper cup and tossed it into a recycle bin as they walked.
“Caffeine
stopped affecting me a long time ago. Now’s it’s about the taste,” she said,
only half kidding. Double course loads and all-nighters in college and then med
school had prepared her for the long hours she put in now as a general surgeon
and caffeine had been her best friend.
The
twentysomething looked like he could use a cup himself, as he stifled a yawn.
His sandy blond hair poked up in the back as though he’d crawled out of bed at
the last possible minute and his hazel eyes were bloodshot. If he was tired now
after only eight hours on shift, he’d be reconsidering this particular
profession by midnight. The staff at Alaska General Hospital never rested. The
revolving doors at emergency constantly rotated with broken bones, heart
attacks and bleeding patients filing in. No day was ever the same. Unpredictability
kept Erika alert and on her toes.
“After
these rounds, I’m going to need you to check in on Mr. Franklin—he’s in
recovery. His family is wondering when they can see him.” The man’s entire
extended family was camped out in the surgical ward waiting room—fifteen or
sixteen of them at least. They couldn’t see the man, but they all refused to
leave. Each one took turns driving the nurses on duty crazy. “Make sure they
know only immediate family can go in. He needs his rest.”
Darren
nodded, but a look of hesitation appeared behind his dark-rimmed glasses.
“What?”
She checked her watch.
“I
just… Well, shouldn’t you talk to them? I know his wife wanted to thank you…”
Erika
shook her head. “Keeping him on the low-cholesterol, low-sodium diet I’ve
prescribed—and off my operating table—will be thanks enough,” she said,
scanning the top folder on her stack.
“Okay,
but…”
She
shot him a look.
“No
problem. I’ll check in on him.”
“Thank
you.” She continued down the hall toward the next high-priority patient.
“Don’t
forget, your dad still wants to see you,” Darren said, struggling to keep up
to her half sprint.
“I
know.” And she could do without the hourly reminders. Her father rarely
requested her presence during her rounds, so whatever it was wouldn’t be good.
If she put him off long enough, maybe he’d forget.
“Top chart—Mr. Grayson. He’s scheduled for an
appendectomy in a few hours,” she said, approaching the man’s hospital room.
Darren
nodded as he smiled. “This old guy is hilarious. Did you know he was a stunt
motorcycle driver in the circus in the ’80s?”
“No.”
She knew he had an inflamed appendix and had waited far too long to come in.
She knew his vitals and that in an hour, they’d be prepping him for surgery.
Knowing personal details of a patient’s life didn’t make her job any easier or
guarantee a better outcome. She juggled the files on one arm as she reached
into her pocket for a new set of sterile gloves.
“Hey,
before we go in there, can I talk to you?” Darren asked, stopping her outside
the room. He stared at the checked patterned floor tiles.
Damn.
“You’re requesting a transfer to a different physician.” He wasn’t the first
medical student who’d gotten reassigned. She’d made it a month with Darren—a
new record.
Another
intern bites the dust.
He
nodded, obviously relieved that he hadn’t had to vocalize it himself. “You’re
amazing, Dr. Sheraton, and I feel so fortunate for the opportunity to work with
you, but you’re also very busy and unavailable…”
The
sharp sting of the words was familiar. She’d heard the same speech from interns
and boyfriends alike. She’d successfully eliminated the problem in one group
right after her first year of residency…interns were hospital assigned and
therefore out of her control.
“I
mean I just need all the training I can get and between patients and your
research work…”
She
didn’t need an explanation. She was busy. Too busy to have someone following
her around in fact. This was totally fine with her. “I understand.”
“You’re
not upset?”
“Only
about having to get my own coffee from now on,” she said.
The
joke missed its mark and the intern’s eyes widened. “I can still do that…”
Wow,
was she really that scary? She was demanding and expected the students to put
in the hours she did. She may not be the friendliest doctor on staff, socializing
after work and remembering birthdays and such, but she gave these interns a
real picture of their future in medicine. Wasn’t that what they were there for?
“I was kidding, Darren.”
“Oh…right.”
“Dr.
Sheraton, please report to emergency. Stat.”
The
call over the hospital intercom had her handing Darren the stack of folders.
“Please take his heart rate and blood pressure,” she said, practically running
to the elevators. “And don’t forget Mr. Franklin.”
“Got
it,” he called after her.
The
quiet twenty-six-second elevator ride to the first floor was the closest thing
she got to a spa day. It was the only time she was forced to slow to a pace other
than her own usual breakneck speed. But even that half a minute was too long.
It gave her time to think. Think about her previous surgeries and replay the
details—what went right, what went wrong, what she could do better next time.
Constantly reevaluating herself made her a better surgeon, but too often it
left her feeling like she was coming up slightly short of her potential. Her
type A personality left little room for failure or complacency.
Checking
her phone in her lab coat pocket, she scanned her schedule for the rest of the
evening, evaluating what she could push back if this emergency demanded her
immediate attention. The number of things marked urgent made her will
the elevator to move quicker. She’d be lucky to get out of there by 2:00 a.m.
A
text popped up from Darren.
If
you change your mind about Mrs. Franklin…
She
wouldn’t. She ignored the text from her intern—former intern—and put the phone
away.
As
the elevator stopped, she took a deep breath, expecting to see a flurry of
organized chaos as the doors opened. Stretchers, ambulance lights flashing and
sirens wailing outside, paramedics and nurses… Instead, she ran square into
her father.
No
emergency, just his six-foot-three frame and his usual neutral expression. It
was impossible to read her father, as his face gave nothing away. His emotions
were never too high or too low, just infuriatingly balanced no matter the
circumstance. His calm presence and rational thinking made him fantastic at his
profession, but sometimes he was irritating as shit as a father.
“Hi.
I was just coming to see you.” Eventually.
“Walk
with me,” he said, turning on his heel and nodding.
Her
jaw clenched so tight her teeth might snap. This was so like him—assuming she
could drop everything at his command. He may run the hospital, but he often had
no idea how hectic her schedule was. “Can we talk as I do my rounds, Darren
is…”
“More
than capable,” he said, leading the way to his first-floor corner office. “And
requesting to be transferred, I see.”
His
tone made her palms sweat. He should be happy that she was pushing these
interns to their limits. What awaited them once they graduated wasn’t for the
faint of heart. Better to get used to grueling days and nights now, performing
on little to no sleep, living on caffeine and leftover Halloween chocolate
bars, than to realize they couldn’t cut it when lives were in their hands.
Unfortunately,
he didn’t always agree with her beliefs . He wanted the interns to feel at
home at Alaska General so they’d apply here once they graduated. The hospital
was short staffed and more doctors would benefit everyone, but Erika preferred
to work alongside the best.
Her
father had an open-door policy—literally—so when he closed the office door
behind her, she knew the head of General Surgery hadn’t called her in to discuss
Thanksgiving dinner plans.
She
glanced at his wall calendar as she sat. Especially since Thanksgiving was a
week ago.
“Dad,
this intern thing is just ridiculous…”
He
held up a hand. “This isn’t about your inability to effectively manage others.”
Kick
to the gut delivered and received. She clamped her lips together.
He
opened his desk drawer and handed her a letter as he sat in the plush, leather
chair behind his oversize mahogany desk.
Her
eyes widened, seeing the Hospital Foundation logo on the top of the page. “Is
this the final approval from the board for the clinical trials?” They’d submitted
the application six months ago to start trials on a new antirejection drug
after years of research, and they were waiting on the formal go-ahead to start
with a test group.
Would
Darren reconsider staying with her if he knew he could be part of a medical
breakthrough? He’d been a lot of help in the past month.
“Just
read it,” her father said.
She
scanned the letter from the board of directors, feeling her excitement fade and
anxiety rise with each word. “Recommended vacation? What is this?”
“I
don’t like it either, but the board is reviewing policies and making sure we
are following them,” he said, the edge indicating he’d been outvoted in this decision.
He certainly didn’t believe in time off and had never encouraged her to take
any. Her life was her career, just like him.
“But
any day now we will be starting clinical trials on the new drug.” It had taken
her father and his team almost three years to get the experimental antirejection
product approved for testing on organ transplant patients and they’d finally
gotten it. They’d worked around the clock for a year to make sure they did.
Subjects were undergoing assessment right now to be ready for the trials.
Now
was not the time to take a break.
Her
father looked as though he’d made the same argument to the hospital board. “The
team will have to handle it.”
So
recommended actually meant forced. “Why now? I’m fine. I don’t
need a break.” At twenty-nine, she was eager to prove herself as one of the top
general surgeons in the state. Between her surgical success record and the
research time she’d invested in this new drug, she was close. Helping her
father get one step closer to winning the Lister Medal was high on her priority
list. “Come on, Dad, you know I’m good. My last two operations were impossible
surgeries…”
“Improbable
surgeries.”
Erika
clamped her lips together again, forcing her argument to stay put. It wouldn’t
do any good. Three years working alongside her father and she’d yet to prove
herself. Despite two back-to-back improbable surgeries that she’d
performed successfully, he still doubted her abilities. His micromanagement
over her research team had driven her insane, but he’d reluctantly agreed to
let her run her own set of clinical trials on the antirejection drug, and she’d
foolishly believed she was making progress with him.
Now
she was being forced into taking a break.
What
the hell was a break? She hadn’t had one since starting university.
She’d graduated with her bachelor’s in three years instead of four by doubling
up on courses and then had applied directly to med school. She’d interned at
Alaska General and secured a position there shortly after graduation. She
couldn’t remember the last day she had off, let alone…she glanced at the letter.
Two weeks?
What
the hell would she do with all that free time?
Excerpted from An Alaskan
Christmas by Jennifer Snow, Copyright © 2019 by Jennifer Snow. Published by HQN
Books.
About the author:
Jennifer Snow lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her husband and four year old son. She is a member of the RWA, the Alberta Writers Guild, Canadian Authors Association and SheWrites.org. Her first Brookhollow book was a finalist in the Heart of Denver Aspen Gold contest and the Golden Quill Award. More information can be found at www.jennifersnowauthor.com.
Social Links:
Twitter: @JenniferSnow18
Facebook: @jennifersnowbooks
Instagram: @jensnowauthor
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