"Jillian James has never had a place she could call home. so when she lands in the sleepy Texas town of Laurel Springs, she's definitely not planning to stay -- except to find a few clues about the father who abandoned her and destroyed her faith in family. Connor Larady is desperate: eh's a singel dad, and his grandmother, Eugenia, has Alzheimer's. He's the only one around to care for her, and he has no idea how. And now he has to close the quilt shop Eugenia has owned all her life. When Connor meets down-on-her-luck Jillian, he's out of options. Can he trust the newcomer to do right by his grandmother's legacy? Jillian is done with attachments. But the closer she grows to Connor and Eugenia, the higher the stakes of her leaving get. She has to ask herself what love and family mean to her, and whether she can give up the only life she's ever known for a future with those who need her." -- dust jacket.
A fifth-generation Texan who taught family living, Jodi Thomas chooses to set the majority of her novels in her home state, where her grandmother was born in a covered wagon.
With a degree in Family Studies, Thomas is a marriage and family counselor by education, a background that enables her to write about family dynamics. Honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Thomas enjoys interacting with students on the West Texas A & M University campus, where she currently serves as Writer In Residence.
When not working on a novel or inspiring students to pursue a writing career, Thomas enjoys traveling with her husband and renovating an historical home they bought in Amarillo. TEXAS RAIN, the first book in her latest historical "Whispering Mountain" series, was released in November 2006. TEXAS PRINCESS, the next novel in the series was published in November 2007. An anthology of short stories, GIVE ME A TEXAN, will be available in February 2008. Her newest mainstream novel, TWISTED CREEK, is garnering rave pre-release reviews and is set for release in April 2008.
