The rocky road (Mike and Rachel) travel makes for a fun, sometimes humorous, journey.' ~Romantic Times, 4 STARS “An entertaining return to Destiny with a Romeo and Juliet romance. “Intoxicating and addictive….No one does it like Toni Blake.” ~Robyn Carr, NYT Bestselling Author My grandmother died in 1992, but I still miss her, so Sugar Creek is dedicated to her. She accepted, and later married him – my grandpa, Charles Blevins – and the rest is history.Įdna’s story is not my grandma’s, but what they have in common is a tough spirit and a big heart. One day she and her sister, Frances came upon a man with a guitar in a schoolyard, and they began singing while he played – they often sang together, songs of the period like “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree.” A crowd gathered to listen, and when the crowd dispersed, a young man on a bike remained, and he asked her to go for a ride on the handlebars. (A helpful and colorful tip from Gran: When collecting eggs, never reach into a chicken’s nest without looking first or you might pull out a big snake.) Gran left the farm to visit Cincinnati around 1940.

Hard work was a way of life for her from her early childhood, whether it was taking care of her younger siblings or doing farmwork. My grandma was the ninth of fourteen children raised on a farm in the Kentucky Appalachian region. So Rachel and Mike, along with their conflicts, developed in large part just from the ideas I had in my head about them when they were mentioned in One Reckless Summer.īut one character in this book – Rachel’s grandma, Edna – was very much inspired by my late grandmother, Mary Irene Hargis Blevins (shown here at age 14). No one particular factor inspired this book, and now that I’m writing a series of linked stories, much of the inspiration is growing from the secondary characters who show up in Destiny.

Sugar creek by toni blake